New research highlights that many employers are taking an ad-hoc approach to recruitment, leading to firms not adequately assessing the future needs of the company.
According to new research published by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD), the recruitment and retention efforts of many companies are “found wanting” due to a lack of appropriate planning.
Close to half of firms (43 per cent) were found to take an ad-hoc approach to recruitment, meaning they are failing to plan ahead for future skill and staff requirements.
Furthermore, only two-fifths of companies (40 per cent) had undertaken any kind of retention initiatives despite admitting that talent is difficult to retain.
This comes amid a hiring boom with recent figures placing the number of job vacancies over a million.
However, simultaneously, the Great Resignation is also prompting employees to leave their current roles and look for opportunities elsewhere, indicating that companies must do more to hire and retain staff based on their current and future needs.
As such, the report argues organisations need to take a more strategic approach to resourcing – particularly as they may need to train and reskill more domestic workers or increase routes into work for young people, both of which can take time and investment.
Currently, under half (46 per cent) of employers have a workforce planning strategy based on an overall understanding of their current and future needs.
The same number collect and utilise data to identify skills gaps in their organisation with under a third using this information to predict skill requirements in the future.
The report suggests that data could be used to improve and inform an organisation’s range of resourcing initiatives, processes and issues including the cost of labour turnover, measuring the return of investment of their recruitment activities and assessing the availability of talent in the market.
Claire McCartney, senior resourcing and inclusion adviser at the CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, said:
The pandemic has meant that many organisations haven’t had the bandwidth to look ahead when it comes to resourcing.
Our research also confirms that many organisations aren’t regularly collecting data on their current and future workforce needs. However, that’s exactly what they need to be doing if they’re to survive and thrive, given the current recruitment difficulties hiring crisis on our hands and changing dynamics of the labour market.
Employers could also be making much better use of data across the board regarding their resourcing practices, so they know what works for them and what doesn’t.
This will not just put them in a better position to attract and retaining talent, it will open up access to more diverse talent too.
Monica Sharma is an English Literature graduate from the University of Warwick. As Editor for HRreview, her particular interests in HR include issues concerning diversity, employment law and wellbeing in the workplace. Alongside this, she has written for student publications in both England and Canada. Monica has also presented her academic work concerning the relationship between legal systems, sexual harassment and racism at a university conference at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.
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