The employment landscape in the UK is set to undergo significant changes in April 2025. This guide provides an overview of the key legislative updates and their impact on employers and employees alike.

1. National Minimum Wage Increases

Effective April 2025, the UK government has announced the following increases to the National Minimum Wage (NMW):

• Aged 21 and over (National Living Wage): £12.21 per hour
• Aged 18-20: £10.00 per hour
• Under 18: £7.55 per hour
• Apprentices: £7.55 per hour

Employers must ensure they comply with the new rates to avoid penalties and maintain compliance with HMRC regulations.

The Government is gradually phasing out the 18–20-year rate to establish a single adult rate for those over 18. This year, the 18–20-year rate sees a significant 16.3% increase, narrowing the gap between the two bands. These increases, particularly following significant minimum wage rises in recent years and the upcoming rise in employer National Insurance contributions, will have a major impact on businesses.

Employers who previously didn’t have to worry about falling below minimum wage thresholds could now be at risk of an inadvertent breach—especially when factoring in additional hours worked, salary sacrifice schemes, and other pay deductions. For context, an employee earning the new National Living Wage of £12.21 per hour and working a 37.5- hour week will earn just under £24,000 per year. Employers should review their starting salaries and identify roles that may now be close to minimum wage thresholds.

2. Increases to Statutory Rates for Family Leave, Sick Pay, and Redundancy Pay

From April 2025, the statutory rates of pay that apply to the different types of family leave and sick pay will rise by 6.7%.

• Statutory Sick Pay (SSP): Increasing to £118.75 per week (currently £116.75).
• Family Leave Payments: Statutory maternity, paternity, adoption, neonatal care, shared parental, and parental bereavement pay will rise to £187.18 per week (currently £184.03).
• Lower Earnings Limit: The minimum weekly earnings required to qualify for these payments will increase from £123 to £125.
• Maternity Allowance Lower Earnings Limit: Remains at £30 per week.
• Statutory Redundancy Pay: An increase is expected in April 2025 to the cap on a week’s pay for calculating statutory redundancy payments, but the exact figure is yet to be confirmed

3. Carer’s Leave Entitlement

A new statutory right to unpaid leave for carers will be introduced, allowing employees with caregiving responsibilities to take up to one week of unpaid leave per year. This leave:

• Can be taken flexibly (e.g., single days or a whole week).
• Does not require a minimum length of service.
• Applies to employees caring for dependents with long-term care needs.

Employers should update leave policies accordingly and communicate the changes to staff.

4. Changes to Flexible Working Rights

The right to request flexible working will be extended from day one of employment. Key changes include:

• Employees will have the right to make two flexible working requests per year.
• Employers must respond to requests within two months.
• Employers must consult with employees before rejecting a request.

These changes aim to promote a more adaptable working environment for employees.

5. Enhanced Protections Against Sexual Harassment

Employers will have a new duty to take proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Key requirements include:

• Implementing robust policies and training programs.
• Conducting risk assessments to identify areas of concern.
• Taking swift action in response to complaints.

Failure to comply may result in increased tribunal claims and financial penalties.

6. Changes to employers’ National Insurance contributions (NICs)

As an employer, you pay secondary Class 1 National Insurance contributions (NICs) on all employees’ earnings above the secondary threshold, which in the 2024/25 tax year is £9,100.

Employers’ National Insurance rates will be raised from 13.8% to 15%, effective April 2025.

The employer NICs secondary threshold will also be reduced from £9,100 to £5,000 per year, meaning more employers will become eligible to pay NICs.

These changes will increase the cost of employing staff as a result. So, to help minimise the impact on smaller businesses, the Employment Allowance will also increase.

Disclaimer: This guide is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. Always consult an employment law specialist for tailored guidance.

Job hunting can be stressful, and certain employer habits make it even worse. A recent poll asking jobseekers what their biggest ick was when applying for job, conducted by Adzuna found that An overwhelming 73% of respondents voted that the lack of salary information was their biggest turnoff in job advertisements. This statistic speaks volumes about the changing expectations of today’s job seekers and the growing demand for transparency in the hiring process.

