Following today’s publication of ‘The Growth Factory’, a report exploring ways to rebalance the economy and backed by some high profile MPs, Anna Marie Detert, director in KPMG’s People and Change advisory team, comments:
“With the economy shrinking more than was first thought in the first quarter of the year, it is clear that the economic challenges we face demand a fresh look at how employers build the skills needed to drive up performance, productivity and profitability.
“Too often employers have bemoaned the paucity of skills coming through their doors as graduates enter the workplace, but the time has passed for complaining. Growth is dependent on employers having skills at their disposal for the jobs being done today and those being planned for tomorrow. That is why organisations should be looking at the opportunities to partner with business schools – both in the UK and abroad. It isn’t about bringing in international talent at the expense of domestic skills, but about widening the talent pool so that companies, and the staff they recruit, can benefit from a wider knowledge base.
”Part of the answer lies in creating more flexible visa arrangements so that organisations can parachute talent in for a defined period of time , in the same way that many organisations already adopt a ‘project approach’ to solving problems. Our experience is that companies are often interested in hiring talent, either in interim or full time roles, but the lengthy and costly visa approval processes often prevent them from bringing in new skills and transferring these to UK staff.
“We are living in the age of the ‘knowledge economy’ so let’s take advantage of it. After all, knowledge is the one currency that has no borders.”