An online survey asked 2,000 members of the public:
“How many working days does a vacancy for a permanent job have to be open before it starts to look like a bad job that no-one wants?”
Looking at the findings, UK CEO of Randstad, Mark Bull, commented:
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“The results show recruiting for a job vacancy is like selling your house. Leave it on the market too long and, for whatever reason, people start to think there is something wrong with it.
“With the current skills shortage, it’s not a good idea to hold out too long for a candidate: eventually that tactic will back-fire and become counter-productive. If you interview a good candidate, don’t wait too long before you offer them a job.”
The results varied slightly depending on where people lived with workers in London seemingly less concerned by the amount of weeks a position has been vacant, saying that they would not consider it to be a bad job until the vacancy had been open for 79 working days.
Whereas those in the north-east believe a vacancy open for 58 working days is perceived to be a job nobody wants.
In a separate survey of over 2,000 British employees working in businesses of all sizes, Randstad found that people feel they are working the equivalent of a six and a half day week in order to cope with increased workloads and reluctance from their employers to recruit additional staff.
Mark Bull said:
“It’s also worth noting that the UK’s employees already feel they are covering 30% more work than one person should be. If they’re cramming an extra one and a half days worth of work into a working week, they are going to find it extremely difficult to cover for vacant job posts, too.”
