Continued skills shortage to blame

Three quarters of hiring managers have reported that the cost of recruiting workers has increased since January this year according to talent sourcing specialist, Talent.com. This increase comes amid the continued skills shortages.

The survey found that hiring expenditure decreased for just 8% of survey respondents, while the remining 17% have not yet witnessed any notable change.

Talent.com’s research supports ONS data which shows that the average pay growth also jumped 8.8% across the UK for the three months between April and June 2021, representing the highest rise since records began 20 years ago.

Noura Dadzie – VP Sales UK & International Markets at Talent.com, commented: “There’s no doubt that the main factor behind the increase in recruitment budgets is the mass skills shortages we’re witnessing across the UK. Available talent is limited in almost every sector, so recruiters are having to not only increase remuneration to attract resources, but also think of new and innovative ways to find applicants from the get-go. While our survey doesn’t breakdown exactly where this increased investment is being channelled, we do know from another poll over half (57%) of recruiters have turned to job boards and job aggregators to source candidates amidst a skills shortage, so investment in these two areas is likely to have increased. We do know from our conversations with hirers that many are also moving funds into increasingly sophisticated tech tools to help them look outside of the usual channels to find talent. The rise of job aggregators and programmatic platforms, in particular, is enabling recruitment professionals to save both time and headaches and is one area that more businesses are budgeting additional finances for.”