What employers look for when recruiting the unemployed and inactive: skills, characteristics and qualifications
Research Report No. 295
by Becci Newton, Jennifer Hurstfield, Linda Miller, Rosie Page and Karen Akroyd
The aim of this study is to examine the evidence relating to what employers are looking for when recruiting, and the extent to which government provision meets their needs. The focus is thus on unemployed and inactive people of all ages, and a secondary aim is to explore whether there are differences in employers' requirements by age. The following four areas were identified for this review.
- What sort of characteristics, skills and qualifications do employers look for when recruiting employees?
- How important are qualifications to employers?
- Are employers more interested in soft skills/employability skills? If so, how do employers recognise soft skills in the interview process and afterwards?
Through answering these questions, an objective was to assess the extent to which the training provided and funded by Jobcentre Plus meets employers' needs.
This report is the culmination of two strands of research activity:
- a review of the current evaluation, policy and academic literatures, including published evaluations of the range of New Deals and government programmes and policy and analysis drawn from government departments;
- in-depth qualitative interviews with representatives of 16 national organisations who have expertise in the areas of age, employment, unemployment and/or inactivity, disadvantaged groups, or government provision.
November 2005 80 pages 297x210mm
ISBN 1 84123 911 9
