Threefold increase in competition for skills

Jo Faragher

The war for talent is heating up, with a threefold increase in competition for well-qualified candidates. This is the conclusion of the annual Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in conjunction with recruitment firm Hays. 

Launched yesterday at the CIPD’s annual recruitment conference, the report found that the proportion of employers reporting an increase in competition for skilled staff up from 20% in 2009, to 62% this year. Six in ten organisations experienced difficulty in filling vacancies in the last year, with managerial and professional vacancies the hardest ones to fill (reported by 52% of employers).

Technical specialists are also proving hard to source, with almost half (46%) of organisations struggling to find suitably qualified candidates – in particular in the manufacturing and production sector, where this affected 57% of companies.

Labour turnover has declined steadily since the start of the financial crisis in 2008, researchers revealed.  

Ksenia Zheltoukhova, research associate at the CIPD, said: “Although our Labour Market Outlook survey found that the low-skilled jobs market is a battle ground for job seekers, with more than 40 applicants per vacancy, our annual resourcing survey shows that employers still struggle to find talent that is well qualified.

Low rates of labour turnover suggest that some workers at the top end of the labour market are staying put in their jobs in these economically uncertain times, meaning employers have to work harder than ever to find the right talent to fill vacancies. 

Zheltoukhova urged employers to “think creatively about attraction and recruitment strategies” and widen their pools of talent, as well as consider developing skills internally.

Barney Ely, director at Hays Human Resources, added: “We are starting to see confidence slowly returning to the jobs market with interesting and challenging opportunities available for those highly skilled professionals who are looking to make their next move. However, these workers are still being cautious when considering a new role so employers are facing a competitive market when trying to attract people to fill skills gaps.”

“They should step up to this challenge by retaining and training their existing workforce with career development and progression initiatives, and by looking at broader talent pools to ensure they have the skill set to drive business growth.”   

Corporate websites and recruitment agencies are considered to be the most effective techniques to attract new talent, the survey found, and there has also been a marked increase in the use of social media, in particular LinkedIn.