Welcome to issue 297 of the ukrecruiter newsletter.
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Article
One: Employment and the Law – Recent Developments by Louise
Fernandes
In the next in our series of articles, Louise Fernandes of Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP summarises
last month’s key employment law developments.
Agency workers
Two recent cases, which will be of interest to many in the recruitment sector, have examined the increasingly common triangular relationship between a worker, employment agency and client (or "end user").
In Cairns v Visteon Limited, an agency worker was employed by an employment agency under a contract of employment but chose to bring her claim of unfair dismissal against the end user, on the basis that the claim would have greater prospects of success. However, as the agency worker already had an express contract with the employment agency, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) could not establish either a good policy reason or any business necessity for implying another, parallel, contract between her and the end user.
The EAT also provided useful guidance on the employment status of agency workers in James v Greenwich Council. In this case, an agency worker had worked for the end user for 5 years and had been treated in all respects like a permanent employee. However, the EAT did not consider the worker to be employed by the end user and confirmed that she was not working under an implied contract of employment.
The EAT made a number of observations in this case. It said that where arrangements between a worker, agency and end user are genuine and reflect the actual working relationship (e.g. where there is no pre-existing employment relationship between worker and end user), it will be a rare case where it is justifiable to imply a contract between the worker and end user. It was also noted that the mere passage of time does not justify a contract of employment being implied. The fact that arrangements have continued for a long time may be explicable on the basis of convenience for all parties.
Both cases are significant. They narrow the scope of previous decisions in this area, which indicated that there may be circumstances which could justify a contract of employment being inferred between an agency worker and an end user. On this basis, the cases provide some welcome clarification for employers.
More holidays
The DTI has announced that a worker's minimum annual holiday entitlement is due to increase to take account of public holidays. For a worker working 5 days per
week, the increase will be from 20 to 28 days. DTI research indicates that 6 million workers stand to benefit from this increase.
The holiday entitlement will increase in two stages; from 20 to 24 days on 1 October 2007, and from 24 to 28 days on 1 October 2008. There will be a second round of public consultation on the implementation of these changes, which will close on 13 April 2007.
National minimum wage - enforcement
The DTI recently announced a new policy to fine employers who pay their employees below the national minimum wage and who have failed to comply with an enforcement notice.
The DTI's policy outlines the penalty notice process and states that the penalty calculation will be based on twice the hourly amount of the national minimum wage in force at the relevant time. Employers could therefore face fines of over £200 for every worker receiving less than the national minimum wage, in addition to payment of arrears to the employees.
Flexible working
52% of men and 48% of women say they want to work more flexibly, according to recent research from the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC).
'Working outside the box' is a report of the EOC's investigation into transforming the workplace. The EOC notes that 6.5 million people in Britain could be using their skills more fully if greater flexible working opportunities were available.
The report does indicate that employers are beginning to change the traditional work culture. Flexitime and home working are becoming increasingly popular and new technology is encouraging a more innovative approach to work. In return, employers are reportedly benefiting from better staff engagement and raising productivity.
Don’t forget…
1 February marked the annual
increase in tribunal limits. This affects, amongst others, the maximum compensatory award for unfair dismissal, which
has increased from £58,400 to £60,600, and the maximum limit on a week's pay (used to calculate redundancy payments or the basic award for unfair dismissal), which
has increased from £290 to £310.
Louise Fernandes is the Professional Support Lawyer in the Employment Department at
Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP and can be contacted at
louise.fernandes@ffw.com.
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Article
Two: Have You Got the Recruiting Gene? by Bill Radin
Have you ever wondered if you've got the DNA to succeed, or whether you share the traits of other top performers?
Or, if you're a manager, are you frustrated by high turnover? Do you wish you could do a better job of picking the winners and
sidestepping the losers?
While there's no sure-fire template for success, I've found several personal and professional indicators that can help determine which people make it and which people don't in our highly competitive field.
Irritable and Suspicious
That's my glib answer to the question, What personality traits do I look for when hiring a recruiter?
Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting that grumpy is good; or that to build an office, you need to troll for talk radio callers or class-action litigants. On the contrary; it takes massive quantities of "nice" to work a profitable desk.
But over the years, I've found that the most successful recruiters are noticeably and unapologetically edgy. Like junkyard dogs, they aggressively protect themselves from intruders who might threaten their time; and like Powerball winners besieged by a bevy of long-lost "relatives," they approach everyone they meet with a healthy dose of skepticism.
Predicting Performance
Does education or background in a particular industry give someone an advantage? It can. But more importantly, it's the way a person plays the cards he's dealt that's the most accurate indicator of success. Here are a few examples:
1. Ability to handle adversity.
I look for people who ignored long odds, overcame obstacles or fought back from failure. I've found that a person's character is forged as a result of conflict, not as a result of genetics or a series of lucky breaks.
2. Street smarts. I tend to favor people with real-life experience, who've survived on their own or worked in situations outside their comfort zone. All things being equal, I'd rather hire someone who put himself through law school by working nights as a doorman than a person whose wealthy parents paid the college tab.
