There’s no two ways about it: you’re facing a staffing crisis. Businesses across different sectors all complain of similar staffing issues, which usually lead to significant financial problems. It’s not just a case of struggling to find employees to fill certain roles – the staffing crisis runs a lot deeper than that, and here are some of the biggest challenges a modern business is likely to face at the moment.
Poor Employee Retention
It used to be common for an employee to work for a company and stay with them for multiple years or decades. People love job security, so this was many individuals’ approach to working life. That no longer seems to be the case. Some experts point to the pandemic as the catalyst for this, with multiple years of lockdowns and lay-offs changing the way employees approach their working life. There was a clear shift towards achieving a better work-life balance and pursuing careers that make you feel happy.
As it happens, research shows that 51% of all employees are either actively looking for a new job or watching for new opportunities. To give you context behind that figure, it was as low as 42% in 2018.
Workers are looking to move on and leave their jobs more than ever in the hunt for something meaningful and gratifying. As a consequence, employers need to shift their focus to employee satisfaction and retention. With so many people eager to switch jobs if something better comes along, you need to showcase that your business is the place to be.
A Lack Of Talent In Skilled Roles
Many business owners point to the lack of talent in certain skilled roles as the main staffing issue today. On average, 71% of employers say they are struggling to find the skilled talent they need to fit roles within their organization. It’s a real problem – and it affects these industries the most:
- Manufacturing
- IT
- Professional, Scientific & Tech Services
- Trade & Logistics
- Finance & Insurance
- Construction & Real Estate
Are people not obtaining the right educational qualifications to fulfill roles in these sectors, or is there something else at play? Some argue that the education is there, but it’s the lack of pathways that makes it harder for talented individuals to find the right jobs. There is definitely enough talent out there to help businesses hire whom they need to hire – it’s a case of learning how to find it. The rise of staffing agencies presents a top solution; partner with an agency that can source the right talent for your business, and you’ll fill the empty roles with ease. It’s all about optimizing the hiring process – speaking of which, that touches upon another of the biggest staffing challenges for modern businesses.
Slow & Expensive Hiring Processes
Part of the reason for talent shortages across some businesses is that the hiring process lets them down. You may identify excellent candidates, and yet they slip through your fingers and join rival companies. Why? Because you’re using an inefficient hiring process that gives them an opportunity to be poached.
Your recruitment drive needs to:
- Promote your roles effectively
- Align with the candidate’s expectations
- Be fast
You can’t post jobs and then spend six months going through the recruitment process – any willing candidates will have moved on and found new jobs by then. Once more, working with staffing agencies helps in this capacity, as they can handle most of your recruitment. Let someone else deal with sourcing and interviewing candidates so you’re left with a simple decision at the end – and it all happens within weeks instead of months.
Shorter hiring processes cost less money and lead to fewer delays in your business, which eliminates one of the major staffing issues facing your company today.
Massive Skills Gaps
The world is currently undergoing one of the biggest tech revolutions of recent times. Artificial intelligence means that companies are looking to introduce new software programs and tools for employees to use every day. It transforms the daily workflow – but this leads to staffing problems by creating what’s known as a skills gap.
Forecasts suggest that over 25% of all jobs will change due to emerging technologies. It’s a transformation that’s not been seen since the early 2000s, when computers and the internet really came into their own. The problem with this new tech is that you’ve got loads of employees who fulfill their roles really well, but now they have to retrain and develop the necessary skills to use this new technology.
It can be too much for some, which leads to employees either leaving their jobs or taking too long to become acquainted with the new tech. You need to find a way to bridge this skills gap and ensure that your employees can still do their jobs without it costing too much in the short-term.
The Aging Workforce
Businesses go through cycles where the age of their workforces slowly increases. You once had a youthful team, but fast forward a few decades and now over half of your employees are in their fifties or nearing retirement. This is particularly present in the more “traditional” businesses – and especially when looking at employees in senior roles.
This is known as the aging workforce, and it represents a problem for companies. You have older generations who’ve worked for you for years, but now you face the reality of trying to replace them. Not only does this mean you often deal with senior figures retiring, but it also means you lose all their years of experience.
Many businesses struggle with this, but there is a solution: train their replacements for years. Make sure you account for an aging workforce and bring in new talent with senior roles in mind. If someone works under a senior figure and learns from them for years, then they’re perfectly ready to take over without it being a big deal.
A lot of these staffing challenges have been present for years, but a few are fairly new phenomena that have only started affecting businesses recently. Not being able to deal with staffing issues will cost a company time and money, so it’s important to be aware of what may block the path so you can handle it with no problems.
