A regular and exclusive series addressing some of the major challenges facing SMEs today. Icehouse Insights also highlights some of the possible solutions you can weave into your business to solve common issues.
Is your business suffering from a skills shortage? What can you do to solve it?
One year ago The Icehouse launched the first edition of Icehouse Insights; focusing on skills shortages.
Much has changed in the past 12 months and this update attempts to provide an insight to existing challenges and alert readers to new trends for 2022.
New Zealand's employment landscape became incredibly uneven in early 2020 as organisations across all sectors adjusted to new ways of doing business amid the shifting sands of rapid economic upturn and downturn. Covid-19 also brought about a renewed focus on recruitment, as some sectors experienced great upheavals in the job market while others remained unchallenged.
The current debate still focuses on finding, retaining, and nurturing talent but there are new hurdles to overcome, such as The Great Resignation, which 12 months ago wasn’t a part of the conversation.
WHAT IS A SKILLS SHORTAGE?
A skills shortage in terms of meeting the needs of a nation's long and shortterm and regional skills gap occurs when there are not enough people available with the skills needed to do the jobs which need to be done. At The Icehouse, we believe that a skills shortage in terms of meeting the needs of New Zealand's SMEs occurs when there are not enough people available with the 'right' skills needed to do the jobs which need to be done.
Is there a skills shortage in New Zealand?
Long turnaround times and low response rates for job vacancies for many of our alumni are pressing issues – to the point where many have simply pulled adverts because the people coming through the doors don’t have the necessary qualifications or experience to take on the role adequately.
Each month The Icehouse publishes a poll/questionnaire on its website. For this edition of Icehouse Insights, the question was: 'Have you found it difficult to fill vacancies in your business in the past six months?' 60% of respondents said 'yes' - to varying degrees, with a huge 20% postponing their recruitment process for the foreseeable future. Check out the results on the next page...
Download the full publication here
