Earlier this year, Lee & Nightingale submitted a tender for the new Central Office of Information (COI) Framework Agreement. The COI is the Government's centre of excellence for marketing and communications, and it aims to achieve best value for the tax payer by procuring high quality, cost-effective communications services from agencies like ours.

We submitted a tender for three lots within the Framework Agreement; firstly, Recruitment Marketing, secondly, Public Notice Advertising, and thirdly, Recruitment Marketing for NHS Strategic Health Authorities, NHS Trusts and Associated Bodies.

We are delighted to announce that Lee & Nightingale was selected as one of only ten preferred agencies for the Recruitment Marketing lot, which covers - among other things - account management, creative development, media buying, microsite development and employer branding. This is a great achievement for us, and is testament to the breadth of skills we have in the company.

Fifteen agencies tendered for the Public Notice Advertising lot, of which the COI selected just three. Once again, Lee & Nightingale was successful in its bid. This contract runs for the next four years, and will give us the opportunity to significantly bolster our client base in this core area of the business.

The final lot - Recruitment Marketing for NHS Strategic Health Authorities, NHS Trusts and Associated Bodies previously had ten agencies on the preferred supplier list, and the COI aimed to rationalise this down to just six specialists. Yet again, Lee & Nightingale was successful in its bid, and is now part of a contract which will run for three years, with the possibility of an extension for a further year.

These achievements, together with the recent two year extension of our All Wales Media Contract, put the company in a fantastic situation, and should see us expand rapidly over the next three years.

With England's fortunes in the World Cup seemingly receding with every awful inconsistent display, the nation looks to escape the impending economic hardship this week by riding the annual Andy Murray rollercoaster at Wimbledon.

And ups and downs are what we will have to get used to. The economy, at least in the private sector, will take some time to digest the significantly reduced expenditure from the public sector, and the public sector will have to come to terms with managing within substantially reduced budgets.

What does this mean for employers? Unemployment will obviously continue to go up, and the spectre of 3 million unemployed will loom large post Christmas, but the reality is that we will be nearing 9 million (or 20%) inactive workers of an employable age. Reduced benefits will most certainly give those reliant on them a jolt to find work, or at least persuade the Jobcentre that they are looking.

Employers are being much more cautious. Whereas just six months ago, employers were happy to fill vacancies with temporary staff, careful management of costs is now dictating that recruitment of properly qualified and, importantly, committed staff is becoming the norm.

Over the last three years, most employers will have cut their staffing to a minimum level, leaving their core and best staff in the business. One of the few benefits to employers of this recession is that it has meant they have looked long and hard at their organisations, and made them a lot more efficient. Employers are being far more diligent in who they employ as they look to work their way out of the recession.

There are some encouraging signs for the employment market, in so much that confidence amongst employers is higher now than at any time since the summer of 2007. 67% of private sector employers think they will increase their numbers over the next six months. This is undoubtedly a combination of expectation of growth, and the 28% of employers who have admitted to cutting back too far in numbers.

The elephant in the room is the emergency budget. Pretty well pre-sold, we have a good idea of the content - what we won't know for a good few months yet is its true impact on the economy and the employment market. One thing for sure is that employers will have no shortage of talent to choose from when it comes to looking for new employees, but they will want more convincing than ever that each employee will be of high calibre, and that they can consistently deliver what is required.

Jonathan Clarke
Managing Director

After England's fumbling start, the nation took a reality check on Saturday night as to how slim its chances are of winning the World Cup. Employers, especially in the public and third sectors, are also bracing themselves for a reality check of their own next week, when George Osbourne steps up to the despatch box to deliver his emergency budget.

It is broadly expected that cuts will have a significant impact on public sector jobs, with some predicting that as many as 250,000 workers will leave the public sector by April 2011, and will not be replaced. As a result, seemingly daft jobs such as ‘Empowerment Co-ordinators', ‘Internet Communications Consultants' and ‘Wellbeing Managers' may not be quite so many in number! However, these cuts will have a very different effect on the third sector. Not-for-profit organisations will suddenly have a glut of well-qualified, experienced candidates to choose from. And therein lies the problem.

