Firstly, with a study that found four-fifths of employers experienced difficulties with recruitment in the last year, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) advises organisations to invest more time and energy into their recruitment and selection process if they are to select the most suitable person for the job.

The CIPD’s research reveals one in eight employees leave within the first six months. ‘Recruitment and selection is the foundation of all other HR activity,’ warns the survey’s author Gareth Roberts. ‘Get it wrong and, no matter how good other HR practice is you are always making up for that one bad decision.’

Small businesses are also finding it hard to cope with managing existing employees, according to the Institute of Directors (IoD) and recruitment company Adecco. They have found that human resources accounts for approximately half of UK SME expenditure. The survey also found that owner/managers are managing the HR process directly in 55% of businesses, spending up to one day a week resolving HR issues.

Other significant findings from this survey include:

• Although most companies believe their HR policies are clear, 41% admit to not having a formal recruitment policy.
• 67% cite ‘keeping staff happy’ as their number one HR priority, with 53% finding this the hardest part of the job.
• Even though 88% of smaller businesses see recruitment as a major challenge, 64% prefer to keep HR and recruitment in-house.

And, as if all this wasn’t enough, the results of a new survey from employment law firm Peninsula show how devious jobseekers have become, with over a third of employees admitting to fabricating skills and qualifications on their CVs. Less than 40% of the polled employees believed it is ‘dishonest’ to include lies in their CV, compared with the 62% who held the same view ten years ago. Furthermore, almost 80% admitted to having already lied in their CVs.

Peter Done, managing director of Peninsula, blames the increase on ‘potential employees eager to gain the upper hand in an increasingly competitive jobs market’, noting that ’employers have recognised this trend but seldom take the necessary measures and procedures to eradicate this issue.’

See also: Employers deluged with sub-par CVs