Wage inflation, high levels of employment and changing behaviours of candidates have led to very challenging circumstances for many employers to recruit in.

The first step for a positive recruitment campaign is to plan and benchmark your proposition against the other employers in your peer group. This analysis will look at a wider pool of factors than at any time before, including working patterns, bonuses, office infrastructure and wider people strategies. Salary levels have always been the most important factor to get right and that remains the case in the current market.

Private sector wage inflation is tracking at around 6%, but we have seen this as high as 15% for some disciplines in finance in Yorkshire. This growth has been largely triggered by the volume of job moves rather than adjustments of existing salaries at present.

To ensure that we continue to provide our clients with the very latest data, we have looked at a range of the best benchmarking tools available and have invested in the XpertHR Cendex product. This means that we are now able to offer a comprehensive benchmark on the basic salary, car and bonus package. We have access to the data from over 1.3 million employers and all updated every 12 months. The filters allow us to drill down into specific locations, job disciplines and levels of seniority for the most specific requests.

We have been using the Cendex tool with some of our exclusive clients over the past month and have been very impressed with the results. It has given absolute peace of mind at the outset of the process and been an important part of making sure that the right package has been offered and accepted at the conclusion.

If you are interested in hearing more details, please contact Jess Lister at jess@pratappartnership.com.

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