No end in sight to employersí resourcing problems

Employersí hopes of a reduction in skills shortages and their recruitment problems in 2003 appear to have been dashed; recruitment and retention remain major challenges for UK employers, according to research published today by IRS Employment Review.

Two thirds of employers have encountered problems in filling vacancies in the 2002-3 period and almost half had to deal with difficulties in retaining staff in 2002. These problems are found across the UKís industrial sectors - public, private and manufacturing. (See notes to editors for full breakdown of figures.)

With skills shortages and uncomfortably high levels of resignations still prevalent, UK employers will need to be increasingly creative to combat these difficulties to retain valuable staff.

The results are released in the new issue (775) of IRS Employment Review (www.irsemploymentreview.com), published by LexisNexis IRS. The findings are based on responses from 432 HR managers surveyed earlier this year (see notes to editors).

Other findings include:

Employers in the public sector have experienced the greatest blow to their confidence. Instead of one in four (23.1%) confidently expecting that their recruitment problems would ease; now just 7% do so. The proportion anticipating no end to their difficulties has almost doubled.

More than 8 in 10 organisations with retention problems have been searching for ways in controlling it - across the board. However, affected employers tend to limit their attempts to manage these problems to just two or three of the wide range of possible measures to rectify their situation.

IRS Employment Review managing editor, Mark Crail said:

ìA year ago, recruiters were fairly confident that skills shortages and other recruitment problems would improve. The figures make uncomfortable reading for the UKís employers; unless HR managers are able to find new ways of finding and keeping good staff, many could be facing a recruitment crisis. Ironically, measures such as re-advertising, hiring headhunters and offering greater salaries are currently the most popular choices but they are also among the most expensive options that employers could choose. While many employers feel they may have to spend the next year treading water, we could see innovative methods being adopted as organisations struggle to find and hang onto their most valuable asset - their staff.î

The full survey is published in the current edition (775) of IRS Employment Review or can be found on its website