Aegle Comments – Page 58 – Random thoughts

Over 50’s – My generation has wrecked the world – Nick Clegg is right!

Reading a report of Nick Clegg’s comments in the Daily Mail I find myself in full agreement.

Everything has been managed for short term benefit no-one has been gradually growing businesses for long-term shareholder value. Much of this can be blamed on the rise of Venture Capitalists and Private Equity who by trading companies, loading them up with debt and selling off all of the assets left them vulnerable to trading downturns.

This is also the reason that stock markets (and hence pension and insurance funds) have not delivered the returns that they may historically have been expected to. Continue reading “Over 50’s – My generation has wrecked the world – Nick Clegg is right!”

Working beyond 65? Not in Finance

The government plans to scrap the mandatory retirement age of 65, which is a step in the right direction for those who do not wish to stop work. With some peoples pensions in disarray and rising costs the prospect of retiring at 65 would be impossible anyway. However will this amendment be met favourably by all employers?

Continue reading “Working beyond 65? Not in Finance”

Has financial recruitment picked up?

A question we get asked on a daily basis by candidates and employers alike, though I wonder if the employers are asking for themselves. In all honesty I am really uncertain how to reply. We have seen a pick up in some areas, while others seem to sinking deeper into the unknown.

I feel that many would be recruiting managers are testing the waters to see who is available for when their current recruitment (official or unofficial) freeze is lifted, it is even possible they are trying to judge the salary levels for certain positions to see if they are paying above or below the market level.

Whatever the reasons there is still a lot of staff reduction going on, mainly in unprofitable or unfashionable areas, while specialised new areas are seeing a definite upturn, with some positions going for very high rewards.

The problem facing recruitment managers here is that as soon as it becomes known in the market that they are recruiting for a certain position they will get swamped by many diverse recruiters all claiming to have the right person.

It would be beneficial for recruiting managers if they had a list of specialised recruiters who work only in the market they wish to employ from, rather than go to one general agency to fill a variety of positions. As a lot of recruitment is handled by HR who have their own PSL, regardless of expertise, I cannot see this being implemented.

Aegle specialise in Cash Management, Payments and operational banking.

Job opportunities were down in August

It has been reported that all industries saw a decline in job vacancies during August compared with July. Is this just more scare mongering, as in my 15 years as a search consultant I have found that you can almost write off August and December every year because people are on holiday or are too busy enjoying the festivities. Continue reading “Job opportunities were down in August”

20,000 lost banking jobs

According to Unite RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) have cut 20,000 jobs in the UK since their part nationalisation last year. Yesterday the stricken bank announced a further cut of 3,500 jobs making the total number of jobs lost 20,600 people.

How much of this has been done to appease the baying hounds of the press and how much to try and really cut costs? The problem is these jobs are all low paying back office jobs, not the high paying super salaries of the very people that put RBS into its current perilous position. Continue reading “20,000 lost banking jobs”

Increasing pay does not motivate staff.

Increasing pay does not motivate staff

How many times have we heard this mantra churned out. During my time in banking this phrase was constantly thrown at me by senior management and HR departments that had been on expensive training courses.

In reality the phrase does hold some truth, if you have disaffected staff then a pay rise will do very little motivate them, if the rise is well above inflation then yes the staff member may walk away smiling; but within a month they would have forgotten about their rise and once again they would cease to perform at their optimum level. Continue reading “Increasing pay does not motivate staff.”

Over 50’s the lucky ones?

Reading an article “Betrayal of a generation” in the Daily Mail on Monday I am prompted to write again in what seems to be becoming a series about us over 50’s.

The article is written from the viewpoint of recent graduates struggling to find employment whilst saddled with an average debt of £17,500, having little prospect of being able to afford their own property and faced with the prospect of paying for health care and pensions for their parents generation. Continue reading “Over 50’s the lucky ones?”

Do social network sites ruin your job prospects?

Germany is considering bringing in a law banning companies form using social networking sites, eg Facebook, to pre-vet potential job applicants reigniting the debate on whether employers have the right to snoop on employees private lives.

Even if this law is passed how can a prospective employee prove that a company has looked at a networking site, seen something they did not like and then rejected his application. Continue reading “Do social network sites ruin your job prospects?”

Do Health and Safety laws damage jobs

Have Health and Safety laws damaged the job market

Finally someone with clout is using common sense regarding health and safety laws and the way they are being abused and used to make legal firms and their clients vast amounts of money.

Any one with a modicum of common sense will accept that accidents do happen and compensation should only be paid out where there is real negligence or disregard for safety.

We have all seen some of the excessive pointless signage and packaging warnings that really should not be necessary, for example a sign above washroom taps (marked H) that state “Warning this water may be hot”, that is why I turned it on because it says hot and I want hot water.

Lord Young has been asked to review various H&E laws by David Cameron and to make recommendations next month. We all hope that once the laws have been reviewed and amended to accept people must accept a certain amount of responsibility for their actions.

It would be interesting to know how much money has been spent by firms implementing various H&E procedures and how much money has been paid out in compensation and to legal firms.

With a more common sense approach to H&E laws perhaps kids will be allowed to climb trees again or throw snowballs and my favourite (when I was a kid) the long slide on ice on a cold morning.

Freezing pay, is it counterproductive?

Is freezing pay counterproductive

“One in 6 firms freezing pay” so says Telegraph; that is almost 15% of workers having an indirect pay cut once inflation and other costs are factored in.

Companies are taking this decision due to the economic climate, downturn in business and the inability to be able to raise finances to keep going or expand. But is this counterproductive?

A pay freeze will almost certainly de-motivate the existing staff, who though grateful to still be employed will start to feel aggrieved that their living standards have gone down, which may well have an impact on their productivity and willingness to work.

If the staff start to feel this way they will spend much of their working time surfing the web looking for other positions that pay more rather than concentrating on their daily job, until eventually they will leave the company. The best staff will go first thus putting more strain on the remaining employees.

The company will then be forced into employing new staff which, as all HR managers know is a headache both in time and money.

Valuable time is wasted finding a recruiter, priming the recruiter, sifting through CV’s creating a short list, interviewing, taking up references and carrying out all the necessary paper work.

Money in paying the recruiter or advertiser a fee, probably paying the new staff member more than the outgoing member to get the right person. Money and time in training the new person who is probably not going to be cost effective for the first six months.

Of course a pay freeze could be used as a means of reducing staff by some companies, rather than making jobs redundant, as when the staff leave their job is not replaced.