Gone are the days when job seekers accepted vague postings with little insight into pay. With easy access to salary data online, candidates today are more informed and unwilling to engage with employers who withhold compensation details. Transparency in salary isn’t just a hiring preference—it reflects broader expectations of fairness and trust in the workplace.

The Benefits of Salary Transparency

✅ Respects Candidates’ Time – Job seekers often juggle multiple applications. Knowing salary upfront helps them make informed decisions, reducing mismatched applications and streamlining hiring.

✅ Strengthens Employer Brand – Companies that share salary details are seen as more trustworthy, ethical, and aligned with modern workforce expectations. This fosters a positive reputation and attracts top talent.

✅ Boosts Applications – Data shows job ads with salary information get 2x more clicks and 6x more applications, making hiring faster and a wider pool of suitable candidates to recruit from.

Here’s some other factors that frustrates job seekers the most—and tips on how to improve them:

🚀 Vague Job Descriptions – Be clear about responsibilities, salary, and expectations. Transparency attracts the right candidates!

⏳ Slow & Unclear Hiring Processes – Long waits and poor communication turn candidates away. Keep them updated and streamline your process.

❌ Lack of Feedback – Ghosting candidates after interviews damages your reputation. A quick, polite rejection email goes a long way.

📉 Unrealistic Experience Requirements – Overly demanding criteria shrink your talent pool. Focus on skills and potential, not just past job titles.

💻 Clunky Application Systems – If it’s tedious or time-consuming, candidates will drop off. Make applying quick and easy.

A smoother, candidate-friendly hiring process means happier applicants—and better hires for you! 🚀 That’s what we are here for, the team a Blue Rocket can guide you through & manage the recruitment process for you, whether that is just the candidate attraction / advertising campaign, or the whole process from sourcing candidates through to onboarding and everything in between. We love the human element of recruitment, combined with our passion for all things shipping, logistics & freight forwarding – we are ideally placed to help you recruit your next hire, with a solution that fits your budget and not ours.

Offboarding is the process that occurs when an employee leaves a company, whether due to resignation, retirement, or termination. A structured offboarding process ensures a smooth transition, protects the company’s interests, and maintains positive relationships.

Benefits of Effective Offboarding:

1. Enhances Company Reputation: Treating departing employees with respect and professionalism can lead them to speak positively about the company, benefiting its image and aiding in future recruitment efforts.

2. Ensures Smooth Transitions: Proper offboarding minimizes disruptions by facilitating the seamless transfer of responsibilities, helping maintain productivity and team morale.

3. Facilitates Knowledge Transfer: Departing employees can share valuable insights, processes, and contacts with remaining staff, preserving essential knowledge within the company.

4. Reduces Security Risks: Revoking access to company systems and retrieving assets like laptops and ID badges prevent unauthorized access and protect sensitive information.

5. Mitigates Legal Risks: Completing necessary documentation and final payments ensures compliance with legal obligations and reduces the likelihood of disputes.

8 Steps to a Smooth Offboarding Process:

1. Communicate Openly: Inform relevant departments and team members about the employee’s departure in a timely manner to prepare for the transition.

2. Organize Knowledge Transfer: Have the departing employee document key workflows and train designated colleagues to ensure continuity.

3. Conduct an Exit Interview: Gather feedback on the employee’s experience to identify areas for improvement within the organization.

4. Handle Final Paperwork: Ensure all necessary documents are completed, and final payments are processed accurately and promptly.

5. Reclaim Company Assets: Collect all company property, such as laptops, phones, and access cards, to prevent unauthorized use.

6. Revoke Access: Work with IT to deactivate the employee’s access to systems, applications, and physical premises to maintain security.

7. Announce the Departure: Communicate the employee’s exit to the team professionally and consider organizing a farewell to acknowledge their contributions.

8. Review the Process: After completion, assess the offboarding process to identify any improvements for future departures.

Implementing a thoughtful offboarding process not only ensures a respectful farewell for departing employees but also strengthens the organisation’s culture and operational integrity.

