The recession may be over, but businesses still have many problems to contend with. The economic recovery has introduced problematic skills shortages across many sectors in the UK, and as the recovery continues the problem is only set to intensify. 64% of business leaders expect fast growth to cause skills shortages in their business, while 59% say that skills shortages caused by faster growth are already present in the UK economy.

An HSBC and Prince’s Trust survey also found that 6 in 10 businesses expect skills shortages to hold back the growth of their organisations, and 79% of respondents expect the growth of the economy as a whole to be limited by a lack of skills in the next three years. 64% of business leaders believe that something should be done urgently to tackle the looming skills crisis. Over a third of respondents believed that the skills crisis could cause their business to become insolvent. More than half of business leaders reported they were struggling to fill vacancies at their organisation.

In addition to these disheartening statistics, the survey highlighted the effects that skills shortages have on employees. Two-thirds of employers believed that their staff would be more stressed and anxious due to a skills shortage, while 64% believe that staff morale and satisfaction would fall.

Employers will be forced to raise salaries, improve internal training schemes and offer increased benefits to employees if they wish to continue to grow amidst the skills shortages. Revamping your office environment and upgrading your office facilities will surely help you to attract the right talent to your workplace.

 

August 22nd 2014 | Back to Industry Insights