A new report published by leading East Anglian recruitment agency Cooper Lomaz has found that the skills shortage in the region has worsened in the last 12 months, with companies struggling to hire sufficient highly skilled workers.
The Salary Survey and Recruitment Trends 2018 reveals that business growth is being hindered by a lack of skilled staff. The survey, which questioned 2,740 employees, found that 4 in 10 (41%) felt that their teams were understaffed, an increase of 8% from 2017.
With the UK economy expected to grow by as much as 2.2% in 2018 and unemployment at its lowest level (4.3%) for over 40 years, the demand for highly skilled candidates is higher than ever to support this growth.
This is the 10th year this report has been published and, whilst uncertainty has reigned across much of the UK due to the fast-changing political and economic landscapes, it found that the job market in East Anglia remains strong, with half of businesses expecting to grow in 2018.
With increased numbers of companies looking to grow, and fewer employees saying they will change jobs in the next 12 months (down a huge 15% from last year), employers are going to have to do much more to attract and retain the best talent.
The skills shortage is forcing employers to not only pay even more for the best talent, it’s making them look at their entire non-financial offering and hiring process, to ensure they can retain and attract the very best people.
Simon Brown, Managing Director of Cooper Lomaz, said: “Looking at this year’s report, it’s interesting to see salaries rising for most employees last year and the majority expecting a further rise this year. This trend certainly bucks some of the national statistics we see from across the UK about wages being flat.
“Our report also revealed that employees no longer class salary as their primary determinant when evaluating job satisfaction. Instead, competence of their manager, personal recognition of achievements and an interesting and varied role all rank as important, if not more important, than salary.”
The report highlighted that there is a growing trend for flexible working, whether this is in relation to employees’ work/life balance or having the ability to work remotely. This will continue through 2018 as employees see flexibility as a staple of the workplace, and as businesses improve their infrastructure to support this.