Hiring the wrong person doesn’t just hurt your payroll—it can have a ripple effect across your entire business. A bad hire can drain resources, disrupt team morale, and set your company back in ways you might not expect.

The Hidden Costs of a Bad Hire

🔹 Lost Productivity – An underperforming employee slows down workflow and creates extra work for others.

🔹 Unhappy Staff – A bad hire can lower team morale, leading to frustration and even prompt good staff into looking for a new role and leaving the business.

🔹 Wasted Managerial Time – Time spent training, correcting mistakes, or dealing with performance issues takes managers away from higher-value tasks. Not to mention the time interviewing and managing the interview process.

🔹 Extra Hiring Costs – Reposting job ads, conducting additional interviews, and onboarding a replacement all come with a price tag.

🔹 Recruitment Fees – If you’ve paid a recruitment fee, replacing a bad hire means paying all over again if you do not have a guarantee in place or it outside of a rebate or free replacement time frame.

How to Avoid the Costly Mistake

A bad hire is expensive, but the right recruitment partner can help you avoid these pitfalls. Working with a specialist recruiter like Blue Rocket ensures you attract top talent, thoroughly vet candidates, and make the best hiring decisions the first time around.

At Blue Rocket Recruitment, we help take take the guesswork & risk out of hiring, helping you build a strong team without the costly mistakes. Recruitment is not an exact science and people will always be people, but we are here to minimise that risk and introduce experienced, committed candidates? Let’s talk. Call Steve on 023 8033 6633 or email hi@bluerocketrec.co.uk 

When hiring a new employee, it is important to ask the right questions.

But how do you really dig into what makes someone tick as an employee, and how do you determine if they’ll be a good fit for your business — not only in terms of their skills, but also their personality, and as a part of your company culture?

To help you come up with the perfect list of interview questions to ask potential employees, we’ve come up with 40, and divided this list into five categories; basic interview questions, behavioural interview questions, salary & career development questions and getting started questions. Pick and choose a handful that feel most applicable from each list.

Download the guide by clicking here

Happy interviewing 🚀

We have put over 25 years of recruitment & hiring expertise into our ‘Ultimate Hiring Toolkit’ PDF guide, showcasing the 5 simple steps to a successful recruitment campaign, from crafting a winning job advert to making an offer & onboarding.

Download the toolkit to get:

• A winning job advert checklist
• Tips and tricks for shortlisting applicants quickly
• Top interview questions for candidates
• Advice on how to make an attractive offer
• An easy-to-follow onboarding guide

Download the full guide by clicking here

Leaving a job is a big decision for any employee to make, and one they most certainly don’t take likely.

Whilst it is unrealistic to expect someone to have just one job for their whole working life, the loyalty & longevity of staff is important to any business.

So, why are employees leaving your business and how can you stop this from happening?

1. They’ve found a better opportunity

As people progress in their careers, better opportunities will inevitably present themselves. So, you need to give employees a reason to stay in your company.

It’s important to offer your employees new opportunities to keep them engaged and challenged, plus rewarding them for their service is extremely important, albeit in the form of a bonus, pay rise or a promotion. People want to feel like they are moving up the career ladder. So, presenting them with opportunities to progress will help create a loyal workforce.

It could also reduce the likelihood of them looking for new work elsewhere.

2. Poor working relationships

According to a recent survey, over one in ten workers said they didn’t get on with their boss. Worse still, this was a deciding factor in quitting their job.

As a result, its important that you focus on fostering good working relationships with all members of staff. You, don’t have to be best friends, especially outside of work hours, but a positive and professional relationship is vital for any business.

By creating positive relationships across the company at all levels, you can build a happier workforce and increase staff retention rates.

3. They’re taking a career break

A recent survey found that 6.6% quit their job due to taking some time out or to go travelling. Though this isn’t necessarily something you can control as am employer, you can offer alternatives to ensure you keep your talented recruits.

For those leaving, perhaps offer a sabbatical, or even the open opportunity to return at a later should the want to.

