Royal Mail launches drive to take on 20,000 seasonal workers - but recruiters across UK face battle

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://news.sky.com/story/royal-mail-l ... e-12428593

The company is the latest to seek extra roles for the Christmas period but it comes as a monthly survey shows pay rates for permanent and temporary hires rising at the fastest pace for more than two decades with demand for workers surging.

Royal Mail has launched a drive to take on more than 20,000 seasonal workers - just as new figures illustrate how employers are struggling to fill roles.

Temporary staff are needed to sort high volumes of parcels, Christmas cards and letters for Royal Mail and its Parcelforce Worldwide arm from late October through to early January.

It is the latest big seasonal recruitment drive following the likes of Sainsbury's, which is adding 22,000 temporary workers, Amazon - hiring 20,000 - John Lewis Partnership, with 7,000, and Morrisons, which is looking for 3,000 temporary staff.

Yet it comes at a time when labour shortages are taking their toll across the UK economy, even as the end of the furlough scheme looks set to result in many workers looking for new jobs.

Monthly figures from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) and KPMG showed growing demand for workers in September, together with a near-record fall in candidate availability, was pushing up pay.

The survey found that both starter salaries and temps' wages were rising at the sharpest pace on records going back 24 years.

Claire Warnes, head of education, skills and productivity at KPMG UK, said there were "limited levers to bring people with the right skills to where the jobs are".

She added: "The sharp rise in hiring activity is a reason to be hopeful, but competition is fierce.

"The end of the furlough scheme should be bringing tens of thousands of new people to the jobs market, but many do not have the right skills to transfer to the sectors with most demand."

Amazon is also among companies hiring thousands of seasonal roles
Latest official data showed the number of vacancies across the economy topped one million over the summer.

Royal Mail, which typically recruits similar numbers of people every year to handle higher volumes over Christmas, has not said it is offering any additional incentives to help attract more candidates.

However it is looking for fewer roles than the 33,000 taken on last year during a festive period made busier because of more online shopping with high streets closed.

The bulk of this year's temporary roles - 17,150 - are for mail centre sorting in England, with 1,800 such jobs in Scotland, 650 in Wales, and 500 in Northern Ireland.

Royal Mail is also looking for 1,500 workers including drivers for its express parcels business Parcelforce Worldwide, 1,500 at its international parcel hub at Heathrow and 650 data inputting roles at sites across the UK.

The company's chief people officer, Zareena Brown, said: "Being part of delivering Christmas is a brilliant experience and one that we know offers lots of opportunities for employment and engagement in the communities we serve."

[SpacePhoenix]

I think that lorry drivers (600s and larger) will be the much bigger problem when it comes to Xmas recruitment

[ConeHater]

I wonder whether those clever planners are going to hit the usual “overkill” button and hire vast quantities of vehicles and trailers, only to have them standing idle ‘coz there’ll be no-one to drive them !

[frankieboy]

Same old same old, thousands of people to sort and not enough to deliver. We can't deliver now so what's Christmas going to be like.

[crimson king]

Same old same old, thousands of people to sort and not enough to deliver. We can't deliver now so what's Christmas going to be like.

An absolute clusterfuck, that's what.

Parcels and packets are going to be like lockdown levels on acid, our DO doesn't seem to be planning anything and the DOM doesn't want to discuss Christmas "just yet."

Walks are being left in daily now, loads of staff off sick or leaving, hardly any new recruits and morale is tanking by the minute after this holiday pay debacle.

But, hey, it's only what, seven, eight weeks away?

It'll be all right.

[SpacePhoenix]

Same old same old, thousands of people to sort and not enough to deliver. We can't deliver now so what's Christmas going to be like.

Don't forget that in DOs you're only dealing with mail entering the area covered by the DO. MCs are dealing with mail entering the area for multiple DOs (could be 20+) and at Xmas are also dealing with stuff leaving the area covered by the MC. There's very little storage space in MCs at Xmas as every inch of the floor will be being used for sorting so we have to get it sorted and out the door asap

[citypostie]

Same old same old, thousands of people to sort and not enough to deliver. We can't deliver now so what's Christmas going to be like.

Don't forget that in DOs you're only dealing with mail entering the area covered by the DO. MCs are dealing with mail entering the area for multiple DOs (could be 20+) and at Xmas are also dealing with stuff leaving the area covered by the MC. There's very little storage space in MCs at Xmas as every inch of the floor will be being used for sorting so we have to get it sorted and out the door asap

Funnily enough most delivery offices don't have any room to store mountains of mail and parcels that won't get delivered unless more hands are brought in to do deliveries. Our revision is supposedly starting in 2 weeks so the likelihood is after seeing the plans that if 50% of what comes in goes out each day it will be a miracle

[SpacePhoenix]

Same old same old, thousands of people to sort and not enough to deliver. We can't deliver now so what's Christmas going to be like.

Don't forget that in DOs you're only dealing with mail entering the area covered by the DO. MCs are dealing with mail entering the area for multiple DOs (could be 20+) and at Xmas are also dealing with stuff leaving the area covered by the MC. There's very little storage space in MCs at Xmas as every inch of the floor will be being used for sorting so we have to get it sorted and out the door asap

Funnily enough most delivery offices don't have any room to store mountains of mail and parcels that won't get delivered unless more hands are brought in to do deliveries. Our revision is supposedly starting in 2 weeks so the likelihood is after seeing the plans that if 50% of what comes in goes out each day it will be a miracle

Sorted mail will have to go out to the next office in the line be it another MC, an RDC or a DO no matter what