Skill shortage just part of the jigsaw
An interesting entry on the Contract Journal blog discusses the importance of good recruitment and suggests that it's an area neglected by contractors, who pay the price later on.
From our own perspective, finding quality staff is one of the single biggest challenges facing the business. We require some very specialist skills and need them globally - trying to find ten doc controllers for a project in Algeria was an interesting one!
The author (Emma) mentions techniques such as "job shares, flexible working, nine-day fortnights and the same bonus and benefits from the site to the boardroom" as being incentives offered by contractors to recruit good people. The article concludes that, "Clearly, finding and keeping talented new staff is a tough job - but made easier with the promise of a better work-life balance, career progression and a happy work environment."
I'd be interested to know other orgs' opinion, but we find that finding staff that have the skills is only a small part of the task; finding staff that are skilled and also fit our culture and share our values is the biggest challenge. It's these people who move up quickly in the org and create a happy work environment, making the investment worthwhile.
Labels: Global trends
