Swindon recruitment specialist Outsource UK has been praised by the head of its industry’s professional body for bucking the trend in the economic climate and providing a top-level service.
Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) chief executive Kevin Green described Outsource UK as an example of how recruiters could ride through rough times by maintaining high standards of service to their clients and candidates.
During a visit to the IT recruitment specialist’s head office, Mr Green said: “Our most recent figures show that the recruitment industry is worth £25bn to the UK economy.
“Within that, IT recruitment is faring well and there are even skills shortages in some areas of IT. That, and the excellent service provided by IT recruiters such as Outsource UK, means this area is doing better than many others.”
Outsource UK founder and managing director Paul Jameson agreed. “We had our best quarter ever at the end of last year, a lot of that created by ongoing momentum,” he said “IT is doing better than many other areas of the economy and it is as challenging as ever to fill roles where there are skills shortages.”
Mr Green predicted a difficult year ahead for the general economy. “I think unemployment will peak towards the end of 2012 at about 2.75 million and this will be driven largely by public sector workers losing their jobs,” he said.
“Our latest figures show 111,000 public sector workers were made redundant in the first quarter of 2011, but having said that 42,000 new jobs were created by the private sector.”
Outsource UK achieved audited status with the REC last year making it, at the time, one of only 54 recruitment companies (and four IT recruiters) to do so. To become audited, Outsource UK had all its processes and practices scrutinised by the REC’s auditor to ensure it was fully compliant with the requirements of the Employment Agencies Act, the Employment Business Act, the REC’s Code of Professional Conduct and general business practice.
For the second consecutive year, the company has also made it into Recruiter magazine’s Fast 50 list of top-performing recruiters.
