A universal, global skills shortage has hit a 16-year high, and Skills Consulting Group is on a mission to help solve it.
On the 26th of October 2022, business leaders came together for the Global Apprenticeship Network (GAN) breakfast briefing hosted by Skills Consulting Group (SCG). The topic centred on the newest post-pandemic challenge for a global industry – the talent gap.
According to the UK publication Enterprise Times, more than half of businesses across Europe are experiencing post-pandemic skills shortages that pose a potential threat to growth. It isn’t just Europe suffering this skills gap either. Industries across North America, Asia, and Australia are also reporting a similar phenomenon. The Manpower group has said 78% of employers are having difficulty filling jobs due to a lack of skilled talent, and New Zealand is not immune.
Brain drain, amplified
Brad Olsen, principal economist for Infometrics, launched the briefing by making clear the weight of the challenge. New Zealand is suffering from the effects of the long-documented brain-drain, without the boost in migration that usually soothes the sting.
The right sort of skills
Recent research commissioned by Skills Consulting Group and undertaken by The Research Agency (TRA), clearly shows that the more supportive a company is of learning and development, the more satisfied and motivated an employee is, and also more likely to stay. In fact, 91% of those surveyed who said they were satisfied at work also said their employer significantly invested in training and development. Of those, 83% said they were likely to stay with their employer. This is the gift that comes from people feeling valued.
While there is a clear correlation between investing in learning and development and increasing productivity and staff retention, the type of L&D employees want is shifting.
TRA’s research showed that while 47% of workers wanted problem-solving training, only 19% of employers offered it; and while 42% wanted training around critical thinking, only 14% of employers offered it. In fact, the gap between what is desired, and what is offered, is large.
Understanding the future
Anne Fulton, Founder and CEO of Fuel 50, says their own research backs this up. In addition, a lot of employees also know the world is changing and they want to be ready for it, but they don’t know what that means.
The TRA research also highlighted the gap between people knowing change is happening, but not knowing how that would impact them. For example, 56% of people know climate change will impact the workplace and 48% believe it will impact their jobs – but they’re not sure how to future-proof for it. Part of an organisations role is to support their people to know which areas they need to reskill into, not just as an individual, but in the context of the changing economic climate.
The message is clear. Invest in your people, and invest in the human skills that will equip them for the future to keep your business and NZ Inc. as a whole running at its optimum.
