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The UK recruitment sector grew by 2.8% during 2018 (read more), defying numerous economic and political challenges that have occurred over recent years. In this article, we will explain why the industry is continuing to flourish with the value that recruitment brings to customers. No country is as good as the UK when it comes to recruitment, with revenue from UK recruitment firms hitting a staggering £12.3bn last year (read more). Moreover, 1.1m people were placed in permanent roles alone during 2017/18 (read more). One reason for this growth is the fact that most recruiters, such as Hamlyn Williams have adapted well to shifting skills needs. As businesses continue to evolve their practices and adapt new-found innovative technology to streamline their processes, skills requirements within teams are changing fast. Recruitment firms who value client relationships and consult with their partnering Hiring Managers on a regular basis have seen the greatest success. Understanding new skills requirements early on in the recruiting process has enabled the ‘perfect candidate’ to be put forward far more often than usual. Even though 96% of HR professionals and recruiters are saying Brexit has affected their strategies, the UK recruitment sector continues to grow and see huge investment (read more). One such high growth area is within the M&A space. The UK is considered the world’s number one for M&A recruitment (credit: Recruitment Sector Insights Report). With London’s stellar reputation for Financial Services, our Banking & Front Office team has been able to develop close professional relationships with some of the world’s leading financial institutions which are right on their door step. Furthermore, uncertainty surrounding the UK labour market makes the need for recruiters to boost employment, even greater than usual. Work flexibility is continuing to grow and adapt, meaning that the need for recruiters to connect candidates and clients is crucial. Recent advancements in technology have been a contributing factor to the growth of the UK recruitment sector. Through implementation of automation systems, artificial intelligence, etc. recruiters are able to save time, identifying more suitable candidates who may not actively be job searching. Algorithms that can self-learn over time to better and more quickly match candidates with clients is cutting time-to-placement and improving upon accuracy in matching suitable prospects. Over time, more data will be fed into AI systems, increasing its capabilities, potentially contributing to continued growth in the UK recruitment sector through more streamlined processes. To summarise, the UK recruitment industry continues to flourish due to recruiter intuition and relationship-building, recent significant technological advancements, and other contributing factors. This is all despite skills shortages, shifting skills needs, and high levels of uncertainty surrounding Brexit. Hamlyn Williams is at the forefront of this fast-paced and growing industry. See for yourself by taking a looking at our latest vacancies. Alternatively, email info@hamlynwilliams.com or contact us on 0203 675 2920 for a consultation.

The working environment is a constant source of change and can be very sensitive to economic, political, environmental, and social trends. To make sense of this, within this article we discuss predicted trends, changes and developments for you and your career moving forward. Of course, there’s only one place to begin. You guessed it, AI! These days, it’s virtually impossible to discuss anything without mentioning artificial intelligence. This is for a good reason, it’s growing at an exceptional rate and as mentioned in our previous blog The new age of financial crime, we now see AI moving from the discovery phase into the implementation phase. We believe AI can alleviate some of the manual tasks of employees. Certain manual tasks which we could see AI take over are the automation aspects of a role, such as analysis of corporate financial data in order to assess a firm’s financial stability. Job boards (e.g. LinkedIn) and review sites, such as Glassdoor are becoming rapidly more sophisticated. You may be forgiven for thinking that job boards are simply a place which you may use to easily apply for numerous vacancies on one single platform. You will also be forgiven for assuming that review sites are just a tool for ranking a business out of 5 stars alongside either a positive, negative, or mixed comment. However, both of these types of platforms have implemented hugely efficient and highly sophisticated algorithms which can match you with your most suited role and/or company. These algorithms are likely to evolve to predict the outcome of placements with regards to candidate satisfaction levels upon a prospect undertaking a new role. Major changes within an industry gives rise to new jobs being created. We don’t just mean in terms of vacancies, we also mean with regards to new roles! With the rise of AI comes the increasingly likely prospect of AI and Machine Learning Specialists being employed within businesses. This would be for the purpose