Roles are becoming increasingly niche and organisations are becoming more rigid about the people they wish to recruit.

Recruiting in the real world - why employers need to compromise

Despite continued high unemployment, three-quarters of UK organisations with vacancies report difficulties in attracting professionals with the right skills and experience, according to the 2011 CIPD Resourcing and Talent Planning survey, produced in partnership with Hays. Why is this? Are organisations getting it wrong or is there genuinely a lack of skills?

With the immigration cap in place, UK businesses are being forced to try to recruit home grown professionals or those with the same skills from neighbouring European countries. This creates challenges and our research finds many employers feel that the competition for talent has intensified as the pool of available talent to hire has fallen sharply. This coupled with the fact that most organisations have had to reduce their resourcing budgets makes it much harder to attract professionals with the right skills.

We are also finding job roles are becoming increasingly niche and have observed an increasing tendency for organisations, regardless of size or sector, to become more rigid with regards to the people they wish to recruit. Employers are less likely to compromise than they have been in the past and will delay recruitment until they find someone with exactly the right skills, qualifications and experience. Whilst it’s natural to want the best this creates difficulties because it is very rare to find top talent actively looking for jobs and in reality a lot of professionals are just staying put.

In order to reach these individuals successfully organisations need to take a much more streamlined approach. Hays is forming much closer relationships with employers and in doing so we are not only able to help organisations achieve more efficient recruitment spend, but we also gain a more comprehensive understanding of and the wider business challenges that might impact on recruitment. Take education as an example, where there is a real shortage of leaders and teachers within special educational needs (SEN) schools. We are work very closely with some of these schools to engage with universities/teacher training colleges to ensure teachers are aware of opportunities in SEN and the skills required.

Clearly there is a real need for organisations to understand the current skills held in the business and future capabilities that will be needed better. This is a critical first step to identifying what skills are needed. Recruitment efforts should not simply focus on filling one role, they are part of a much wider goal, which is to develop creative resourcing strategies, to ensure organisations have access to skilled professionals now and in the future.

As part of their strategy we are seeing some employers actively engaging with various Government policies aimed at supporting jobseekers to help close skills gaps, such as increasing the use of apprentices, sponsored university places or interns. These schemes are becoming more important as young people continue to get pushed out of the jobs market. However, there is more that needs to be done to prepare young people for the world of work. Communicating the skills needed both now and in the future will help young people, workers and jobseekers orientate their development to meet demand.

The increasingly global flow of skills means it is even more important that HR and recruitment professionals actively manage, model and plan for the pressure points they are likely to face now and in the future. Organisations are going to have to invest in their brand and work harder to position themselves as an ‘employer of choice’, focusing on providing an attractive place to work, in order to attract top talent. 
 
Julie Waddicor, Managing Director, Hays Human Resources 
 

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