Recruitment is a concern for 82 per cent of businesses, according to the AXA Risk Monitor Report released this week.
The survey examines potential risks to the UK small and medium enterprise market.
A total of 69 per cent of those surveyed say it has been harder to recruit over the last three years as a result of general lack of skills in the market, the insufficient quality of the candidates and sector skills shortages. The companies also say that they are unable to meet expectations on renumeration.
Forty-six per cent of businesses consider lack of staff as the most common reason for the business failure.
Kim Clemo, human resources director at AXA, said: “Many of us happily chant the well-known 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 can’t get the staff, can’t afford to hire the best and the people we do have don’t have the skills we need.
“There will be few better business investments made in the next few years to both enable business to grow or more importantly remain competitive, than training. If w can’t hire the right skills, and our survey suggests we can’t, then we must create them from our existing workforce. The impact is the two-fold - 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.”
There has been a marked improvement in the number of people with skills gaps, according to the National Employers Skills Survey 2005. They have virtually halved from 11 per cent to 6 per cent in the last two years.
But the retail and hospitality industries are still suffering as they are finding it difficult to recruit people with soft skills such as tem working and customer service.
David Way, director of skills at the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), said: “It 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 workplace, there is also an increasing appetite in business leaders to tackle the problem.
“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 businesses today to help them find cost effectively train their workforce.”
Information about a new service from LSC that will help businesses analyse and obtain the training they that need can be found at www.traintogain.gov.uk.
The AXA report highlights that 89 per cent of businesses think that training and mentoring is important.
But LSC data shows that while 65 per cent of employers undertake some form of training for their staff, only 45 per cent have a dedicated training plan and only 33 per cent have a training budget.
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