Alternatively, you could offer flexible working. This means employees can fit their job around their families or lifestyle – things that may otherwise cause them to leave.

4. No satisfaction from their job

Some employees leave their job because they are no longer satisfied with the role or working environment. Solving this problem starts with a culture of communication where staff can openly approach you with any problems / concerns. Plus, feel they can also raise any issues they have over other colleagues, the work environment or their day-to-day / responsibilities, so you can nip these in the bud quickly.

5. Leaving to study

This one can be difficult to stop, but there could be ways around it. Offering new training opportunities, or allowing staff to study alongside their job, all could make a big difference. If staff can gain qualifications, whilst still earning money and you get to retain them in the business, it’s a win-win for all.

You wont always be able to stop staff from leaving, that is for sure. But, by identifying the most likely causes and following these 5 tips, you can reduce tour risk of high staff turnover.

Remember, better opportunities will always be out there so you need to make sure you give your staff a good reason to stay with you 😊.

All the best,

Steve Wyeth 🚀

Attracting, recruiting and retaining top employees is extremely tough right now. The chances are your new hire was signed up with multiple agencies & job boards, and recently attended a number of interviews, putting pressure on you to pull out all the stops in order to entice them into your role & get them to stay once they start. So, you need to do everything you can to stop your new starters from being poached by another company or sweet talked by an agency about the “dream role” they are recruiting for.

You may think your job is complete once you make the hire, but the hard work actually starts here. Now, you need to live up to your new employees’ expectations. At this point, most employees only have one weeks’ notice period whilst in probation – so can easily leave the business, and often won’t need to work the week and leave on the spot.

So, how can you stop your new starters from being poached? There are a few key areas to look at here. From keeping contact with them during their notice period, to ensuring an effective onboarding process. Get this right and your new employee will settle in no problem. Get it wrong and you risk losing them to a competitor and having to start the process all over again.

We’ve put together 4 ways to ensure you are successful in retaining your new starters.

1. Keep in contact after they have accepted the job

Fantastic news – your candidate has accepted your job offer! They probably have a notice period to work in their current job, and if they are senior – this could be up to 3 months. But that doesn’t mean you should wait until they start the job to speak to them again, far from it.

Send them an email with any business updates, show excitement about them joining the team. This period is critical for communication and making them feel welcome. Remember, their existing employer could swoop in and make them a counter-offer that they can’t refuse. So, the better rapport you build with them at this stage, the more excited & committed they feel about their new job.

2. Eliminate first day nerves

Starting a new job is extremely nerve-wracking. Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes and consider what you’d want from a new employer on the first day of a job.

In the final week before they start, get in touch to ensure that they have all the necessary information. They know where to park, what time they need to arrive by, who to ask for on arrival, dress code and so on. While these might seem small, it can make a real difference.

Be sure to introduce them to their new colleagues as soon as possible.

3. Create an onboarding plan

The best way to do this, is to put together a clear schedule for their first 2 weeks in the role. This will include dedicated training time, inductions & meeting key personnel. Alongside this, be sure to give them tasks to crack on with, so they feel they are adding value.

It is also important for new starters to have one-to-one time with their managers to discuss what is expected of them in the role and to go over any grey areas.

4. Set clear goals

Every single employee in your company should have clear goals and objectives to work towards, this also applies to your new starters, as everyone is naturally far more productive when they have something to work towards.

This will also show that you value your new employee and they’ll be less likely to go snooping around for other job opportunities.

You should also focus on having ongoing career conversations in order to get the best out of all your employees.

What happens if your new starter does get poached?

Sadly, even if you do all the above, another company may swoop in and entice your new starter away. It’s just the nature of business and most of the time it is out of your hands.

If this happens to you and they choose to accept the offer, be sure to ask your employee for feedback. Is there anything that would have made them stay? Any issues you are not aware of? What has attracted them to the other role? All this will give you insights into why they have left and help your future hiring efforts.

Whatever you do don’t be bitter or show your anger. It’s your new starters career, not yours, so always stay professional and leave them with a positive impression of your company. You never know, you may be able to poach them back one day.

