A GLOBAL SHORTAGE OF WORKERS

Job vacancies have been rising to record highs this year, but big gaps in the UK’s labour market remain.

However, it’s not just this country being affected – the World Economic Forum says there will be a global shortage of four million workers by 2024, and the world will need to retrain a billion people.

Carmen Watson, Chair of Solihull-based recruiters Pertemps, says the Covid crisis has driven more people to reconsider their job choices as well as where and how they want to work.

She said: “They are talking to us about changing direction and what they need to qualify for their ideal roles. With technology playing a part in almost every job, they will often need new skills to cope.”

According to a study by the London School of Economics, in the UK approximately half of firms are having difficulty recruiting new workers while around one in five are having issues retaining existing staff.

Around a third of firms have raised wages says the London School of Economics study, but only around 20 per cent have invested in new technologies to help bridge the gap.

One in five businesses said that long-term skills gaps are affecting their ability to recruit workers.

Interestingly, relative to other OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, while more of the the UK workforce have university degrees, we lag on technical and vocational skills, and the share of the workforce underqualified for work is well above the OECD average.

So where will companies find the talent they need?

A business can offer benefits galore, but they need a pool of talent to draw from, and at the moment it’s just not deep enough.

More young people want apprenticeships

More young people are rejecting the idea of university, with all the debt a degree can rack up, and are favouring those companies which are offering apprenticeships. In fact, more than half of young people in the UK would have considered an apprenticeship had they been given the opportunity a study found.

The poll of 2,000 young people aged between 18-30, conducted by YouGov for The Chartered Institute for Professional Development (CIPD) last year found 52 per cent would have considered an apprenticeship in their chosen subject.

But not enough schools are pushing apprenticeships. Just one per cent said they received the support they needed to choose an apprenticeship. Almost three in five said their school had helped them with university applications.

The government wants to help, but there is widespread criticism of its apprenticeship levy as not being flexible enough. The CIPD says the levy has failed on every measure and without significant reform into a more flexible training levy, will undermine investment in skills and our economic recovery.

As a result, many companies have returned their unspent apprenticeship funds.

Are university students employable?

Many companies want to attract graduates, but a lack of work experience due to the pandemic has left students themselves feeling unprepared for employment, according to another report, this time published by Bristol-headquartered graduate jobs consultancy Prospects.

Those companies offering quality graduate schemes will inevitably be more attractive to those with a shiny new degree, but running such schemes is expensive. Organisations such as the Civil Service, NHS, the BBC and the UK’s top accountancy companies are regularly cited as offering the best schemes, but that leaves smaller companies without such deep pockets at a disadvantage.

UK universities producing the most employable graduates have been ranked by companies around the world in the Global University Employability Ranking 2021.

The University of Cambridge comes top, with Oxford a close second and another university in this region, Warwick, at number 14.

Making best use of the existing talent pool

In work, as in life, all most of us ever want is the value of our contribution properly recognised and supported, and we are likely to stay longer in a job if it is.

Employees who feel valued and appreciated by their bosses are much more likely to go above and beyond for the company and take true responsibility for their role, and they’ll probably be happier too.

Setting clear expectations, paying attention to staff when they contribute advice and opinions, or express interest in different aspects of the business, operating transparently, providing the right equipment and workplace environment, and most importantly treating them with respect, will ensure that your existing employees stay longer.

Our research suggests that our first ever list of 100 companies from across the region have all gone a long way to ensuring that they are an employer of choice.

Pertemps is a great place to work

Pertemps has been included in the Sunday Times Top 100 Companies to work for list for the last 16 years straight, a feat only achieved by two other companies. With 60 years in the business, they know a thing or two about creating great places to work.

Chair Carmen Watson said: “It was heartening to see that in the latest CBI/ Pertemps annual Employment Trends Survey – Investing in People –57 per cent of companies were looking to grow their workforce in 2022. However, that is set against the well-reported difficulties finding the right candidates and a skills shortage.

“The people are there but in the current climate, they can afford to be picky. It is essential that as an employer we offer the right development and career progression opportunities, a nice environment to work in and the potential for more flexible working arrangements.

There are more firms out there succeeding in doing the right thing for their employees, but no-one should be complacent.

We spend around a third of our entire lives at work, so we might as well enjoy it as much as we can, and that’s where a good employer will win the talent they deserve.

We must also ensure there is the support for wellbeing, which is so important, and a diverse and inclusive culture. With these elements, you start to build up a picture of what it is like to work for you.

“For colleagues, it is essential to ensure there is clear communication about what the business is doing and where it is going. People should feel included and everyone should have a voice in helping the business move forward.

“Recruitment specialists like ourselves are increasingly working with clients on their longer-term attraction strategies: there is less ad hoc picking up the phone when a business needs someone and more looking at how the talent pipeline can be secured going forward. A big part of that is ensuring that you have everything in place as a business to make it an attractive place to work over others out there.”