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How businesses can do more to address Britain’s skilled worker shortage

Lloyds Bank’s Business In Britain survey showed a rise in business confidence, but firms also said that it is getting harder and harder for them to find the staff they need to capitalise on it.

The bank reported that while confidence was at an 18 month high, challenges in hiring were at a ten year high.

A staggering 52 per cent of respondents said they struggled to recruit skilled staff in the last six months.

It should be stated at this point that this is no cynical attempt by Lloyds to garner a bit of cheap publicity. The Business in Britain report is in its 25th year and is put together from the views of 1,500 companies, mostly small and medium sized enterprises that are (as we keep being told) the engines of growth. As such, its findings are worthy of note.

Now, regular readers won’t be surprised to see me using this as yet more evidence of just how stupid, and damaging, the current Government’s approach to immigration is.

Making EU residents feel unwelcome, and pandering to racists, will cause real, and lasting economic damage to this country. They’ve already started to vote with their feet, exacerbating the nation’s yawning skills gap.

However, at the same time, it is also fair to ask whether businesses are doing enough to mitigate the problem themselves, and whether their approach to recruitment isn’t making the difficult situation they identify worse than it otherwise might be.

After all, we were talking about the skills gap before the EU referendum and it would likely have continued to cause problems even had David Cameron’s decision to call it not resulted in an outbreak of collective insanity.

Part of the reason why it continues to be an issue is that businesses are failing to exploit the talent that is under their noses.

For example, I constantly highlight the disability employment gap within these pages. Despite the labour shortages Lloyds references, skilled disabled people can’t find jobs.

According to disability charity Scope, the difference between the rate of employment among able bodied people when compared to that of disabled people currently stands at a staggering 31.3 percentage points.

But it isn’t just disabled people. Unemployment is also markedly higher among black and minority ethnic people, about twice the rate found among white Britons in fact.

Last year, I revealed the results of a TUC study that found that the disparity in incomes between BAME workers and their white workers actually increases the more qualifications they get.

Meanwhile, we constantly see reports highlighting poor treatment of female staff, and of LGBT staff.

What all this indicates is that UK businesses are failing to tap into some substantial pools of talented and skilled workers, failing to make the best of the workers from them when that they do hire them, failing to treat them well.

Part of the problem might be being caused by recruitment agencies. Many firms use them, and they may sub consciously, or even deliberately, exclude certain candidates from shortlists to minimise what they misguidedly perceive as “risk”, all with the aim of keeping their clients happy.

 

Read More – www.independent.co.uk

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Half UK companies expect to recruit staff in 2018 amid skilled worker shortage

Half of firms expect to recruit staff next year, with smaller firms most confident, according to a new study.

A survey of almost 300 companies, employing one million workers, also found that most believed a diverse workforce was important to their future success.

The CBI said its research found that a shortage of skilled workers was the biggest worry for companies, with many worried about being able to attract overseas employees.

Half of the companies questioned said they were aiming to increase pay at least in line with inflation in the coming year, slightly fewer than this time a year ago.

Fewer than one in three said they would be able to absorb the costs of increases in the national living wage, with one in five planning to increase prices or restructure their business.

Neil Carberry, the CBI’s managing director for people policy, said: “Britain’s record on job creation is second to none, and this year’s survey shows that this is set to continue in 2018.

“But with softening economic growth matched with high employment, the survey again emphasises the vital need to make progress on the industrial strategy and secure a good Brexit deal to improve productivity, support job creation and boost pay growth.

“The survey also shows that firms are concerned about finding the right staff in the future and this is damaging the outlook for investment in the longer term.”

Tracy Evans of recruitment firm Pertemps, which helped with the survey, added: “Although there has been a lot of change in 2017, confidence is high among employers, with most expecting to expand on opportunities in the coming year.

“One of the big problems we face in recruitment at the moment is the skills gap and how to overcome it. Finding the right staff is obviously key in recruitment and we need to find a solution to this ever-growing problem.”

 

Read More – www.independent.co.uk

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Pret a Manger staff to get £1,000 bonus after takeover

All 12,000 staff employed by sandwich and coffee chain Pret A Manger will receive a £1,000 bonus once the sale of the firm is completed.

The company is to be sold by its private equity owners Bridgepoint to Luxembourg-based JAB Holdings.

The two firms did not say how much JAB was paying, although one report put the value of the deal at £1.5bn.

Pret a Manger opened its first store in London in 1986 and Bridgepoint bought the chain in 2008 for about £350m.

As well as its strong presence on the UK High Street the chain has expanded into the US, Hong Kong, China and France.

Pret operates 530 stores worldwide, generating group revenues of £879m. Its sale is expected to be completed this summer.

Pret a Manger chief executive Clive Schlee, said: “The £1,000 bonus will be paid to all employees who are on the payroll during the week the deal completes. It’s serendipity for those who have just joined.”

William Jackson, chairman of Pret and managing partner of Bridgepoint, said: “We’re proud of what we’ve achieved over the last 10 years with Pret and its management team.”

 

Read More – https://www.bbc.co.uk