December 2012
Featured in this insight: Business & enterprise
Survey finds UK business recruitment strategies suffering strain: A survey by YouGov has questioned 401 senior managers in large businesses to assess the current skills gap in the UK economy.
Job prospects are looking positive for the 2013, since nearly two-thirds of the decision makers surveyed intend to invest in skills development.
Nevertheless, while 86% of senior executives said that access to appropriately skilled workers is essential for economic recovery in the UK, more than half say it is difficult to recruit candidates with suitable skills and nearly a third claim that retention of high performers is a problem.
The market research discovered that recruitment is posing a challenge at all levels – over half of the respondents (58%) indicated that hiring entry level workers with appropriate skills is a challenge, while 61% said the same about middle management and 59% about senior executives.
These difficulties are compounded by the fact that the majority of surveyants were focused on short-term needs when seeking new talent – as many as four out of five (80%) say they consider immediate needs when recruiting new staff, compared to only 47% who think about employee investment over the next five years when it comes to recruitment and training.
Staff retention is further creating difficulties for senior managers – 35% of the executives surveyed indicate retaining high performers and key talent is currently a problem, while 35% also expect it to be a problem in the next two years.
View more of our sector specific insights: Business & enterprise
