Is now the right time to hire more staff?

Improving confidence in the economy means that many companies across the UK are now planning to hire more staff. So should you consider taking on new employees too? Are apprentices an option? And what do you have to take into account when creating a new position? The answer to these questions depends on your business, and in particular where it is in its growth cycle.

Timing is everything

For many companies this may be exactly the right time to take on more staff. The economic recovery is well under way and the UK is leading the pack in terms of growth. The lean times of the post-crash years appear to be behind UK PLC and those businesses that are likely to reap the rewards are well placed to enjoy expansion. The time to hire is when you forecast growth and anticipate the workload becoming greater, yet still have the time to understand the exact mandate of each job and set the expectations for success at the beginning. Many companies experiencing fast expansion wait until they are overstretched before starting the recruitment process.

Avoiding this problem and leading the way in hiring this year will be SMEs, which are five times more likely than larger businesses to be taking on extra staff, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s latest Labour Market Outlook survey.

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Firms with growth aspirations should consider not only taking on talented experienced-hires but also investing in the longer-term by bringing on apprentices. Bright and ambitious school leavers are hungry for training and development and keen to put the effort in to build a solid career. Apprenticeships can both boost your business and help young people make the transition from education to work.

Apprenticeships

Barclays is one company that is pursuing this strategy with its new LifeSkills programme - and it has big ambitions to help a million people with work skills as well as taking on apprentices. Their Head of Corporate Affairs, Kirstie Mackey, says: "For a while we have been one of the leaders in the apprenticeship field and we’ve got over 1,200 working for us. We want to make sure the LifeSkills programme means we can start to get a number of young people to come and do work experience with us, who might then come back and do an apprenticeship with us as well."

Mackey says that Barclays’ use of apprentices, which it began in 2012, is having a massive impact on the business. "Apprentices have brought so much in terms of skills and passion. When we look at the performance of those apprentices against those who have come in via the non-apprentice route, they’re performing just as well as their peers."

Richard Sykes, CEO of the facilities management business ISS UK, is working with Barclays to promote apprenticeships. The company now employs 210 apprentices and plans to take on another 40 this year alone. "That’s been achieved by our managers understanding the benefits that apprentices bring to the business and by taking away some of the stigma that was associated with apprentice schemes before," he says.

These benefits include employee satisfaction and engagement, Sykes says. "We've also had lower sickness and better health and safety rates," he adds. "What's more, we can identify that the projects that do have apprentices on are often further ahead than the ones without them."

Learn as you earn

A recent study by British Gas found that more than a third of students have considered taking an apprenticeship instead of studying at university, with the chance to "learn as you earn" being a major draw. Like Barclays, the company is clear about the benefits they bring.

In the past ten years British Gas have recruited and trained more than 3,300 apprentices and invested millions in training academies and apprentices. Susan Hooper, managing director at British Gas Residential Services, says: "We're proud of our apprentices and the role they play. Applicants often think that they need the technical skills in place already before they apply. Interpersonal skills are actually more important to us."

Managing time

If you decide to appoint a new member to your team, whether they have experience or are an apprentice, remember that hiring is hard. It can be expensive in both financial terms and in management time - especially if you get it wrong. The costs associated with getting rid of an employee who turns out to be unsuitable can be crippling for an SME so smaller businesses should think long and hard before making an appointment, and if they do, try to get it right first time.

David Zen, a business expert and private equity investor, says: "Whether it's a good time to hire new staff is not a question that one can answer generally – since it depends upon each individual business. My general belief is that one should hire when the demands or opportunities of a business really indicate a need for new skills or capacity. Hiring in the hope that work will come is rarely a good idea."

Basic minimums

Like any important move in business, with recruitment timing is everything. Whether or not it's time to tell someone "you’re hired" depends on your company and the prospects for growth. One thing that is certain though is that with the right people in place - and the right number of people - your company will improve its chances to grow.