Recruitment can be a challenge for any business, from finding the right candidate, undertaking the necessary checks or negotiating contractual deals. This year, employers are facing an even bigger obstacle with recent reports identifying a national skills shortage as having a direct impact on UK businesses.
The 2019 Open University Business Barometer Report reported that in the past year, more than two thirds of employers in the UK have struggled to recruit workers with the necessary skills.
While UK businesses may still have a sustained appetite to grow, companies are nevertheless struggling to find potential employees with the talent they need. Indeed, the last Employer Skills Survey (2017) highlighted that 6 out of 10 employers admitted that finding the right skilled workers was their biggest concern.
Some experts are putting this down to the recent uncertainty that surrounds Brexit, meaning the number of skilled migrant workers coming to the UK is dropping, whilst retirement figures are growing. There’s also a concern over the number of government initiatives that have been set up to try and bridge the gap, but that remain underfunded.
As such, the Association of Colleges this year reported that the UK’s economic success is by default at risk, with a predicted production output reducing by £3.3 billion over the next five years.
Increased need for training
As we live in an age when technology is constantly evolving, so increases the need for skilled employees who are able to move with the times. But at the speed at which the working environment is changing, employers are struggling to keep up, not least when it comes to finding the right recruits who can execute the necessary skills without extensive training.
UK businesses are therefore having to accept that they need to adopt a model of lifelong learning, upskilling and retraining for its employees to avoid being left behind.
Understandably, this training doesn’t come without its own problems. Not only does it impact upon the time employees actually spend working in their roles, but it can also prove expensive.
Equally, some employers may feel that investing in a training budget is risky, for fear that they may well spend time and money training their employees, only for them to move on as soon as they’ve acquired the skills desired by competitors. This then leaves businesses back to square one, either in need of new, already trained employees (who may be hard to come by) or reinvest in current employees.
Obviously, this is a huge risk for businesses who may have accepted the need to keep up to date with their training provisions, but can’t necessarily afford to train up staff only to lose them soon after.
Having said this, providing on-the-job training can prove to be a huge attraction for many people who are ambitious about broadening their skillset. So while it might be a risk for UK businesses to pump money into upskilling their employees, it can also breed loyalty and help employee retention figures where staff are made to feel invested in.
Choosing the right training provider
Where businesses aren’t able to provide training in house, they may look to external training providers to do the job for them. But this isn’t without risk either, as finding a provider that can fulfil a business’s needs and demands isn’t always easy. If a business makes the wrong choice, this may result in them having to pay out for training twice over once they have settled on a different provider that can deliver the right results.
Then comes the debate over whether it is more economically viable and less of a risk to nurture and grow talent from within, or offer increased salaries to external candidates who are ready to walk straight into the job. Both options carry some level of risk to the employer.
Increased salaries
While the skills gap is putting UK businesses at risk due to the cost implications behind further training, there are other financial obstacles for employers. Due to the skills shortage, employees with the desired skillset are understandably in higher demand. In order to fill the otherwise empty roles that demand a certain expertise, employers may therefore find they are having to increase salaries in order to secure the right people.
There’s also the matter of recruitment fees. As employers are having to work harder to seek out the right staff, they may also find they are having to fork out more on external recruiters who have a better chance at finding the highest trained workers.
The future
It is claimed that some of the sectors worst hit by the skills gap are engineering, construction, digital and health science (STEM). The government are attempting to address the skills gap and reduce the risk of impact on businesses by introducing some policy initiatives, but sceptics insist that these initiatives need to be matched by investment if they are to have any success.
Closing the skills gap will also require a joint effort across the board, too – from policy makers, education institutions and employers themselves. While young people are being encouraged to take up STEM subjects to help bridge the gap, UK businesses are encouraged to be mindful about the skills gap and approach their recruitment process more fluidly, outsourcing where necessary whilst building on their in-house training and development facilities.
