Have you ever wondered if your business could sustain itself without the right people? Considered outsourcing personnel to close the skills gaps within your company? Have your employees experienced a drop in morale due to gaps in your workforce? Skills shortages can have a major and wide-ranging influence on people and organisations. When you have a discrepancy between the skills present in the workforce and the skills needed for the job, then skills gaps arise. The consequences of this soon become apparent. It can impair an individual’s ability to advance in their job and result in lower productivity and competitiveness. Additionally, organisations may have trouble finding and keeping top employees, which could result in missed business opportunities and workload increase for existing employees. We’ve listed below the most common impacts businesses experience with skills gap. #1 – Slow business growth Not having the right people or talent in place could slow the growth of your business, or see you struggle to deliver your service or product to the expected standards. Which, in turn, impacts your revenue and expectations when it comes to your business ambition. This can create doubt within your workforce in the future of the company, leading to drop in motivation or need for a change in career. #2 – Struggling to meet delivery expectations Maintaining your business’ services when there’s a skill gap can be a slippery slope to failure. Staff turnover or difficulties to keep up with the demand can also be factors in a skills shortage. Technology, demand, and processes evolve all the time, and it can be challenging to keep your staff up to date or evolve their positions to meet new demands. #3 – Difficulty in competing If your business is in a competitive industry, you’ll find that skill shortage can put you in a difficult position against your competitors. While some companies can invest in internal training or in the right talents, this may not be true for all businesses. #4 – Depending too much on outsourcing Outsourcing came be a great solution for your business, but if your operations depend heavily on this, it can lead to an unnecessary stress on both your team and your clients. There are cases where some businesses are nervous taking on new contracts or feel in a vulnerable position because they can’t rely on outsourcing or feel limited with costs and availability. #5 – Workload and stress increase within the workplace When your resources are limited within your business, you may find yourself giving your existing employees more work. In turn, this can increase stress within the workplace with the potential to impact staff morale and increase dissatisfaction. #6 – Can’t attract or retain the right talent Sometimes, skills gap can have a very different impact where the company doubts its capabilities of attracting the right talent. For example, if skilled people decline a company’s offer, that company may begin to question its offering, entering a vicious circle of low staff moral and slow business growth. How your business can overcome these impacts There are various ways in which you can lift your business’ skills and staff morale whilst retaining the right talent. You can read our article here to find out more about what you can action near you. Or participate in LSIP to make a difference to the future of local skills for Norfolk & Suffolk. Learn more about Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) here.
