Door 24 of our #TRN Advent Calendar we are Looking Forward to 2018 with 6CATS International”So here we are door #24 of our #TRN Advent Calendar and Christmas Eve. Our final door it courtesy of The Recruitment Network sponsor 6CATS International, with their thoughts on 2018 for our industry. Now you’ve seen every piece of content, keep an eye out for the Future of Recruitment eBook that will be released early January, a roundup of everything we’ve seen here plus the insights from our survey. (Take it now)
We hope you have a very merry Christmas and a great new year, here’s to a great 2017 but an ever better 2018! ”
– The Recruitment Network team
What’s going to be big in 2018 for the UK recruitment industry?
On the positive side, whilst the UK contractor market is being further squeezed by HMRC, developing the international market will become more and more attractive for recruitment businesses who can create international opportunities. Europe should continue to grow for most of the year but the real opportunities are likely be in the Americas, the Middle & Far East with many economies in Africa also growing rapidly. Growth sectors for recruiters are likely to include Cyber Security, supporting the ‘gig worker’ and AI (artificial intelligence). Sadly, as we discuss below, there are likely to be corporate casualties resultant from poor risk analysis coupled with lax or ineffective compliance and control.
What trends do you predict for the future of the industry?
We will continue to see a trend towards EU countries trying to enforce tighter compliance legislation and to stop disguised employment. Recruitment businesses are going to have to continue to be aware of law changes affecting how they manage contract workers around Europe. Recruiters moving into international contracting will need to work with a compliant partner in order to minimise risk. Also, agencies will be looking to add value to their contractor and client relationships. Consequently, they will seek help from their suppliers, for benefits they want to offer like, health insurance, security protection and mobilisation services. This may allow them to differentiate themselves from their competitors. On a micro level, there are still a lot of recruiters who believe they understand everything about everything. Or if they don’t understand, it can’t be important! In an increasingly complex world the very best rely on a network of partners, both formal and informal to help guide them through the labyrinth of regulations and directives.
What we did in 2017 that should be done very differently in 2018?
GDPR is going to significantly impact the management, processing & control of data. The Criminal Finances Act will bite at least one major recruitment company (and probably lots of smaller ones), as ignorance of the law is no defence for encouraging international tax evasion, there are far too many recruiters going for the fast buck and global tax authorities are gearing up to hit evaders very hard.
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