Its harder to recruit Scientists – and it will be getting worse

Fri 1 Dec 2006

A survey of 285 UK companies has shown that it’s more difficult to recruit scientific personnel now than 12 months ago and the forecast increasing demand will mean that it will only get harder to recruit scientists in the future.

36% of respondents said that it was more difficult to recruit scientific personnel in September 2006 than 12 months previously whereas only 5% said it was easier. 52% felt the conditions were about the same.

The same percentage – 36% - had increased the number of permanent scientists on their staff in the last 12 months while 22% had decreased numbers – a net increase of 14%. Undoubtedly this increased demand would have impacted on the increased difficulty of recruitment. Also the falling supply of graduates from pure science disciplines – highlighted recently by research published by the Royal Society – will have been a factor.

The increased use of the Internet and web-boards to recruit does not seem to have made life easier for UK companies and they are returning to traditional recruitment companies for help. Mike Ellingham, Head of Marketing for SRG commented, “Many companies have tried advertising on-line themselves over the last 12 months but are finding that it is more difficult than they expected. Frequently they are swamped by response and do not have the processes in place to filter, skills match and contact applicants quickly enough. As a result, the SRG permanent recruitment service has seen a large increase in business over the last 12 months”.

Looking to the future, 37% of companies plan to increase the numbers of scientific staff over the next year, with only 10% reducing numbers. This net increase of +27% is nearly twice as high as in the last 12 months. The increased demand can only mean that companies will find it even more difficult to recruit over the next 12 months.