The Skills Are Out There

A few weeks ago, I was at the TEAM Midlands quarterly regional meeting.??At each one, we gather around break-out tables to discuss a pressing topic or issue that recruiters, our clients, and our candidates are facing.?Peer support and the wisdom of crowds at its finest.?The skills shortage and “war for talent” has come up repeatedly, in various guises, and this was something the group I was in discussed again.?Our perspective, this time, was from a “when do we know the outcomes are due to the skills/candidate shortage and when do we know they’re down to poor performance?” angle.

I suggested that it can be too easy to merely attribute any difficulty in filling vacancies to the, widely publicised and very real, current candidate shortage without taking a deeper look into things.?And that’s when the very wise, experienced and effective Ruth Forster, of Wagstaff Recruitment, uttered:

"THE SKILLS ARE OUT THERE!"?*

*cue X Files theme music, atmospheric lighting, and a ripple of Gillian Anderson crush, overlaid by some Catatonia lyrics (this was in my head, anyway, and I know it will only mean something to those of a certain age).

And it's true - the skills are out there.?They may be more in demand, in shorter supply, or further afield but they?are?out there.

The Office of National Statistics published figures showing that 1.29 million roles remained unfilled in Q1 of 2022.?So, while the skills ARE out there, they are certainly not quite so easy to find … and then tempt away from the current employer.

As a prospective employer, you need to start asking yourself what you’re going to do to attract and secure those skills. If what you’re doing so far isn’t working, I would suggest that it doesn’t make sense to just do more of it and hope something will change.?Ramping up the advertising, engaging more and more recruiters, and headhunting from the competition isn’t going to work if your offer isn’t appealing.?So, that’s probably the best place to start.

Employer Value Proposition

You need to ask why somebody, who is relatively happy where they are, would want to come and work for you.?What’s your EVP??Your Employer Value Proposition.

For smaller businesses, who may not be able to compete on huge salaries and benefits packages, there are still options.?While the increasing cost of living and inflation means that financial reward is an important factor, it isn’t the primary motivator for many candidates.?The real problems arise when the salary and package isn’t particularly competitive and the employer is unbending in other areas too.

For more and more people, flexibility in hours of work and location, along with time off to pursue other interests (be it family, charity, health and leisure etc.), are deciding factors.?As too are healthcare and pension considerations. As services and later life care are squeezed more and more in the UK, many employees are seeking packages that will ensure they are adequately covered with private sector provision for them and their family.

Engage, embrace and invest

If your benefits package is simply the basic minimum legal requirement (20 days holidays + stats, a stakeholder non-contributory pension, minimum wage etc) then they’re not really benefits at all.?And, while we understand that some businesses do not have the budget to provide anything greater than that at the moment, those businesses must realise that they will have to cut their cloth accordingly.?This will usually mean that they will need to engage, embrace, and invest in trainees and people without the skills and experience they ideally seek.

Even if you have an attractive and tempting proposition (including values and culture) for employees (both incumbent and prospective), you may still need to cast your net wider.?This is an area that will likely incur additional expense, but can you afford not to invest??If you’ve exhausted the domestic market for the right skills and experience, then you may need to sponsor somebody who is a non-UK resident.?Visa and relocation packages need to be considered, as do potential lead times for training and induction while somebody acclimatises to a new way of life.

So, what are you going to do to attract the right people into your business or organisation??Is it enough? Are they things that are important to the people you want to entice?

If you need to recruit, I would highly recommend that you work on your EVP before going out to market.?It is merely a matter of time before most reputable recruiters will only work with those clients that have.?Because it is becoming clear that candidates will only consider them serious contenders to work for.

Recruiters Mulder and Scully searching for candidates