Hays Survey Points to Skills Shortages

Businesses around the world face a growing problem of accessing the skills they need, according to a new survey by recruitment agency Hays. 23 Sep 2016

Last year saw a general "strengthening of the demand for skilled labour" from companies, but indicators suggest the level of supply of such talent "remained unchanged", Hays said.

Hays' annual global skills index revealed that the skills issue has become more acute in many countries, including the UK, France and Australia in 2016 compared to 2015.

Although pressures eased slightly in the US and Germany, they are among the worst five countries affected by a shortage of supply of skilled labour, according to the index. Sweden, Luxembourg and Spain make up the top five affected nations.

Hays said companies face "real costs" from a shortage of talent, including lost business, reduced productivity and a need to "upskill" existing staff through training.

Hays UK managing director Nigel Heap said there is "prevalent" skills shortage in technical engineering roles, specialist technology and qualified finance roles in particular.

"In these areas businesses are struggling to attract sufficient numbers of qualified and skilled workers, which is impacting on productivity and business growth," Heap said.

Alistair Cox, chief executive of Hays, said he thinks increased automation and use of technology by businesses is likely to lead some jobs being replaced and others created.

"We know that automation is no longer limited to mechanical, repetitive tasks," Cox said. "Machines are now able to drive cars, draft annual reports, diagnose illnesses and create complex economic models. While we often hear daunting predictions about the number of jobs this may replace, my view is that these technological advances will bring huge benefits to the global labour market."

"We need to remember the millions of new jobs that will be created, many of which aren’t even imaginable today. We also need to find ways of using robotics to make tasks more efficient, putting humans in control, making them better at their jobs and boosting productivity," he said.

Hays called on governments and business leaders to take steps to prevent the current "skills gap" turning into a "skills chasm". This includes making a "clear distinction between skilled migration and mass immigration", it said.

"Governments need to identify skilled roles that aren’t being filled by local workers, opening up their labour markets to appeal to more overseas candidates regardless of their origin," Hays said.

Future-proofed training programmes should also be implemented via collaboration between policy makers and companies, it said.

"Businesses and governments need to work more closely together to create policies that will train and develop the skills of the future," Hays said. "These aren’t just new digital skills – such as coding, programming, informatics and data analysis – although these are critically important. It’s also the softer ‘employability skills’, including problem‑solving, communication and negotiation, which are often neglected in education but highly valued by business. This training must apply not only to new graduates, but also middle managers and older workers."

Better use of technology and improved employee engagement can also help to address skills shortages, Hays said.

"Low productivity continues to be an obstacle to economic growth in many countries, particularly in Europe," Hays said. "Better technology is part of the solution. This could include anything from greater access and use of smart devices while on the move, to introducing new software to analyse customer data. Businesses also need to have open conversations with employees about how to improve their engagement with the business.

Organisations can never be productive if their people are not productive; people can never be productive if they are not engaged."