You just canít find the staff these days

82% of businesses are worried about future recruitment according to the AXA Risk Monitor Report*. The survey that examines potential risks to the UK SME market also revealed that 46% of businesses consider lack of good staff as the most common reason for business failure.

69% of those surveyed say it has been harder to recruit over the last three years and they consider the main reasons for this to be:

Insufficient quality of candidates to meet requirements
General lack of skills in the market
Sector skills shortage
Unable to meet expectations on remuneration
Changes in standards of education.

Kim Clemo, Human Resources Director, AXA commented: ìMany of us happily chant the well know adage that your most valuable business assets walk in and out of your door each day. At the same time we then wring our hands in dismay that we canít get the staff, canít afford to hire the best and the people we do have donít have the skills we need. We value training but have to justify it against other capital investments that always feel more pressing.î

She continues: ìThere will be few better business investments made in the next few years to both enable a business to grow or more importantly remain competitive than training. If we canít hire the right skills, and our survey suggests we canít, then we must create them from our existing workforce. The impact is then twofold ñ you have the skills you need to succeed today and your reputation for staff investment puts you ahead in the recruitment game. A no lose situation. It neednít be expensive. Or put another way ñ not doing training could be very expensive indeed.î

According to the National Employers Skills Survey 2005 there has been a marked improvement in the number of people with skills gaps. In fact, they have virtually halved from 11% to 6% in the last two years. However, the retail and hospitality industries are still suffering as they are finding it difficult to recruit people with soft skills such as team working and customer service.

David Way, Director of Skills, Learning and Skills Council (LSC) commented: ìIt is important that businesses recognise the key contribution of skills to their success. Although we hear concerns about the quality of available skills in the workforce there is also an increasing appetite in business leaders to tackle the problem. While the public sector has its part to play and the LSC and others are investing significantly in improving the skills of both young people and adults, business must to invest in their own workforce too. Employers increasingly view training or skills development not as a nice to have but as a business necessity. To not invest will put their business at risk. There is a wealth of resources available to business today to help them cost effectively train their workforce. For example, go to www.traintogain.gov.uk where you can find out about a new service from the LSC that will help businesses analyse and obtain the training they need to succeed. If you take the proactive step you will not only improve the capabilities of your staff, their morale and loyalty you will most importantly secure your business for the future and out perform your competition.î

The AXA report did highlight the fact that 89 % of businesses think that training and mentoring is important. However the LSC data shows that whilst 65% of employers undertake some form of training for their staff only 45% have a dedicated training plan and only 33% have a training budget.

LSC and AXA have teamed up to provide some top tips for SMEs on cost effective training solutions.

Use local support organisations. Work closely with your local TUC Learning Services and local Learning and Skills Council to take full advantage of all support offered by these organisations in training and development.

Lead the way. Develop a consortium of representatives from local employers, training bodies, colleges and industry associations in your local area to coordinate local recruitment and training.

In - house trainers. Consider using successful employees as trainers to the next generation by giving them coaching to be effective trainers and presenters or do an NVQ in training.

Partner with local schools. Work with local secondary schools and colleges to develop courses and work experience to support growth of local basic skills.
Go back to basics. Offer a range of learning methods as some staff lack the confidence to fully participate in workforce development through lack of numeracy and literacy skills.

Think long term. Develop a long term strategy to train your staff and communicate this to them. This will encourage a feeling of job ownership and of being valued employees. Go to www.traintogain.gov.uk to get free impartial advice on your training needs.

Develop clear training programmes. Put visible bespoke development and training progression routes in place for your employees. This will enable each team member to see a defined route for their development within the company.
Meet regularly. Conduct regular appraisals with staff to ensure that their development needs (as well as yours) are being met and progressed.

Use your own premises. Consider on-site assessment and training. This will mean that people are more comfortable in demonstrating their skills and are assessed in their natural environment.

Dedicate specific training days. If possible, set aside a set number of days per member of staff for training over the next year.

*About the AXA Risk Monitor

The AXA Risk Monitor is a survey of 400 decision makers within UK SMEs (with between 5 and 250 employees) spanning industries including financial services, retail and manufacturing. The research was conducted by Vanson Bourne and took place in October 2005.