Recruiting at minimum wage level

[ManagerMellis]

Has anyone had success using a particular platform when trying to fill positions that pay on-or-around minimum wage? I run a construction cleaning company and trying to attract staff has become really difficult. We have always managed to recruit fairly effectively when needed through Find a Job or on social media but even when offering above the industry norm as an hourly rate, which equates to £23k-£24k per annum, we are literally getting no responses.
I know I could advertise a higher rate but the ripple effect throughout existing staff and subsequent recalibration of their wages would make a huge hole in profits.
Do I just need to swallow the increased labour costs and accept that's how it is or can someone tell me there's a special place to find staff?! Thanks

 

[bodgitt&scarperLTD]

Cost of living and the benefits trap means that minimum wage full time jobs simply aren't worth it. It's leaving many businesses that were previously viable in a precarious position.

Basically you need to pay more and charge more. Much easier said than done as you know.

 

[HFE Signs]

This is a problem most of us are having, the country is suffering a staff shortage and therefore we're finding that we have to pay higher rates to attract the right people.

What really annoys me is when people apply, you offer an interview and they go quiet and don't show up - clearly using you for a tick in the job seekers box.

 

[The Byre]

I googled our local construction site cleaners and they are offering £12 per hour.

 

[hikiwari]

What an irony it would be if you were a Brexit voter @ManagerMellis. Don't answer that.

You haven't mentioned what part of the country you are in?

 

[NickGrogan]

What an irony it would be if you were a Brexit voter @ManagerMellis. Don't answer that.

You haven't mentioned what part of the country you are in?

What does t have to do with Brexit?

 

[WaveJumper]

Im thinking the south, have you tried asking current staff if they have friends who would be interested

 

[SillyBill]

Suspect min. wage is going to be near £22k FTE by April next year. Certainly going to impact every business in terms of maintaining differentials if nothing else. With inflation expected to still be persistent across next year, may not be far off £24k FTE by April 2024 for a NMW job...has to be captured in increased prices eventually, but suspect it may take a lot of casualties firstly to weed out those who try to carry on without the ability or the confidence to raise their prices. Reducing margins is sustainable until it is not.

 

[nelioneil]

Simply put your prices up to absorb the higher costs! If you think you will suffer a big decline in sales as a result, then I think the business has wider issues.

 

[hikiwari]

What does t have to do with Brexit?

Kidding right? ?

 

[japancool]

We appear to now be a society founded on minimum wage jobs.

 

[Talay]

We appear to now be a society founded on minimum wage jobs.

Or you could argue that we now have £5 an hour jobs which need to be paid £9.50 or whatever NMW is which means that the person who should be getting £15 an hour is only getting £12 an hour.

Sorry but not all jobs are worth £500 a week and the higher paid are subsidising the lower paid.

Perhaps go back to the Labour lunacy of the 1997 "revolution" which put half the country on tax credits and "created" a million Mcjobs for numties to collect taxes and redistribute them via tax credits.

 

[Bob Morgan]

A 'Revolving Door' can prove to have horrendous Running Costs!

 

[bodgitt&scarperLTD]

A 'Revolving Door' can prove to have horrendous Running Costs!

Great analogy.

 

[fisicx]

Or maybe it’s just that people don’t want to be cleaners anymore.

 

[Bob Morgan]

Or maybe it’s just that people don’t want to be cleaners anymore.

Possibly elevating themselves to the role of Consultant Hospital Porter

 

[WaveJumper]

We appear to now be a society founded on minimum wage jobs.

And zero hour contracts. What do they say 'pay peanuts get monkeys'

 

[japancool]

Or you could argue that we now have £5 an hour jobs which need to be paid £9.50 or whatever NMW is which means that the person who should be getting £15 an hour is only getting £12 an hour.

Or you could argue that instead of paying a pittance and expecting the government to subsidise low paid jobs through benefits, employers could pay a decent wage and reduce the tax burden on all of the rest of us.

 

[HFE Signs]

You could also argue that a high minimum wage discourages kids to get a trade or profession making for a higher end skill shortage in the future. My dad always drilled in to me that hard work at school/college/uni makes for a better lifestyle.

We have to maintain differentials, higher minimum wage pushes up all wages and ultimately the cost of goods. I agree with a moderate minimum wage but I also think incentives to work hard should be maintained.

If you can go and get a stress free job in Aldi at £40k pa we'll have very few professionals in 10yrs time.

 

[Newchodge]

You could also argue that a high minimum wage discourages kids to get a trade or profession making for a higher end skill shortage in the future. My dad always drilled in to me that hard work at school/college/uni makes for a better lifestyle.

