The Role of Recruitment in the Northern Powerhouse

With devolution at the top of the political agenda, building a strong regional voice for our industry is crucial. Nowhere is this more important than in the North West where the “Northern Powerhouse” rhetoric continues to gain momentum.

In the Autumn Statement Chancellor George Osborne talked about the ‘devolution revolution’, outlining plans for further funding for regional enterprise zones, and specifically referencing developments in the North West. As the region gains more autonomy on issues such as skills and business support, the role of REC Regional Directors will become pivotal to our efforts to build links with local MPs, business organisations and Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).

With this in mind I am delighted that Graeme Wolf, Director and Founder of Hexa Services Ltd, will be working closely with our policy team as one of our Regional Directors in the North West. Hexa Services Ltd specialise in permanent and temporary recruitment in the construction and education sectors, and Graeme is well placed to help the REC build links with key regional stakeholders within these sectors and beyond.   

In Graeme's own words, one of his core priorities will be to “promote the positives of flexible working through agencies and the advantages it brings both to the individual and to the economy as a whole”.

Graeme will also have a great opportunity to take the Good Recruitment Campaign to employers in the region and to underline the fact that the Norther Powerhouse vision will not succeed without the rights skills base. On this Graeme makes the point that “it is vital that recruiters work with local businesses and politicians wherever possible to address skills shortages that may hold back potential regional growth”. This is exactly the kind of action we want to encourage from our members so that the message gets through and collaborative partnerships take shape around the country.

Regional growth strategies will drive expansion of specific sectors, which in turn will affect the demand for people with various skillsets. A good example of this in the North West is the focus on high-growth sectors such as technology and life sciences. The work of the REC Regional Directors will increasingly focus on pre-empting these trends (and the opportunities these entails for specialist recruiters) and on using their own sectoral expertise to build relationships and ‘plug-into’ into the local skills debate.

These are exiting times in the North West. I look forward to working with Graeme to position our voice at the forefront of the devolution agenda and to showcase our industry’s role in powering the Northern Powerhouse.