Survey suggests a fifth of businesses do not talk to staff about the future of the company

Digital staffing agency Coople surveyed 1000 UK business leaders, inviting them to share their experiences of how economic conditions have impacted their staffing practices.

The study – https://www.coople.com/uk/blog/new-survey-hiring-during-economic-instability/ – revealed 18 per cent are not having open conversations with their staff.

Of the 82 per cent who are having these discussions, the methods by which these conversations took place varied.

Team meetings were the most popular method, chosen by 41 per cent of business leaders.

Some 33 per cent said they used email updates and company-wide meetings, and 30 per cent opted for one-to-one discussions.

Younger business leaders were more likely to openly discuss the topic. Only 9 per cent and 10 per cent of those in the 25-34 and 35-44 age brackets said they never communicated with their employees about this, compared to 26 per cent of business leaders aged 45-54, 33 per cent of those aged 55-64, and 51 per cent of those who were 65 or over.

A quarter of UK business leaders responded to difficult economic conditions by making redundancies, at 25 per cent of those surveyed. Some 19 per cent had paused hiring. However, 56 per cent had not made any changes to their number of staff.

Some 35 per cent of business leaders said they had used alternative staffing solutions such as staffing agencies, freelancers, and contractors - and of this number, 85 per cent said it was effective.

The survey asked business leaders to say which factors were most important when making hiring decisions. The most popular answer was employee performance and productivity at 33 per cent while 25 per cent of the respondents selected future growth projections.

Rufus Hood, Country Manager UK at Coople, said: “These are definitely difficult times for UK businesses, with a full quarter of those we surveyed implementing redundancies, and nearly as many at 19 per cent stopping hiring.

"It’s highly likely that these decisions were influenced by the strain of the current economic environment, with rising costs from suppliers and inflation affecting many businesses.

"Over a third of the business leaders we surveyed had tried alternative staffing solutions, like working with agencies, freelancers and contractors. We were pleased to see that so many of these companies found it effective. At Coople, we believe that flexible working is the best way to stay adaptable and agile, taking on additional support from trusted temporary staff when you need it.”