The vote to leave the EU result ushers in a challenging period for British business which may have a significant impact on the UK jobs market and our industry. The REC’s priority now is to call for calm and clarity from government to ensure that any impact is as limited as possible.
The referendum outcome is a concern for businesses in many sectors, but we need to underline the fact that nothing in our current relationship with the EU will change overnight. There will be a prolonged period of renegotiation and readjustment; during this time government needs to do everything possible to help businesses to continue to grow and create jobs.
We will be hosting a member webinar on Friday July 1 to take stock of what the outcome means for our industry
We will be hosting a member webinar on Friday July 1 to take stock of what the outcome means for our industry and to capture the concerns and views of members. You can register for the webinar here. In the meantime, these are some of the immediate actions we will be taking:
LIAISING WITH OTHER BUSINESS ORGANISATIONS
A conference call is scheduled for Monday with the CBI and other business bodies. This will enable us to take an initial view of how employers are planning to respond. We will provide feedback on this during our webinar on 1 July.
CALLING FOR CLARITY
To limit the impact on UK employment, we are calling on government to provide as much clarity as possible and as early as possible on what the post-EU world will look like and develop a coherent plan on how changes will be phased in. The government must also state its plans for reviewing EU regulations that such as the Agency Workers Directive and the Working Time Directive which are now embedded in UK law.
FOCUSING ON SKILLS
There are a number of specific challenges for the UK jobs market post-EU which require a creative approach. We need to find new ways of ensuring that UK businesses can continue to access the people and skills to fill the jobs available. We will push for a radical step-change in the way we prepare UK nationals to fill vacancies available in a wide-range of sectors.
MONITORING THE IMPACT
The REC/Markit Report on Jobs highlighted a slowdown in permanent placements in the run-up to the referendum, and we will use our data and feedback from members to monitor the impact of the referendum outcome on hiring activity. As part of this, we welcome your feedback on how clients are responding. Any views and comments can be sent to eu-yourview@rec.uk.com; we will ensure that member are updated at every stage.
Ahead of the referendum, the majority of REC members indicated that remaining in the EU was in the best interests of the UK economy, the jobs market and of their own recruitment business. Now that the decision has been made to leave the EU, our goal is to work with members, government and business community to forge a new business landscape that drives growth and jobs. Our industry is nothing if not resilient; our mission is to ensure that it continues to thrive in the post-EU era.
