consultancies identified company restructures or redundancy as a reason for losing staff, compared with 38% in 2012. It appears that the labour market for design employees may have strengthened since 2012, with more making a shift of their own making, rather than as necessitated by a restructure or redundancy. Difficulties in Recruitment All who had attempted recruitment in the past year, in both design consultancies and businesses with staff, were asked if they had experienced difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified and experienced design staff. While recruitment difficulties appeared to have eased for design consultancies in 2012, this was not the case in 2015. The proportion of consultancies saying recruitment is a very serious problem (26%) has risen even higher than was recorded in 2008 (24%), while the percentage reporting that finding suitably qualified design staff is not really a problem shrunk to only 28% (52% in 2012), as shown in the chart below. This reaffirms the notion that the labour market for design professionals may have strengthened considerably since 2012. For in-house departments, the proportion reporting that recruitment is a problem or a very serious problem (15%) is relatively similar to 2012 (16%) while the number saying it is not really a problem (69%) or only minor (15%) have both grown. Figure Difficulties in recruiting staff BD4a/DD4a: In recent years have you had any problems in recruiting suitable design staff? (Base: Consultancies: All who have recruited, or attempted to recruit design staff: n=138. Businesses: All with design staff n=229) Organisations that saw recruitment as a problem were asked what kinds of problems they face, and the responses are summarised in the following table. The issues identified are very similar to those mentioned in 2012 and 2008. In summary, respondents believe there are not enough appropriately skilled workers available. In-house departments in particular believe there are not enough graduates in relevant disciplines (30%). A potentially emerging issue for design consultancies is that they believe prospective employees exhibit little interest in their business due to low wages and a lack of permanent positions (9% compared to 3% in 2012). Figure Problems in recruitment
consultancies identified company restructures or redundancy as a reason for losing staff, compared with 38% in 2012. It appears that the labour market for design employees may have strengthened since 2012, with more making a shift of their own making, rather than as necessitated by a restructure or redundancy. Difficulties in Recruitment All who had attempted recruitment in the past year, in both design consultancies and businesses with staff, were asked if they had experienced difficulties in recruiting suitably qualified and experienced design staff. While recruitment difficulties appeared to have eased for design consultancies in 2012, this was not the case in 2015. The proportion of consultancies saying recruitment is a very serious problem (26%) has risen even higher than was recorded in 2008 (24%), while the percentage reporting that finding suitably qualified design staff is not really a problem shrunk to only 28% (52% in 2012), as shown in the chart below. This reaffirms the notion that the labour market for design professionals may have strengthened considerably since 2012. For in-house departments, the proportion reporting that recruitment is a problem or a very serious problem (15%) is relatively similar to 2012 (16%) while the number saying it is not really a problem (69%) or only minor (15%) have both grown. Figure Difficulties in recruiting staff BD4a/DD4a: In recent years have you had any problems in recruiting suitable design staff? (Base: Consultancies: All who have recruited, or attempted to recruit design staff: n=138. Businesses: All with design staff n=229) Organisations that saw recruitment as a problem were asked what kinds of problems they face, and the responses are summarised in the following table. The issues identified are very similar to those mentioned in 2012 and 2008. In summary, respondents believe there are not enough appropriately skilled workers available. In-house departments in particular believe there are not enough graduates in relevant disciplines (30%). A potentially emerging issue for design consultancies is that they believe prospective employees exhibit little interest in their business due to low wages and a lack of permanent positions (9% compared to 3% in 2012). Figure Problems in recruitment
WG4304-Victorian-Design-FINAL-Report.DOCX.DOCX