Counterpart disposal presents new challenges

The latest figures from CV-Library, a UK job site, reveal that job growth within the automotive industry is steadily growing.

In May 2015, automotive jobs increased by 16.44% when compared with the same time period in 2014.

This month saw the abolition of the paper counterpart – a fairly big step as the industry moves even further into the digital world. With tens of thousands of live vacancies requiring fully licenced drivers in the UK, CV-Library has examined what this change means for all of those employers and it’s not all positive.

Many claim that this change to licences will offer a more reliable and overall view of an employee’s driving record, and this may be true. But the reality is there are a few challenges employers will have to overcome. Initially there will be a big learning curve for employers, and employees, to understand what the changes mean and how the business must adapt – a big upfront investment in time and money will need to be made in overhauling internal processes and training staff accordingly. Furthermore, understanding the new services available and the costs associated with them could have a big impact on employers’ bottom line.

This big hit to corporate budgets could ultimately trickle down and impact industry job growth – until the industry fully understands the financial implications of this change, it’s likely that businesses will implement a hiring freeze to outweigh the costs. Until the industry fully adapts to life without the counterpart, the second half of 2015 is likely to see slow job growth.

To help during this period of adjustment, CV-Library is striving to make employers’ lives easier by providing a custom search feature that provides easy identification of candidates that hold a full UK driver’s licence.