It’s fair to say that this summer, in all its balmy glory, is shaping up to be something of a sports fest. We’re in the middle of Euro 2012, there’s cricket right left and centre, rugby across the southern hemisphere and apparently there’s even a big local athletics tournament taking place shortly. So, it’s probably not too surprising when a sporting analogy comes to mind.
It’s not been too complicated an exercise to take the England football team for granted. (Indeed low expectations have been perhaps their key weapon). Our key striker managed to get himself suspended for the first two matches, and when he finally did get onto the pitch he didn’t really look much like our key striker. Our most experienced central defender appears to be running in deep sand every time he attempts to sprint. We generously give the ball back to the opposition at the earliest possible opportunity. And our manager’s most noteworthy feature would appear to be his inability to pronounce the letter ‘r’. An early departure beckons surely.
And yet and yet. Three unbeaten games, two wins, topping the group, the quarter finals beckon. So what can recruitment professionals learn from this? Step forward the ONS employment figures. Published on Wednesday, they make it very clear how unwise it is to take the UK employment market for granted. A double dip recession, carnage across the eurozone and a stuttering US economy, unemployment can only surely be increasing. Not so. Overall employment rose by 166,000 and the private sector was the chief engine creating such momentum, adding no fewer than 205,000 jobs in the quarter.
Interestingly, the squeeze on incomes hit a 30 month low, with average weekly pay rising 1.8%, coinciding with the inflation dropping to 2.8%. Although, on this basis, pay continues to fall by 1% in real terms, this is some way from the low point of this gap, 3.4%, in September 2011.
Employers then, particularly across the private sector, are hiring in greater numbers and they are paying these new hires more. Organisations then who are not taking a renewed interest in their employer brand, who are not working hard to engender enhanced engagement and who are happy to take their EVP for granted, risk being left behind.
And this week saw another fine example of the dynamic sense of change and its impact on employment. Brush past the headlines about youth unemployment and you come across a fascinating study by McKinsey. According to the consultancy, many economies face slowdown and reduced GDP as a result of a dearth in skills and education. By 2020, the UK (along with France) faces an 8% shortfall in the number of graduates it needs to grow the economy. If this isn’t ideal, other countries across the EU are in for a worse shock – Germany is looking at a 10% shortfall. And if Spain and Greece didn’t have enough current challenges, by 2020, they need 25% more graduates than will actually be available. McKinseys suggests that employers need to take far more of a lead in terms not only of developing training and development but also in creating educational partnerships to head off a worsening skills gap.
The nation has taken the football team for granted and they have responded, if not with style, grace and total football, certainly with grim determination and positive results. In the short term, employers need not to be complacent about the UK employment market – it is showing signs of perhaps even rude health particularly across the private sector. And if this represents a short term focus, then the looming skills gap foretold by McKinsey, is indicative of something far more permanent – if employers and government alike are taking skills acquisition and development for granted, we may well find ourselves in the economic company of Spain. Mind you, keeping company with their football team wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 