Pictured above: Julie Fouad

Fears over job security in the Midlands means that more employees want to work for big-name organisations, according to a new industry survey. 

The number of workers who rate market leading companies on their wish-list of attractive qualities of employers has more than doubled in the last year.

More than 60 per cent of employees in the region questioned feel that being a market-leader makes an employer more attractive, compared to just 30 per cent in 2010, while 40 per cent of companies stated they intend to recruit this year. 

The Blue Book employment survey is undertaken annually by international recruitment group Angela Mortimer, which incorporates Midlands-based Katie Bard, and saw 784 employers and 939 candidates surveyed in the first quarter of 2011. 

Julie Fouad, chief operating officer for Katie Bard, which has offices in Birmingham and Nottingham, said: "The biggest shift in terms of what makes an employer attractive to a candidate was in the market leader status of an organisation.

"This highlights the fact that, in the current economic climate, candidates feel the need to be more secure in the workplace and feel that a strong brand is more likely to be more robust.

"This doesn't necessarily mean SMEs are unattractive, but as companies look to power out of the dip they will, however, be more likely to lose key talent to larger employers at a time when they could be making the biggest impact and need to act now to try and retain the best people."

Although a great working environment and great career progression remained as the top two employer attractions amongst candidates, being a market leader saw the biggest shift.

The biggest change of opinion in terms of attractiveness among employers was in providing a great working environment, with more than 80 per cent saying it made them attractive, compared to just over 60 per cent a year ago.

Fouad also predicts that with 72 per cent of employers specifying the quality of candidates will remain the biggest challenge for recruiters, the region will continue to face a tough challenge holding on to the best talent after figures revealed fewer companies are offering graduate programmes. 

"Only 11 per cent of employers in the Midlands offered grad programmes this year and the research also found that nationally up to 80 per cent of graduates are leaving within four years," she added. 

"This is mainly due to a lack of career progression, and as companies are not giving grads the opportunity to develop they could well have a big challenge on their hands to fill major skills gaps in the long-term as those gold-dust candidates will be in even more demand. 

"There will, however, be a large talent pool of people looking for jobs this year as the public sector continues to make major savings and companies need to look at this as an opportunity and see past the preconceptions that those leaving the public sector are not ready to adapt to the private sector world."