ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO BRIDGE THE SKILLS GAPS IN YOUR BUSINESS

The key part of that phrase lies in ‘new’. Whilst we may try to live life as it previously was, we can’t fool ourselves into believing that Covid has not had a lasting effect on various aspects of day-to-day life. Within the working world, we have seen profound changes to what was once normal. Remote and hybrid working, Teams meetings replacing the boardroom and online onboarding all now form part of what we consider the new working environment.

Throughout the pandemic we saw a great amount of employment uncertainty and financial instability, with employment levels falling to 32.11 million in November 2020-January 2021, compared to 33.01 million in January-March 2020, at the start of the pandemic. Many chose to move from the unpredictable private sector into the public sector, seeking greater stability and creating gaps within the employment market which were difficult to fill. Between March 2020 and December 2021, employment in the private sector fell by 2.1%, whilst increasing in the public sector by 4.7%, reversing the trend seen before the pandemic in which the number of workers employed by the private sector had risen steadily since 2010.

Following the lifting of restrictions, the bounce back of the private sector and the consequent wave of workers moving back into private work, we have seen an enormous increase in the demand for talent both nation and sector wide. Vacancies reached a record high of 1.32 million in December 2021-February 2022, with skills shortages in abundance across all business areas, and the subsequent need for workers only acting to push up candidate expectations and salaries.
 

All of this has led to it now being harder than ever for organisations to source the right workers, best suited to their business and with the right skill sets, without creating large amounts of internal administration and processing work. This is especially the case in the technology sector. In a recent survey, 66% of digital leaders in Britain said that the lack of talent is responsible for slower digital transformation in their organisation. Moreover, two-thirds (36%) of technology hiring managers believe that the recruitment process takes too long, with more than a quarter (27%) facing competition over candidates who receive multiple job offers. So why are some organisations continuing to use old and outdated methods of talent acquisition within our new normal, when innovative and fresh alternatives exist?

Whilst some organisations might see employing contractors as an alternative to this issue, Capita’s Employed Resource service offers all of the perks of traditional contractors, at the same time as offering greater and faster solutions to both short-term and long-term skills gap issues. Our services help organisations fill the skills gap within their teams by deploying our pre-vetted resources, who remain permanently employed by Capita and work as contingent workers on a cost-effective and agile commercial model. Moreover, our service mitigates risk and all IR35 legislation for our clients. We provide the opportunity for clients to hire these contingent workers permanently following the completion of their assignment. This means that our clients can retain these highly skilled employees rather than seeking their own new hires, reducing internal talent acquisition workloads significantly. This resource can then be scaled up or down, dependent on our client’s needs.

Our vetted resources come from a larger talent pool than traditional contractors, as they are keen to seek permanent employment following their placement, therefore allowing us to supply clients with highly skilled, diverse, cost-effective, and agile resources. Not only this, but our service can help clients with workforce planning, allowing them to better understand their skills gaps and demand pipeline. This aids us to build a bespoke talent pool of resources to deploy quickly and cost-effectively. This collaborative approach enables our clients to access resources sooner, in a proactive rather than reactive manner.

Our Employed Resource service can also be matched with our Novus Future Talent programme, alongside any of our other Modular People Solutions offerings. These solutions can help your organisation supply resources for all skills levels within your business, from graduate-level employment through Novus to more greatly skilled roles with Employed Resource. Providing a more cost-effective alternative to traditional contractors, that also helps build your business’ future workforce.

To learn more about how Employed Resource can help your organisation grow and build a future-ready workforce in a cost-effective and agile way, click here.