3. Past success. If you want to observe the future, just look at the past. Job-hopping doesn't necessarily translate into poor performance ahead, but a consistent pattern of quitting would certainly be a cause for concern. Look for evidence of achievement, either in a person's career or personal life, and examine whether the success came easily or was attained as a result of hard work or sacrifice. In a slam-dunk competition, I'm usually less impressed by the performance of a seven-footer than by the determined efforts of an athlete who measures five-foot-six.
4. Relevant experience. Ask yourself: Has the person done well in a parallel universe to recruiting? Many managers look for sales experience when they hire recruiters. Which is fine; there's nothing wrong with working the cosmetics counter at the mall. But selling a tangible, low-dollar point-of-purchase product in a retail setting is very different from brokering a complex, intangible high-dollar deal. Remember, too, that many jobs are actually sales jobs in disguise. For example, some of the best recruiters I know are former school teachers. If controlling a room full of teenagers and getting them to learn a subject like maths isn't an expression of selling, I don't know what is.
5. High income needs. Let's face it, a person with his back to the wall will generally fight more fiercely than a person with a comfortable safety net. Look for people with a sense of financial urgency (real or imagined) and skip the dilettantes and
trust-funders.
There are several other traits that tend to predict success. For example, I think people who are naturally competitive make better recruiters than people who are passive or accepting of their situation. And people who are risk-averse generally fail to make the cut. But most of all, I tend to favor people who worry a lot.
That's right. In my opinion, if you don't lie awake at night, worried that your candidate might take a counteroffer -- or agitated because your client can't make a decision -- or upset when a deal looks like it might fall apart -- you're probably not cut out for this business.
Bill Radin’s extensive recruiting, management and recruiter training experience makes him an ideal source of techniques, methods and ideas for rookies who want to master the fundamentals or veterans ready to jump to a higher level of success.
http://www.billradin.com
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Press Release: Launch of Bornto
“The recruitment industry has today been given notice of a pending Armageddon in the battlefield of innovation and technology linked to its marketplace, courtesy of two of its stalwarts; Gareth Osborne and Colin Minto. The two long-standing colleagues, both formerly with the professional body, REC, have joined forces to launch Bornto Limited, a company billed by them as the A-Team of recruitment IT and technology. They promised to get to grips with the melee of mismatched products and services available in the recruitment arena and offer intelligent advice to busy owner managers and operators struggling to embrace recruitment technology and online solutions for maximum effect.” For more information and to contact Gareth and Colin visit
www.bornto.net
Press Release: UK's Top Temporary Worker Award
2007 Launched
"The Recruitment and Employment Confederation has now embarked on its annual quest to find its One in a Million, the UK’s top temporary worker. This year, there are 14 sectors in the contest with the winner of each a serious contender to scoop the prestigious award. The One In A Million Award is the highlight of National Temporary Workers Week, the REC’s flagship event now in its seventh year, which runs from June 4th -8th in 2007.
To register for an entry form, visit the National Temporary Workers Week website at
www.tempweek.uk.com. Entries for the award must be received by the REC by the end of March" Recruitment
Networking Event, 1st March, London
It is essential in today's market that recruiters understand their clients' overall recruitment strategy. This means understanding not only how hires are made through agencies but also how companies recruit using job boards, social networks and press advertising. Recruiters should have a solid understanding of the technology their clients are utilising and be aware of the
impact, positive and negative, that all of this can have on a recruitment business. Failure to make an effort to understand every aspect of the recruitment cycle can only lead to a downturn in business.
The next Recruiter's Network on 1 March at London's Light Bar will look at the process of candidate attraction and utilising online recruitment techniques that employers are using right now.
You can register via http://recruiter.broadbean.co.uk/
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Discussion
Board Summary
Don't forget to visit The
Discussion Board. Current topics on the site include:
Any postings you or anyone else
makes will be included in the weekly digest. Sign up for the free
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Online
Recruitment Update (sponsored by http://www.broadbean.co.uk
for "the UK's favourite job posting system")
Hitwise top 10 Recruitment
Sites, week ending 3rd February 2007
The most visited UK recruitment sites last week, starting with the
most popular, were www.jobcentreplus.gov.uk,
www.totaljobs.com, www.jobs.nhs.uk,
www.monster.co.uk, www.reed.co.uk,
www.jobsite.co.uk, jobs.guardian.co.uk,
jobs.tes.co.uk, www.jobs.ac.uk
and www.1job.co.uk. Hitwise don't aggregate data from sites who
form part of a network such as fish4.co.uk For more information about Hitwise, visit http://www.hitwise.co.uk
Louise's UK Recruiter blog
In the past week I've talked about Viadeo for Business Networking, Hitwise stats for end of Jan 07, Recruiters Network
Event and the Online Recruitment Conference - Alastair's presentation and Tim's presentation. You can read
"Louise's UK Recruiter blog" at http://ukrecruiter.typepad.com
You can keep up to date with
other the recruitment blogs from the UK via the UK Recruiter - blog
watch page at http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk/blogs.htm.
You may also be checking out
Jim Stoud's The Day
in Recruiting
This section is sponsored by http://www.broadbean.co.uk;
"the UK's favourite job posting system".
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Regards
Louise Triance
UK Recruiter http://www.ukrecruiter.co.uk
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