The number of companies hoping to take on staff in the new year shows there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about recruitment in 2014 – or so new research suggests.
The Business Expectations Survey from Dun and Bradstreet shows that twice as many companies are looking to hire staff in the new year compared to the final months of 2013.
A total of 10 per cent of businesses said they want to expand their workforce in the first three months of 2014 – this compares to just 4 per cent in the previous quarter.
Results of Dun and Bradstreet's employment index were also revealed, which has now reached 5.1 points, its highest level since the June quarter of last year and above zero for the first time in six months.
There was also an improvement in actual employment reported by businesses, which increased from -8 points to -0.8 points over the past two quarters.
Danielle Woods, Dun and Bradstreet's director of corporate affairs, said these results show a much brighter picture for business sentiment.
"This turnaround, especially given the recent lift in the official jobless rate, provides hope that forecasts for unemployment beyond the 6 per cent mark may be over-estimations, and that
Australian businesses are in reasonable shape," she commented.
"Given employment activity is essential to consumer spending and an indicator that the corporate sector is healthy and willing to invest, then a sustained pick-up in this index across the coming months would be significant for the economy."
As more businesses look to hire staff, we see a growing desire to measure the effectiveness of the recruitment and induction process via a recruitment feedback survey. The assessment of new staff’s training needs via a training needs analysis survey is also a popular approach.
After all, the recruitment and training stage is important for companies in any sector, so click here for a free custom-branded demonstration of PeoplePulse to see if we may be able to assist.
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