We have to maintain differentials, higher minimum wage pushes up all wages and ultimately the cost of goods. I agree with a moderate minimum wage but I also think incentives to work hard should be maintained.

If you can go and get a stress free job in Aldi at £40k pa we'll have very few professionals in 10yrs time.

I am not entirely convinced that a job in Aldi is stress free. They pay well but staff experience appears to be not good, primarily because of competing priorities.

 

[NickGrogan]

What does t have to do with Brexit?

No, please can you explain why you think it's Brexit related and assuming you think it's a negative, why you think so?

Perhaps @Newchodge and @ctrlbrk can help.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

and trying to attract staff has become really difficult

pay on-or-around minimum wage

I think you have your own answer!

 

[The Byre]

I am not entirely convinced that a job in Aldi is stress free. They pay well but staff experience appears to be not good, primarily because of competing priorities.

I have it on the best authority that working at Aldi at managerial level is very stressful - but, according to those who work there, it is a good stress and they enjoy it! Their management trainee programme starts graduates off at £44k plus company car and rises to over £80k within five years. They also have three main apprenticeship programmes.

Aldi is well known throughout Europe and beyond as being one of the best employers in the retail business - but staff have to be quick-witted, hard-working and ambitious. It is not a company for slackers and people who like to throw sickies! They get weeded out pretty quickly!

But on the wider point of NMW - I was talking to a Swedish business person a while back and when I said "Never bet against the US economy!" he pointed out that Scandinavia has a better record than the US and has created more self-made billionaires per capita than any other region. (I have not checked this assertion!)

He said it was entirely because Denmark, Sweeden and Norway all have fairly high wages and good support systems for childcare and other social help. "That means we have a wealthy society where everybody is fully engaged in the real economy." He also pointed out that wages are collectively negotiated by the unions and a factory worker can expect to get about $36k gross p.a. and skilled labour a good deal more.

I was surprised to learn that no Scandinavian country has a minimum wage as such, as the unions ensure that wages are kept at reasonable levels.

I am far from clear what one can learn from that, but I for one would not like to be working on a building site for under £10 per hour! (I shall now go into an unheated workshop and build a set of shelves for the office - and I shall not even get paid for that!)

 

[Newchodge]

No, please can you explain why you think it's Brexit related and assuming you think it's a negative, why you think so?

Perhaps @Newchodge and @ctrlbrk can help.

A lo tof people who previously held these jobs were from the EU. Many people from the EU have left because of Brexit. There is now a staff shortage. I leave it to you to decide whether there is any causative correlation.

 

[japancool]

Problem solved.

 

[simon field]

I am not entirely convinced that a job in Aldi is stress free. They pay well but staff experience appears to be not good, primarily because of competing priorities.

Seems to me that these days, many people get ‘stress’ confused with ‘normal life’.

 

[The Byre]

Seems to me that these days, many people get ‘stress’ confused with ‘normal life’.

No, they are confusing stress with "Get some bloody work done, you lazy t***!"

 

[Financial-Modeller]

OP must reprice services provided with increased labour costs, and see if their market will accept higher prices.

It is unfortnately ironic, that sucessive governments have increased the benefits of not going to work, such that the threshold to accept paid employment is now above the government-mandated NMW.

Whilst the government sees inflation as a problem not of its own causing - and decision-makers are largely insulated from both businesses and the effects of inflation - it is easier to increase benefits than reduce inflation, thus increasing labour costs, increasing inflation etc etc

 

[NickGrogan]

A lo tof people who previously held these jobs were from the EU. Many people from the EU have left because of Brexit. There is now a staff shortage. I leave it to you to decide whether there is any causative correlation.

OK. The impact in the UK of this is that there are more jobs available for those looking and those jobs are better paid. This is a good thing for them and something I assume you'd support based on your previous posts.

The EU countries have increased their labour pool again and many of those people now have new or improved skills, which is good for them and good for their economies. Again, that is a good thing and again something I assume you'd support.

The employers that pay minimum wage and don't generate enough profits to raise those wages have relied for many years on taking people from the EU and paying them subsistence wages. This business model no longer works and they will either need to find ways to improve the business, pay higher wages and become viable or be replaced by other more efficient companies that can.

See @The Byre post above about Scandinavia.

Are you against increasing wages and in favour of importing cheap labour instead?

Never had you down as a Tory.

