Andy Montgomery runs the company’s Reading-based Thames Valley office. Here he looks at activity in the region and reports on the discussions at a recent HR networking event the company held.

Without a doubt the UK recruitment market for HR professionals has started 2008 in buoyant mood and nowhere is this truer than in the Thames Valley region. Despite the ‘doom and gloom’ headlines and media protestations to the contrary, we’re personally seeing an optimistic and positive business sentiment amongst our client base. This reflects a continuation of the recruitment market in 2007 which was a bumper year and a buoyant market – in fact it was almost as candidate driven as it was in the late 1990s - and this has meant that we’ve had to work hard to find the top talent with the right personality to culture match our clients.

Digby Morgan recently hosted a networking event for senior resourcing professionals within the Thames Valley and several very interesting comments and opinions regarding the market - and in particular the recruitment and resourcing challenges - emerged.

For instance, it seems that resourcing teams are looking to identify and retain professionals who, in addition to managing the traditional direct hiring model, can also be focussed on managing PSLs. This requires additional skill sets and experience in areas such as business process management, creation and analysis of relevant KPIs to highlight process improvement, financial analysis and reporting, broader manpower planning and alternative sources and types of labour. Previously, the more ‘traditional’ recruiter has not required these broader commercial skills so sourcing for the new staffing function itself has its own particular challenges.

Looking at the broader business issues and their own recruitment challenges, several of the attendees at the networking event reported how many companies are now seeking talent to work in Eastern Europe. We observed how demand is driving salaries upwards to the point where it’s almost becoming a bidding war for the rare professionals available. Closer to home, the attendees highlighted the difficulties encountered by many of the technology and telecoms businesses within the Thames Valley.

Discussions also centred on the growth of e-recruitment systems with many of the larger organisations having now implemented packages such as I Grasp, Taleo and Peopleclick. Inevitably it would seem, some frustrations over system inflexibility, in particular the reporting processes, were highlighted.

Finally, another change in legislation that we’ll be keeping a close watch on, regards both the Private Member’s Bill on agency work and the EU Agency Workers Directive that are intended to enforce equal pay and treatment between temporary workers and permanent employees. Many clients believe that this would do significant damage to the UK’s temporary labour market so we’ll continue to follow the debate in this regard.

For further information or an invitation to other Digby Morgan HR Networking events in the Thames Valley, please call Andy Montgomery or Bill Paris on 0118 903 6021.

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