Columnist

Tackling skills shortages with a creative talent strategy

Hardly a day goes by without seeing something in the press about the national skill shortage and how, apparently, in the UK we are in the middle of the worst skill shortage for 30 years. But the controversial question: do we really have a skill shortage, or are we just not doing enough to find good talent in a challenging market?

I have years of experience operating in ‘skills short’ industries including Oil & Gas, Engineering, Digital & Creative, IT and Manufacturing, so feel I can talk from a fairly knowledgeable standpoint, and controversial as this may be… I don’t really believe we have a skill shortage.

I started DUO as I believe that companies, particularly those in skills challenged sectors, need to look at more innovative solutions to finding talent than just using recruitment agencies or traditional job advertising.

Despite the very true realization that there are less people entering into STEM subjects and that a significant amount of skilled workers in these industries, particularly within Engineering & Manufacturing, will retire in the next 5-10 years; my real question to businesses worried about the skill shortage affecting their industry is simple: what are you doing about it?

Aside from investment into education for future skill sets, through things like apprenticeships and university courses (which, despite their importance, don’t help the here and now) what are we doing right now to create talent pools of skilled workers for our businesses?

Using recruitment agencies, job boards, cv searching sites, or other traditional, reactive, recruitment tools is no longer enough. We operate in a digital age, with greater challenges and competition for talent, and due to this there is a need for a more creative, and proactive solution.

I challenge any business or business leader, discussing the skill shortage problem, to really assess how strategically you are looking at attracting and retaining talent. Some key questions to consider:

• Do you have a well-defined employer brand?
• Do you know, and communicate, your employer value propositions?
• Do you fully understand your target talent personas?
• Do your value propositions match the needs of your talent personas?
• Are your recruiting solutions different to competitors in your industry?
• Do you communicate your talent goals effectively? Both internally and externally?
• Do you have a robust & strategically developed succession plan?
• Are you consistently engaging with a developed talent pool?
• Have you created, and tested, an engaging talent culture?

If you answer no to any of the above questions, you could be doing more. Address all of these questions, develop a creative talent strategy, and you may just see the ‘skill shortage’ issue magically disappear.

For a free talent review of how your business is doing at addressing skill shortage issues please contact me at laura@duoglobalconsulting.com.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Laura Weaving .