Take the above advice on board and you should stand a much better chance of retaining new starters and ultimately building a strong and stable team.

All the best,

Steve Wyeth 🚀

The Blue Rocket Recruitment August 2024 Recruitment Trends Snapshot highlights significant changes in the job market. Here are the key points:

1. Rise in Applications: There has been a notable increase in job applications, suggesting more competition among job seekers. This uptick is particularly evident in sectors like healthcare, manufacturing, and education.
2. Decline in Job Postings: Job ads have slightly decreased, indicating that employers may be more cautious with their hiring. This decline could be due to economic factors, plus August being the main holiday month, which is traditionally quiet for recruitment.
3. Remote Work Trends: Although remote roles remain popular, there has been a slight drop in their numbers. This could reflect a shift towards hybrid working models or a stabilizing demand for remote work.
4. Sector-Specific Insights:
   • Healthcare and Manufacturing: These sectors continue to see high activity, both in job postings and applications, highlighting their ongoing demand.
   • Logistics: There has been a modest increase in the number of roles, from warehouse operatives to freight & logistics coordinators, indicating companies could be getting ready for a busier Q4
   • IT and Finance: These sectors are experiencing fewer applications, possibly due to market saturation or shifts in job seeker interest.
5. Adaptation and Strategy: The report emphasizes the need for targeted recruitment strategies. Understanding candidate behaviour, such as the preference for flexible work arrangements, is crucial for successful hiring.

In conclusion, the August 2024 trends indicate a competitive job market with sector-specific dynamics. Employers should adapt their recruitment strategies to stay ahead, focusing on visibility and candidate engagement. Our team here at Blue Rocket Recruitment are ideally placed to provide you with a complete, simple direct hiring solution.

Ready to find out more?

Please call 023 8033 6633, email hi@bluerocketrec.co.uk

When you start to write a job advert, it can be very easy just to list the day-to-day responsibilities, perhaps the hours and the must have skills. But in today’s job market market, this is not enough to attract good quality, experienced applicants to apply for your job – so you could be missing out on finding your perfect hire.

So, to make sure that your adverts appeal to the best candidates, we have put together 5 things that every candidate wants from a new job. Craft your advert with this in mind, and watch the difference in applications – both the volume & quality.

1. Your company culture

This doesn’t mean you have to sound like Google, but cultural fit is a massive thing for job seekers. Candidates don’t only want to know what their working environment is going to be like & the management style, they want to know about your values, social responsibility – what does your company stand for and how does it make a difference. This is especially important to millennials.

2. Career prospects

No one wants their career to stand still, so if a job advert clearly states the possibility of long-term progression, candidates are far more likely to apply. They want to hear that they have the opportunity to develop their skills & receive additional training. Also phrases like, you will have the opportunity to grow your career and increase responsibilities as the company expands, always prove a hit.

3. Attractive Salary

Money matters. Of course it does, we all have bills to pay. In fact, across all age & experience levels, salary is the highest priority for job seekers looking for a new role. Of course, it is not the only thing people look for in a job, it’s normally always the first.

Always include a salary, don’t just put depending on experience or competitive. Statistics show 2 in 3 job seekers are more likely to apply when a salary is displayed.

4. Good benefits

If you offer good benefits, shout about them. 20 days plus Bank Holidays is not a great benefit, it is the minimum legally you can offer. The same with company pension – in most cases it is the minimum pension an employer can offer by law. Good benefits include; healthcare, substantial holiday, a day off on your birthday and discounted gym membership – these could be the deciding factors when candidates are deciding whether to apply for your job.

5. Flexibility

The majority of job seekers are looking for a good work / life balance. If you can be a bit more flexible with the working hours, which can be a real selling point with candidates with young families.

If you add even some of the above into your advert, you will dramatically increase not only the number of applicants but the quality of applicants, so increasing your chances of making a successful hire.

If you would like any advice with regards to writing good adverts or candidate attraction tips, don’t hesitate to get in touch with one of the team – we’d love to hear from you. 🚀🚀🚀