‘I'VE GIVEN UP WITH JOBCENTRE PLUS,' says FSB member Elaine Slater - and hers is not a lone voice on the subject. 

Mrs Slater, whose company Hydraulic Products employs around 25 people in Dawlish, Devon, was one of many FSB members who responded to a survey about ways in which Jobcentre Plus could be improved for small businesses.

Her response was far from complimentary. She told First Voice: 'Jobcentre Plus stopped being useful as soon as they centralised it. To advertise a vacancy, you speak to somebody who knows nothing about the job market (never mind the local job market), hundreds of miles away. I want to talk to somebody in a local office about the local pay rates and availability. I also want to ask about who they have on their books that might be suitable.'

She continued: ‘The online service is pretty inflexible for a company such as ours. You have to categorise your requirements under headings, whereas the people we want could come from a wider selection, depending on their experience etc. They also need to put all local vacanies in the local papers - every week.' 

Another FSB member, Jeremy Cole, owner of Smiths and Shervingtons specialist tobacconist in central London, echoed those thoughts. He reported that, in order to employ three people, he had to interview around 350 potential applicants.

He says: ‘I understand that Jobcentre Plus is under pressure to meet government deadlines – and they have a tough job to do – but the standard of candidates sent through to me has been, quite frankly, awful. I had one CV sent to me in English that was so bad it was barely understandable, and one candidate turned up for an interview wearing a tracksuit. I'd almost be better off dragging in potential candidates off the street, at random.'

The survey was conducted in advance of the three main party political conferences, at which the FSB raised the subject. It revealed that 34 per cent of members found Jobcentre Plus ‘ineffective or very effective' – while, astonishingly, another 49 per cent did not know if it worked well or not.

The FSB attended the party conferences with an exhibition stand in the shape of an employment centre, in an effort to remind politicians of the importance of small businesses and the role they play in providing jobs across the country.

A report based on the survey, entitled The Job Centre is not Working, sets out recommendations for reforming Jobcentre Plus – from an organisation that appears focused on processing benefits applications to one that supports work. Fewer than 20 per cent of small businesses said they used Jobcentre Plus to recruit, using instead costly advertising and recruitment services.