UK SMEs reveal personnel expansion plans

UK small businesses plan to hire in the months ahead, with one in three small and medium-sized companies planning to take on more staff, recent research commissioned by eBay has found.

The company’s Employee Skills Index, released today in partnership with YouGov, suggests that practical skills gained through hands-on experience are valued more highly by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) than traditional accomplishments such as academic achievement.

The Index reveals that the majority (56 per cent) of SME employers are agnostic about age, placing value on experience above all else.

That is good news for older workers, with 900,000 more 50-64 year olds now in work than in 2010.Some 61 per cent of small business bosses favour candidates with a strong grasp of marketing and advertising, and half (51 per cent) of SMEs place importance on a candidate’s ability to use social media highlighting its increasingly important role in the marketing mix.

Digital skills are favoured by 56 per cent of recruiters, and specialist digital capabilities like coding is appealing for 41 per cent. Small businesses are seeking to bring this expertise in-house to optimise their online shop window.

Tanya Lawler, vice president at eBay UK says, ‘The nature of business, especially online retail, is changing rapidly. Our business-savvy SME community is on the look-out for versatile talent, regardless of age, background or gender, with the personable skills and life experience to help them develop and grow.

‘It’s good news for the online retail space and for new hires as recruitment picks up in 2016.’

Time & Attendance UK workforce management systems – the perfect tools for expanding SMEs

A workforce management system can help SME owners enjoy an extensive overview of the available skills sets across their workforce, as well as organizing training for specific employees.

This is specifically where Time & Attendance UK could put its extensive experience to very good use.

We offer a complete proximity card time and attendance system that includes European Working Time Directive checking and reporting, Access Control, Fire Roll Call, and also makes good use of mobile and wireless technology so that your employee clocking and activity information can be accessed from anywhere.

Moreover, our specific position within this market segment, as well as proven experience in the field enables us to thoroughly customize our systems in order to meet all of your requirements, whether you’re an enterprise customer with multiple sites or a smaller business.

Proximity smart card technology allows your employees to quickly clock in and out, with the time and attendance software accurately recording attendances.

Furthermore, our all-in-one, Smart Card Time & Attendance recording workstation incorporates such features as job booking, job costing, labour hours analysis and security management.

If you want to find out more about the range of affordable, reliable solutions provided by Time & Attendance UK, just contact our dedicated product team, they’ll be more than happy to answer any question you might have.