A third of small businesses positive about hiring in final quarter of 2024 despite impact of economic bumps

• A third (30%) small firms set to recruit this quarter
• Six million-strong ‘lost workforce’ targeted

• Talent Hub set to unleash hundreds of fresh opportunities for unemployed

A third (30%) of small businesses are positive about growing their teams in the final quarter of 2024, despite feeling the impact of economic bumps, research from small business support platform Enterprise Nation has found.

An analysis of the latest survey of its members found 15 per cent were likely to take on staff and 15 per cent were very likely over the coming months, another 11 per cent said they were not ruling it out.

But they identified a number of pain points with the hiring process, with 62 per cent saying as early-stage employers, they needed direction on when as well as how to hire and retain staff.

Enterprise Nation, in partnership with emerging talent platform Unibeez and all-in-one HR, payroll and benefits platform Employment Hero and global hiring platform Indeed has developed a fresh private sector backed digital solution, aimed at unlocking the route to successful employment outcomes for time-poor UK small businesses looking to build capacity with an instantly agile team.

Talent Hub is a free resource for start-ups and small businesses right across the UK to access guidance and support around recruiting, attracting and retaining talent. It will also unleash hundreds of flexible and meaningful employment opportunities for hard-to-reach job seekers – including students, career changers, disadvantaged groups and the long term unemployed.

According to research from the Social Market Foundation and Tesco, the UK currently has a six million-strong ‘lost workforce’ who are out of work, which equates to 14 per cent of the working age population. Activating a plan to get them into employment would lift the UK’s gross domestic product by £454.9 billion, the report found.

Emma Jones, CBE, founder and CEO of small business support platform and membership community Enterprise Nation, said: “Employing staff is not hardwired into entrepreneurs.

“In the absence of a HR department, it can arguably be one of the most time-consuming and frustrating processes you can undertake, when you’re busy running your own business. And yet building a solid team is probably the most important thing on the to-do list, but can get neglected.

“Without detailed help and support to shape a role and take it to market, business owners often don’t know where to start. But this has got to change. The benefits of having a skilled team in place can’t be underestimated and can generate up to a 50 per cent increase in revenue.1

“The reality is that without being held back by the rigidity of a corporate structure, small businesses can quickly offer a unique range of flexible and fulfilling roles that could genuinely help the government solve the rising unemployment problems we are seeing today. People want to make a difference and in small businesses, they can.

“Helping to support small firms to employ now, will help to establish the long-term building blocks for growth. The strategic impact of supporting small business employment and its role in economic growth has been underestimated for too long.”

Kevin Fitzgerald, UK Managing Director of Employment Hero, said: “SMEs represent 99% of businesses and contribute 50% of global GDP, yet employment s remains their biggest pain point. We’ve made it our mission to solve this problem by digitising every element of the employment lifecycle. Talent Hub offers a 360 approach to talent management, ensuring that every startup and small business can effortlessly hire, manage and retain their teams. We’re thrilled to be a partner – it’s a perfect match for our mission.”

Caroline Barbour, Snr SMB Manager at hiring platform Indeed said: “As a leading global matching and hiring platform, our mission is to help people get jobs. Our Talent Hub partnership with Enterprise Nation is another way we get to reimagine the recruitment journey and make it even more accessible for start-ups and small businesses. We’re making hiring faster, easier and more human.”

Chris Keenan, CEO of Unibeez said: “Students and graduates in the UK are digital natives with the digital skills that businesses are looking for. They are looking for job opportunities to make a difference while using their skills to earn while they learn. They are also looking for experience to improve their employability status and we know that working with  small businesses  accelerates their skills rapidly allowing them to work more flexibly across different disciplines. While many students still apply to large Corporates through formal graduate processes, the long tail of students are looking for a route with informal access into their careers . This must change and with Talent Hub, it can.”

The platform will be launched today/October 17 at a roundtable event with representatives from the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions.

Talent Hub users will be able to join free webinars and events, and be served with real life tips from experts, as well as support from Unibeez and Employment Hero and Indeed to help them find talent.

Mike Turner co-founder and MD of Bird and Blend Tea Co, started the business in 2012 with Krisi Smith after university by serving their own blend of tea from a trestle table at Glastonbury. They now have 22 shops across the UK, including three in London, with three more opening before Christmas.  They also run an online business with their own warehouse in Brighton.

But when it came to employing their first payroll staff, Mike and Krisi, learned on the job.

Mike said: “The first time we properly hired was when we opened the first store in Brighton where we hired seven people. We just randomly stuck adverts online, but no one knew who we were and we were opening a shop that no one had ever heard of.

“We blocked out a few days to look through the CVs and sat in a pub for a full day interviewing 30 people with a list of questions that we’d made up, partially based on reading online what good interview questions were and when we hired them I wrote a two-sided contract.

“At the time it didn’t feel all that threatening, because we weren’t asking people to leave their jobs to work for us.

“But looking back, a specific resource aimed at early-stage businesses like ours would have helped because just creating it all for yourself is such a waste of time, especially when you don’t actually know what you’re doing.”

Since then, Bird and Blend has hired coming up to 1,000 people over the years, and now has a brilliant leadership team that handles the day-to-day management including recruitment and new openings.

“When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re busy doing everything. You’re in a mindset where you think writing health and safety plans isn’t going to bring in the money.

“But now I think having some sort of package that takes care of all of that sort of stuff would have been a really useful thing and sensible thing to do in retrospect, and save money in the long run, because there is an element of unpicking when you get it wrong.”