When asked why they are having difficulties filling jobs, 27% of local employers cited a lack of experience, 26% cited lack of hard skills, 14% said that candidates were looking for more pay than what was being offered, 9% cited a lack of available applicants (or none at all) and 8% cited issues specific to their organisation. When asked what strategies they were pursuing to overcome the difficulties created by the skills shortage, 86% of local employers said they are training and developing existing employees in order to fill open positions. Moreover, 60% of employers said they were looking to recruit outside of their talent pool, 54% said they were exploring alternative sourcing strategies, 44% said they were paying higher salaries packages to recruits and 41% said they were providing additional perks or benefits to recruits. “In previous years the survey found that businesses were having to find new and innovative ways to face the challenges caused by the skills deficit in order to minimise the negative effects on their businesses; while this is still true, we now see that job seekers and current employees are also taking it upon themselves to remain upskilled and up to date with the latest technologies and advancements in the modern business environment,” van den Barselaar explains. “We are excited to see that he number of employers investing in and focusing on training and development has increased significantly at a global level. Should this trend continue, it will inevitably have a positive effect on the skills deficit.”
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