 

[Newchodge]

OK. The impact in the UK of this is that there are more jobs available for those looking and those jobs are better paid. This is a good thing for them and something I assume you'd support based on your previous posts.

The EU countries have increased their labour pool again and many of those people now have new or improved skills, which is good for them and good for their economies. Again, that is a good thing and again something I assume you'd support.

The employers that pay minimum wage and don't generate enough profits to raise those wages have relied for many years on taking people from the EU and paying them subsistence wages. This business model no longer works and they will either need to find ways to improve the business, pay higher wages and become viable or be replaced by other more efficient companies that can.

See @The Byre post above about Scandinavia.

Are you against increasing wages and in favour of importing cheap labour instead?

Never had you down as a Tory.

No, but you obviously are a Tory given the way you twist and turn to avoid admitting your error.

 

[japancool]

Aren't there some poor people from other countries we can exploit?

Anyway, I'd put up some job adverts in places where there are lots of unemployed people. I hear Westminster might be a good place soon.

 

[NickGrogan]

No, but you obviously are a Tory given the way you twist and turn to avoid admitting your error.

Could you highlight the actual errors in my post?

 

[Newchodge]

Could you highlight the actual errors in my post?

You asked why the situation was Brexit related. I answered. You haven't explained why this is not a negative for the OP.

 

[NickGrogan]

You asked why the situation was Brexit related. I answered. You haven't explained why this is not a negative for the OP.

Nothing in the OP's post mentions or even hints at Brexit. The first people to mention it are @hikiwari and you.

Improving the efficiency and productivity of the business, to cover the increased wages will help the OP. See @The Byre post again.

High wages are good for business growth.

Perhaps you can point out the errors or explain why Brexit is not a good thing for everyone I've mentioned.

 

[Newchodge]

Nothing in the OP's post mentions or even hints at Brexit. The first people to mention it are @hikiwari and you.

Improving the efficiency and productivity of the business, to cover the increased wages will help the OP. See @The Byre post again.

High wages are good for business growth.

Perhaps you can point out the errors or explain why Brexit is not a good thing for everyone I've mentioned.

I only mentioned Brexit after you asked me to do so. Please keep up.

 

[NickGrogan]

I only mentioned Brexit after you asked me to do so. Please keep up.

You liked the post about Brexit, I invited the poster and you to comment on your reasons, as you'd shown your agreement.

Please keep up.

Perhaps you can point out the errors or explain why Brexit is not a good thing for everyone I've mentioned.

 

[japancool]

It's quite simply that people have to be prepared to pay properly for services that they used to pay a pittance for.

Bad for business owners? In the short term, yes. In the long term, everyone is better off.

Even without Brexit, high inflation would still make that the case.

 

[IanSuth]

I googled our local construction site cleaners and they are offering £12 per hour.

roughly the rule of thumb is double the hourly rate for FT equivalent annual salary - so a £12ph is about the same as a £24k job

 

[IanSuth]

It's quite simply that people have to be prepared to pay properly for services that they used to pay a pittance for.

Bad for business owners? In the short term, yes. In the long term, everyone is better off.

Even without Brexit, high inflation would still make that the case.

No (irrelevant of Brexit - just pure ecconomics/maths)

Because every increase in pay means in increase in the cost of the things they do which leads to an increase in cost in things people buy

whether people are better or worse off depends on whether pay inflation is greater or less than that person (or their family units) personal inflation.

If your pay goes up from £11ph to £12ph that is 9%, if your shopping basket + rent + fuel costs to heat house and get to work rise 8% or less you are laughing, c9% no change, >10% you are worse off

 

[Casually made]

I feel a few of you are missing the crux of the problem

Before lockdown i was working for something in the region of £12 an hour i didn't take the job all that seriously and it was a lot less labour intensive than some others in that pay scale but i started thinking and researching

I realised i no longer want to exchange my precious time on this earth for a paltry hourly rate which gets eaten into by the government , NHS and some pension fund which i may never live long enough to see

This led me to realise i needed income i could 100% control ..... god bless the internet

within 2 years i set a system up which was paying me maybe 1.5 - 2K a month not life changing money but enough for me to live comfortably and completely change my perspective on how i wanted to live my life

Now i live largely outside of social norms like having a 9-5 and trying to impress people i don't know on social media ,

I do not have to "be anywhere" at any particular time and that for me is the greatest perk i could have

I personally believe the stereotypical "middle class" is a trap and many lower paid members of society are realising its really not worth breaking your back to get into it

The more you earn ,the more you buy ,
the more they can see the more they will tax you .

Society has some very big problems facing it .