Bridging the skills gap
During recent years we have heard the expression, ‘recruit for attitude and train for skills.’ Yet, most organisations do not take this approach. Paul Bridle, a leadership methodologist, delves into the burning issues of skill shortages, recruitment and retention

We are living at a time when skill shortages are becoming a problem in most places in the world. It seems that every newspaper or journal has an article about recruitment, retention or skill shortages. Figures show that the issue is a major problem all over the world.

A recent report from KPMG stated that over 60 per cent of the employers in London are facing skills shortages. At the same time, according to an estimate, the average cost of filling a vacancy is £4,800.

In the US, I was given some statistics showing that 40 per cent of the workforce in US will be of retirement age by 2010 and a fifth of large US companies will loose at least 40 per cent of their top talent as executives reach retirement age.

Statistics also showed that 68 per cent of people blamed poor selection and promotions as the cause of lower productivity and 66 per cent said it resulted in lower productivity. In UK, four out of five employees surveyed said they do not feel ‘engaged’ in their work and this could equate to £46 billion in lost productivity and working days!

At two management conferences I have attended in the last quarter, the main subject to the management team has been how to deal with skill shortages, recruitment and retention.

Shifting attitudes
All this is happening against a backdrop of an emerging new generation that has a different attitude to work and career. Two trends that have come out in the last year point to the average university student having three to five careers in their working life and changing jobs every two to five years!

So what is needed is a different way of looking at the problem of retention and certainly recruitment will need to change significantly.

Is it left to the Human Resources department to deal with or, is it something that the Board is taking an active interest in? Do you have a ‘Strategy’ for recruitment? I don’t mean an approach, but a strategy as to how you plan to deal with the recruitment of people over the next three to five years. The recruitment strategy should be aligned to the business plan and come out of the business plan.

During recent years we have heard the expression, ‘recruit for attitude and train for skills’. Yet I find that most organisations do not take this approach. Worse, I find that organisations think they have to pick from the applications they receive instead of looking to find the right person.

The most progressive organisations I have come across are so clear about the attitude they need, that they are even working with recruitment agencies (and even schools) to help develop people that are ‘employable’ in the future.

So I ask you to think about the following questions:

• Do you and your organisation have a clear strategy to recruitment?

• Is recruitment seen as an investment in your business or as a necessary job that detracts from the day-to-day business?

• How are you measuring your current recruitment process?

• Do you recognise when it works well and learn from when it doesn’t?

• Are your management fully engaged in the process?

• How good is your induction process to compliment the recruitment? Is induction seen as an investment in the business or another process that needs to be completed?

• Do you rigorously monitor the person to make sure that they are having the right impact on your organisation, or do you leave it until it is too late and then you have to deal with the person through disciplinary actions.

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