With 3.5 million people actively seeking employment within the UK, employers are being inundated with applications. Recruitment and HR teams, that may well have been cut back to just essential staff, will have their work cut out to determine just how relevant a candidate with ‘community development' experience is for their Housing Officer vacancy.

The answer, of course, is to minimise the numbers of inappropriate applications. The internet has made it far too easy for lazy or speculative people to spread their CVs far and wide, leaving employers to do the work of filtering. A well thought through candidate attraction campaign - whether that be online or a simple advertisement in traditional press - needs consideration. The essentials are; clear job titles, relevant copy for the medium that sets out exactly what the vacancy entails, and a response mechanism that filters out people who simply ‘click to apply'.

For at least the next ten years, the UK will be an employer's market, with an abundance of talent and experience to choose from. The astute are already investing in their employer brands, ensuring that they become employers of choice in order to attract only the most promising candidates, whilst retaining their best staff.

A different way of recruiting will emerge that gives lazy or speculative job seekers a reality check - simply pinging their CVs to all will no longer be enough to secure positions in the best organisations.

A nervy ninety minute encounter with a team drawn from a population 30 times less than that of England. An unconvincing 1-0 result, but a win is a win - especially when it sets up a clash with the old rival, Germany.

So too a nervous hour at the despatch box from George Osborne, ushering in the new age of austerity. Employers are still trying to digest the consequences, but the general feeling is that anyone or any business involved in the public sector will be having a tough time of it over the next four years, although the private sector will continue to recover. Whether or not that recovery will be enough to fill the hole left by public sector cut backs remains to be seen, however, what is certain is that employers will continue to exercise caution before taking on new staff.

Over the last six months we have seen clients being much more rigorous in their checking of potential employee credentials and backgrounds. Many employers are also starting to offer fixed-term contracts - an indication that, long-term, there is still an absence of confidence in the economy. One reason for this may be that we are still unclear as to the actual cuts. As always, the devil will be in the detail, and it will not be until October until the full extent of government cuts, the hows and the wheres, will be known.

Who knows? By then England may be World Cup winners, Andy Murray Wimbledon champion and the recession just a bad memory! We can but hope – can't we?

Jonathan Clarke
Managing Director

They think it's all over! Mercifully, it is now - although not without the usual English controversy and excuses as to why we lost. Beaten 4-1 but ‘we woz robbed!

In 1966 a controversial Geoff Hurst shot was adjudge to have crossed the line by Russian linesman Tofik Bakhramov. In 2010, whilst the 48,000 in the stadium clearly saw Frank Lampard's shot clear the goal line by two feet, the only two people who matter, referee Jorge Larrionda and his Uruguayan assistant, did not. The Germans are saying it's 1-1, and we have had our comeuppance.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, the budget has been greeted with a cautious welcome from business, although the public sector is still wary of the detail that has yet to emerge.

The headline figure of 500,000 public sector jobs being cut over the next five years can be tempered by some 120,000 who would have retired, and some 100,000 or so who are on fixed-term appointments. However, it is still a big number, and one that neither the third sector or the private sector will be able to swallow without considerable indigestion.

What of the employment market? Well, now that there is a little more clarity in the economy post budget, it is likely that a degree of stability and normality will return - albeit with a substantial amount of caution.

One thing to note, however, is that, in the three months following England's exit from the World Cup in 1990, advertised vacancies rose by 8%. In 1996, when England went out of the European finals, advertised vacancies went up 7% for the following three months. And when Portugal disposed of England in the World Cup in 2006, there was a 9% increase in advertised vacancies.

If history does repeat itself, employers should be wary of disgruntled England fans wanting a change!

Have a good week.

Jonathan Clarke
Managing Director

The latest Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) survey has revealed that confidence about the future is growing among employers, with over 95% of those surveyed saying that they anticipate a rise, or at least a leveling off, in the number of permanent staff working for them in the next three months. This figure represents a 2% increase over the previous month

The outlook also looks positive over the longer term, with 94% of employers stating that they expect to either maintain or increase numbers of permanent staff during the next 12 months. Roger Tweedy, Director of Research at the REC's, said:

Following last month's slight dip in employer confidence businesses are forging ahead with plans to stabilise or expand their workforces. This fits with the feedback from professional recruiters on the ground, who are reporting increased hiring activity in most sectors.