JVP MD reflects on the Brexit challenges faced by employers, as company celebrates 5th anniversary

Denbighshire based recruitment marketing and support specialists JVP Group are celebrating their 5th anniversary this month, and Managing Director Cath Harrison has offered an insight into what lies ahead for employers as the UK prepares to leave the EU in March.

"With Brexit on the horizon, and the details of our future relationship with the EU still unclear – what I’m hearing from business leaders is that it’s all the uncertainty that’s having the biggest impact.

“It’s difficult for many employers to plan ahead when there’s so much uncertainty, and the skills shortage across a variety of disciplines is showing signs of worsening due to the lack of applications from EU nationals who are apprehensive about moving to or remaining in the UK.

Cath added that JVP is working closely with many employers across the UK to overcome talent attraction challenges.

“No matter what the outcome with Brexit, there may potentially be several business issues to deal with, but there’s certainly a lot that employers can be doing to combat recruitment challenges right now.”

“Investing into training and upskilling existing employees is a great way of overcoming skills shortages, and it has the added benefit of improving employee retention and making them more engaged and invested in the business, which is clearly a positive for any employer in the long term.

“Increasing salaries isn’t always an option for many businesses, but in this day and age job seekers are much more enthused by non-financial benefits such as annual leave entitlement, flexibility with working hours, along with childcare vouchers, enhanced pension schemes, private healthcare etc. In many cases these benefits can be just as important as salary, and it’s something every business should be looking to implement in order to attract and retain the best people.

“Along with offering an attractive and well-rounded package, making sure that you engage with employees will ensure you have a great working environment and a positive company culture, and this in turn will help make your business an attractive place to work. We’re in a candidate led market so high performers can be selective about where they want to work, so you have to make your business stand out from the crowd.”

As a recruitment marketing company JVP work with employers to promote their vacancies online, and Cath is upbeat about the future of the company which is fortunate to benefit from a diverse client base across the UK, and has seen significant increased demand for its services since the start of 2019.

“The recent introduction of additional solutions focused on saving employers time and money with the recruitment process, whilst helping promote a professional and positive employer brand, really gave us a boost in 2018 and we’re excited to see what 2019 brings.”