Turnover survey suggest favourable conditions for labour

The findings from some research (based on 804 companies) commissioned by the CIPD suggests 82 per cent of organizations found it difficult to to recruit in 2005 - this is despite less jobs being on offer and unemployment on the rise.

Further findings include:

- Overall labour turnover has risen to 18.3 per cent from 15.7 per cent

- 28 per cent made more than 10 people redundant in 2005

- 24 per cent operated a recruitment freeze

- E-recruitment continues to proliferate, with 64 per cent of firms using this method.

The survey also looked at what companies did when experiencing recruitment difficulties:

- Appointing people with potential to grow but who don't currently have all that's required (66 per cent)

- Taking account of a broader range of qualities, such as personal skills (43 per cent);

- Appointing people who don't exactly match requirements (37 per cent);

- Increasing starting salaries or benefits packages (34 per cent);

- Providing extra training to allow internal staff to fill posts (33 per cent);

- Redefining the job (29 per cent);

- Offering flexible hours (29 per cent);

- Offering payments to staff for introducing candidates (26 per cent).

Overall, it appears labour is having it quite good at the moment. For more details see Labour turnover is up, but companies still struggle to recruit the right staff (Lucy Phillips, People Management). However, the actual report doesn't appear to have been put on the CIPD website just yet. Browse last year's if you are keen on labour retention and turnover in the UK and Ireland.