Recruitment and Employment Confederation chief executive Neil Carberry comments on parallels between the UK and the US he discovered during his visit to the SIA Executive Forum in Las Vegas last month.
US businesses seem restless; always looking for what is next, what can be worked on and where new opportunities are.
I was recently invited to attend the SIA Executive Forum in Las Vegas, an event bringing together staffing firms and suppliers to explore the challenges they face. I was asked to talk about labour markets in Europe, but I was there to learn too. From technology deployment to client trends, it seemed a great opportunity to explore trends that might jump the Atlantic.
Political uncertainty
US labour market
US trade commission votes to ban non-compete clauses
Let’s deal with the elephant in the room first. The biggest single business issue in the US right now is the Presidential Election in November. AI and emerging technology came a strong second in the data presented by the SIA, but Trump vs Biden was the number one issue.
Beyond the political, what struck me most was the similarity between what recruiters report in the United States and the United Kingdom. Both have seen recruiters struggle with lower demand, especially for permanent workers. Temp numbers have remained stable, but costs are high, and clients too often buy on price, not value. This rang a loud bell, as the REC is currently running its Aim Hire campaign to support hiring companies. Cheap, contingent approaches to recruitment alienate candidates and stop firms from achieving goals like retention and inclusion. That resonated in the US too, especially as clients feel the pressure of competing for the best candidates.
Remote and hybrid working
Another similarity is the debate about hybrid and remote working. If anything, the US is still more remote than the UK. But demand has stabilised at about 10% of vacancies – lower than 2020, but five-times more than pre-pandemic. Perhaps this is driven by the sheer geographic scale of the US.
Delegates said that this has been mirrored by a large increase in hybrid work too. Many spoke to me about the management challenge this raises, and said they were developing strategies including setting clear expectations and implementing strong manager training.
Tech transformation
Of course, AI dominated many of the debates and I had a strong sense that US firms’ experimentations have gone further with their implementation than the average European employer. A key takeaway from this was how important it is to avoid tech transformation being led by IT – it must be driven by customer need, and the people closest to customers.
AI dominated many of the debates and I had a strong sense that US firms’ experimentations have gone further with their implementation than the average European employer.”
Firms reported higher response rates from emails drafted by large language models like ChatGPT, and were making good progress in thinking about how to map candidates with AI. Many employers were taking great care around this, as the potential negative effects of getting processing wrong were keenly felt, especially in an environment where State governments are quick to legislate.
Reflecting on technology, my main thought echoed a speaker from IBM – sort out what you can “shift left” on now (automate the easier things), then work out what your “shift right” choices are (those that will not pay off immediately but are worth exploring). There is clearly potential upside for firms that can adopt AI quickly, but making sure you have your own understanding of the tech is key.
My session covered European markets. For the past few years the UK was seen as a problem child – first Brexit, then the merry-go-round in 10 Downing Street – but that mood has now changed with the impending the US election, post-Macron France, and political changes in other key economies. A real platform for growth awaits an incoming UK government willing to put evidence-based policies around the labour market at the heart of its growth plans.
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It was clear from my time in Las Vegas that staffing firms and employers in the US and UK are experiencing similar challenges, and it will be interesting to see how businesses across the Atlantic approach them.
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