After months of debate, battles and more policies than we could get our head round, David Cameron is staying put at number 10 and the recruitment industry and employees alike are keen to see the promises of the election build up honored by the new Conservative government.
During the campaigning there were various points of interest for employers. The Liberal Democrats focused on equality for women and fathers in work, the Green Party on creating sustainable jobs, especially within energy conservation, and UKIP on making sure jobs are offered to British workers first. Labour’s links to the unions and general anti-agency views immediately make them less popular to recruiters, however supporting the abolishment of hot-topic zero hour contracts could mean more work for us recruiters, finding permanent employees for business. The Conservatives plan to reduce the exclusivity of zero hour contracts, rather than scrap them altogether.
There has been no shortage of speculation and option in the build up, and although the result was unpredictably straight forward, the general consensus is that a Tory government is favoured by the recruitment industry. A survey by Bullhorn, pre-election showed 53% of UK recruiters supported a conservative outcome. But how will the new government affect recruitment within your business? Lets take a look at the key areas.
Full Employment
During his first term David Cameron boasts that his party created 1 million new jobs. There are now 30.8 million people in employment, with unemployment at 5.7% as oppose to 8% back in 2010 at the last election. As well as stating that they will aim to improve the skills of older workers to meet the needs of the economy, they Tories are tackling the important issue of youth unemployment with Cameron stating “we won’t just aim to lower youth unemployment; we aim to abolish it.” The idea is that anyone who wants a job, gets a job. The key to making this work is dealing with current skill shortages through appropriate education, training and apprenticeships (the new government has promised 3 million of these).
Business support
The promise is to help start-ups by cutting red tape, aiming to boost small business and therefore allowing growth and the flexibility to take on more specialist staff.
Immigration
One of the most discussed topics of the election, immigration continues to spark debate. Skilled workers from overseas fill many of the current gaps in our UK workforces and many believe tighter immigration controls would jeopardise the important roles that immigrant workers can bring to the country. Although the Conservatives didn’t hold their promise on the cap on immigration (by a long way) in the last parliament, this time they promise to clamp down on illegal immigration and abuse of the minimum wage, so lets hope this this will go some way to solve the current inability to distinguish between skilled and unskilled immigrants moving to the UK.
Diversity
We now have more women MPs in parliament than ever before, and it is looking this way for business too. Promoting equal treatment and equal opportunity for all is all part of David Cameron’s Big Society and this includes requiring companies with more than 250 employees to publish the difference between the average pay of their male and female employees. They also aim to halve the disability employment gap.
Conclusion
What business leaders always want it stability, and now we at least know who’s in parliament and what the promises are. Unfortunately the history of broken promises and PR stunts within politics leaves everyone more then skeptical. In what other recruitment process would the candidates be so scathing of their competition, make personal attacks and expect support by highlighting how bad the other choices are? Never the less, there are lots of positive sounds for business coming from the Conservatives, so with an EU referendum on the horizon, likely to shake up debate with the business community once more, lets watch this space.
