Is the Perceived Talent Shortage Doom and Gloom?

Posted by Niche Recruitment
5th December 2017

The Perceived Talent Shortage

There have been several recent industry reports and commentary around talent shortages and the need to find skilled candidates for jobs. This post highlights some of these reports and how we at Niche Recruitment are working to help identify talent by understanding an individual’s Emotional Intelligence.

The latest Recruitment & Employment Confederation report on jobs (Nov 2017) highlights

“Availability of candidates continues to decline sharply… October data pointed to a further marked decline in the availability of temporary and permanent workers across the UK, with the latter noting the steeper rate of reduction.”

“Employers who are already struggling to fill roles will be concerned to see that the number of people out of work has fallen yet again, reducing the talent pool even further. We have heard again and again from recruiters that they don’t have enough candidates to cope with the increasing number of vacancies.

“The number of people in employment is falling for the first time in two years. EU nationals are returning home and less are arriving as they feel increasingly unwelcome here. We cannot afford to lose their skills and their contribution to the UK labour market. The government needs to make this country attractive to EU workers by ensuring their right to work here.”

Brexit

With Brexit on the horizon, we are no clearer on future trade deals and the status and rights of EU and UK citizens and the consequence of all of this has on future talent and being able to attract highly skilled candidates from the EU. We do know that Net Migration is estimated to have fallen by a third to 230,000 (Office for National Statistics / BBC Nov 2017).

One Such sector facing skills shortages is Digital and this is the feeling coming out of this industry sector…

“As one of the fastest-growing parts of the economy, the UK’s digital sectors account for 16% of GVA, 24% of total UK exports, and three million jobs. Of those three million, 18 per cent are foreign-born and one third are from the European Union(EU).

The UK tech sector faces a ‘triple hit’ on its ability to recruit and retain talent: the UK’s domestic digital skills pipeline still struggles to meet the growing demand, there is significant uncertainty on access to EU talent, and new restrictions to hiring non-EEA workers will further hinder the industry from April 2017.” Techuk.org

Assessing Emotional Intelligence

We are looking at creative ways to find the right candidates. Niche Recruitment have partnered with JCA Global to clients the opportunity to utilise Emotional Intelligence Profiling into your recruitment and selection decision making. The messages coming out in the marketplace are focused on ‘Skills Shortages’. What if we put less emphasis on Skills and more emphasis on Attitude?

Emotional Intelligence profiling looks below the surface to identify an individual’s Behaviour – what they say and do, their Feelings – how they think and feel and their Attitude – their underlying patterns and beliefs. The questionnaire we use (that takes 15 minutes to complete) measures how an individual is personally and impersonally effective.

If you are interested in finding out more then please get in contact at nick@niche-rec.co.uk.

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