Skills, skills, skills. How your workforce can help your business emerge from the recession
SURVIVING the recession has been a big challenge for UK businesses. Emerging from it is set to be even harder. Strained budgets coupled with limited resource have made it difficult for businesses to cope with growth and new business, whilst the instability of the economy has prevented businesses from taking on extra staff through fear of a sudden dip in the market.
And yet, in the midst of it all, some unexpected opportunities have arisen. Slow growth has made it possible for businesses to invest more time and energy into worker training and development, which in turn, has increased opportunities for businesses to emerge from the downturn successfully. Boosting businesses' productivity and helping organisations stay ahead of change, a strong, skilled workforce can also improve employee-satisfaction and overall business efficiency. At a national level, a proficient, skilled set of Britons can both boost the economy and ensure the UK has competitive advantage over other countries and global markets. Currently, statistics show that output per hour for workers in the UK is 25% lower than the US and Germany and 30% lower than France.
Whilst the Government has made a good start on improving the skills set of this country, identifying the importance of skills in bringing us out of recession, according to the CIPD there are certain areas which the UK Government needs to invest in. Indeed, there are certain areas that individual businesses can look at if they want to increase overall business efficiency and productivity in the run up to an upturn, including management skills, business skills and industry-specific skills.
Management and leadership skills
According to the Government's 2006 'Leitch Review' on the current and future skills needs of the UK, there are approximately 4.3m managers in the UK, a whole 40% of which have a qualification at or below GCSE standard. Meanwhile, almost half of employees in an employee well-being survey believed that their manager was not effectively dealing with motivation, feedback and performance management. The CIPD, who believe more Government investment is needed in this area, highlight how less than 3% of the Government's Train to Gain funding has been allocated to management and leadership courses.
Management and leadership skills are important at the best of times, but in a recession, it is ever-more crucial that existing employees feel valued, motivated and led if businesses are to maintain strong performance levels and increase productivity as the market picks up. It is therefore important that managers are equipped to oversee this. Talent management specifically, is necessary when it comes to recruiting, developing and retaining talented and skilled individuals. Managers first need to recognise what skills are important for the job in order to recruit the most appropriate person. They then need to ensure that the employee is given opportunities to put their skills to best use, allowing individuals to 'learn as they work', whilst simultaneously providing formal inductions, ongoing, supported training, and other adequate 'learning interventions'. To retain skilled staff, managers also need to take a professional approach to giving feedback, motivating their employees and dealing with workplace grievances professionally.
As a business, there are plenty of things you can do to ensure that your managers are up to scratch and that they in turn, get the best out of the people they manage. Taking the same approach to your managers that you would expect your managers to take to their teams is the first step. Second, you can provide access to and allow time-off for, management and leadership training courses. Thirdly, you can help managers improve their basic skills, otherwise known as their functional literacy, numeracy and ICT skills at GCSE standard, and their intermediate skills, otherwise known as technical and craft skills, advanced apprenticeship or intermediate professional skills. Unlike the Government strategy of relying on apprenticeship schemes, this flexible approach to a broader skills agenda has been welcomed by HR professionals.
Business, communication and customer service skills
According to a 2009 Learning and Development Survey of business leaders by CIPD, 43% of respondents said they were concerned at a lack of customer service skills. Meanwhile, 61% of respondents reported feeling that new employees from school, college or University lacked business acumen and strong commercial awareness, and another 60% believed these kinds of workers were deficient in communication skills.
The problem with the findings, aside from the obvious implications of approximately half of school and University leavers possessing little of the most basic and necessary skills in business, is that the Government's focus, at least up until now, has been on increasing academic qualifications and access to apprenticeships. A wider skills agenda, as well as one which can adapt to the changing needs of British citizens and British businesses is therefore more important than ever.
The good news is that UK businesses are in a great position to start the ball rolling. Increasing access to courses in these skills is one option, but a simpler and more effective approach may well be to conduct in-house training in these areas and seek to begin a dialogue between managers and staff by gaining employee feedback. Reviewing individual training needs is essential, as not every employee will have the same requirements. Some employees may even have concerns which are acting as barriers to their capacity, once again, intensifying the need for strong management. One-on-one assessments are an effective way to ensure all bases are covered here.
Industry-specific skills and skills for the future
From construction and care, to education and finance, a cross-sector shortage of industry-specific skills has continued to effect UK businesses, despite unemployment reaching three million last Summer. According to news reports last year, Hays had a total of 350 vacancies for qualified social workers, especially those dealing with families, whilst a short supply of doctors and nurses meant an increasing number of private and public sector care providers relied more and more on agency staff. Redundancies in the construction sector meanwhile left firms bereft of skilled tradesmen, and in forcing workers to retrain in other sectors created very real concerns for the future of the construction industry.
Recognising the problem, the Government has set about increasing apprenticeships in these areas and encouraging more young people into 'problem industries' specifically. Unfortunately, their attempts to regulate employment have contradicted some of these efforts, particularly in care where all those working with children and vulnerable adults on a regular basis have been compelled to register with the Independent Safeguarding Authority at a charge of £64 per person. This move was seen by some as discouraging potential applicants at a time when an ageing population is one of the UK's biggest challenges and concerns.
Thus, at this stage, it is important that businesses encourage new workers themselves. The most effective way to do this is to offer flexible working hours, the right pay for the job and perhaps some added benefits such as pension schemes and health insurance. Additionally, by motivating and developing your existing workers, you can also encourage new staff through word of mouth. According to some of our clients in these sectors, the best way to do this is to equip each individual worker with the specific skills they need to do their job, (which in this case may involve sending them to night-school or giving them on the job training in their specific field/line of work), making staff feel valued and ensuring they feel a sense of achievement in the job they do.
Timeline of Government approach to skills
2003 Emergence of a skills strategy with 21st Century Skills report.
Released aiming to ensure employers have the right skills to support the success of their businesses, and individuals have the skills they need to be both employable and personally fulfilled.
2005 Government releases Skills: Getting on in business, getting on at work to encourage skills to allow businesses to become more productive and profitable, and to help individuals achieve their personal ambitions
April 2006 Launch of Train to Gain. Train to Gain looks at new routes to business success. The Government saw meeting the demands of employers in all sectors to improve the skills of their employees as a route to improving their business performance.
December 2006 Leitch Review released, talking about the current and future skills needs in the UK. Suggested that the UK skills base remains weak by international standards, holding back productivity, growth and social justice. Recommended that:
2009 'Building Britain's Future' campaign kicks off. Building Britain's Future (BBF) is the Government's plan to work with the British people to shape our economic recovery and together build a stronger, fairer and more prosperous country.
April 2009 New Industry, New Jobs report Government placed themselves at the heart of the skills policy with a view to playing a greater role in fostering new industries. Emphasize the need for the skills system to meet tomorrow's and today's needs.
July 2009 Backing Young Britain campaign, uniting business and government, began in order to create thousands of opportunities for young people. £40 million was set aside to fund over 20,000 additional internships so that graduates and non-graduates can get higher quality work experience, as well as a new mentoring network to help young people find their feet in a tough jobs market.
September 2009 Jobs of the future Government continued to look at skills needed in specific industries, such as advanced manufacturing, life sciences, creative industries, low carbon, care, retail, business/professional services.
November 2009 Skills for Growth: The national skills strategy report. Focused on need for skills development to bring us out of recession, the need for training and apprenticeships to create a modern class of technicians, the need to respond to business requirements and specific sectors, e.g. construction, and the need for investment in skills to increase workforce productivity.
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