of inputting and cleaning data within the system so that a business’ AI is operating at maximum efficiency. One recent technological innovation which goes somewhat hand-in-hand with AI is big data. Big data could improve upon the assessment of candidate soft skills and weaknesses which may be missed in the traditional interview scenario. Furthermore, LinkedIn’s study of Global Talent Trends 2019 noted soft skills as one of the four main trends within recruitment moving forward. Within the study, LinkedIn refers to soft skills (candidate’s ability to interact with others) is a trait which only 53% of businesses have implemented a formal process for assessing. The other three emerging trends that LinkedIn discussed in their report were: work flexibility with an increase of 78% in LinkedIn job posts that mention this over the past two years alone, anti-harassment in the workplace, and pay transparency thanks to growing awareness of the gender pay gap. Other studies also show that a more diversified workplace is another growing trend for the obvious reasons and the fact that this has proven to produce a more positive work atmosphere. Whilst we’re all waiting for these exciting changes to come to fruition, why not secure your dream job by contacting one of the world’s fastest-growing recruitment firms? If you’re interested in pursuing a new career challenge, email info@hamlynwilliams.com with an up-to-date copy of your CV or call 0203 675 2920. We look forward to hearing from you!

Today is Valentine’s Day, so we couldn’t think of a better time to let you know how you can fall back in love with your job. Your career is a huge part of your life, in fact a full third of your life will be spent in work (read more). You will also spend more time in work than with your partner! Did you know that 70% of employees are “actively disengaged” with their work? (read more) Also, as little as 8% of the UK workforce are actually enthusiastic about their jobs (read more). One reason for this may be that people simply see work as a way of paying the bills. However, one important stat to compare to the previous is that just 12% of job-movers say money prompted their exit (read more). So, what went wrong? Well, according to a survey last year conducted by LinkedIn; the most common workplace trend which leads to happy employees is the notion of purposeful work, along with inspirational leadership. Loving your job through improving lives and making a positive social difference can provide you with a sense of pride and fulfilment, whilst potentially leading you to your next great achievement. One of the first steps you can take to loving your job is to start a conversation about workplace happiness in a team meeting. From a leadership perspective; what motivates your team to achieve success? How do they work best? Are your goals aligned? These are all important questions, which if answered correctly can improve cohesion and lead to a positive work environment for your team. From a team member perspective; perhaps this is something that your fellow colleagues and Manager need to be aware of so that you can help each other. A supportive working environment can be the key to loving your job. Getting to know your colleagues and grabbing lunch or a quick tea break once a day goes a long way. Grasping the personality of someone can often be a driver to understanding their working habits and how best to communicate with one another. Smartphones can make working life so much easier. However, they can also essentially facilitate never ending work loads with calls, texts with emails coming through constantly. An idea could be to find your most efficient hour of the day and mute all lines of communication, focusing solely on one single project/task during this time. This way you are able to feel a sense of accomplishment and reduce your work load each day, even on those cluttered and busy days of the week, leading to a greater sense of positivity when you leave work. We know work can be stressful at times as there are elements to every job that people dislike. This could be repetitive tasks that are necessary and important, yet mundane. On the other hand, this could be extremely difficult work that takes time and the majority of your focus. This Valentine’s Day try to embrace the difficult parts of your job; undertaking work that you dislike and focusing a great deal of your time and effort on completing this task gets it delivered quicker and will boost your self-esteem. When finding a role that is a great fit for you, half the battle is, like any good relationship, find the right balance. Perhaps this means making the decision to change jobs to find what works for you. Researching into a company, their career development opportunities, incentives, culture, etc. will help you make an informed decision. Hamlyn Williams works with some of the best clients across regulated industries, globally. Why not check out the specialisms we work within here. If you are interested in applying for one of our roles, you can take a look through our current vacancies. Otherwise, please either call 0203 675 2920 or email an up-to-date copy of your CV to info@hamlynwilliams.com.