Despite summer arriving in earnest, the business and economic outlook paints a mixed forecast. New figures reveal significant challenges in the UK jobs market, with a sharp slowdown in hiring showing that we may have a long road ahead of us to restore business confidence.
Even as the economy grew faster than many expected in the first quarter, businesses continue to grapple with inflation, rising costs, and an uncertain global backdrop, making future planning difficult. It’s no surprise that many are understandably cautious with their recruitment plans.
But amid these challenges, service-led businesses must recognise that cutting back on investment in people during tough periods risks undermining long-term stability and growth. In an increasingly competitive landscape, organisations should prioritise the customer experience they create as consumers become more discerning, critical and thoughtful in how they spend their hard-earned cash.
As business leaders, we can gain a competitive advantage in tighter markets by strengthening and upskilling our teams to safeguard service quality and position ourselves for sustainable success when conditions improve.
The disproportionate impact of a stagnant job market
While many will be feeling the effects of the ongoing hiring slowdown, the impact will not be even, and reports suggest it could be hitting the younger generation harder than others.
The drop in graduate vacancies has been much sharper than in the rest of the job market, owing to everything from employers prioritising existing staff retention over new hires, AI replacing some of the typical entry level duties, to the notion that the value of a degree might be on the decline.
Whatever the underlying causes, the real challenge here is that young people face an uphill battle when entering the world of work. This denies them the formative opportunities to develop their skills and gain valuable experience, all while leaving an unwelcome knowledge gap in the workforce for which we will all pay the price in future years.
This is counterintuitive, especially at a time when flat productivity and skills shortages continue to hold back the economy – and not least because it is this generation that will one day lead our businesses and shape the future of service. So, how do we, as a Service Nation, support and encourage young people into the workforce?
Opportunity and value that lasts
Many organisations are continuing to invest in hiring the right talent and are clearly showing the value and benefits of a career in service.
For service-led businesses, this includes frequent and evolving training opportunities, clear pathways to grow and develop, a culture of collaboration and feeling looked after, and a vision of long-term progress and success.
All of this is helping to shift perceptions that customer service roles are just a first step to something else – which our research shows is the case for 21% of people aged 16-21.
Getting this right will yield immediate benefits to the service sector, such as attracting new talent and, as I touched on recently, adding to an increasingly diverse and multifaceted workforce. But it will also help prepare businesses for sustainable success in the long term.
And if we embed our people with a strong service ethos from the outset, when those individuals go on to become business leaders, they will carry with them a deep understanding of the value of service excellence – as a driver of customer satisfaction and loyalty, business performance and, ultimately, economic growth.
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