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Acquiring top talent and placing highly qualified candidates into the right positions in your company is probably already hard enough, but what happens when your business needs to do just that when there are skills shortages throughout the workforce?

In fact, that’s the challenge most companies throughout the world are experiencing today.

Overcoming skills shortages

At CMC Business Advisers we are working with a number of companies currently addressing skills shortages. We have drawn on these experiences to compile seven ways that you can achieve your workforce management targets even when there’s a shortage in skilled workers in your industry.

1. Train existing employees

To alleviate the shortage of skilled workers, many companies have begun offering training to their existing employees, in order to tailor them to fill current gaps. This can mean training offered in-house, where a knowledgeable employee shares with others their valuable expertise. It’s a great way for companies with a few good resources to increase their value without expending too much time and money.

Another option is outside training. Several businesses offer their employees incentives to return to school to get the education they need. While this option can be more expensive and time-consuming, it can also pay off in the long run. Not only does it ensure your employees are trained to industry standard quality, but as an incentive alone can attract a great deal of talented workers to your doorstep.

2. Think more creatively and be more adaptable – apply workforce skills in a different way

Surprisingly, there might be a more direct solution than you think. Many companies have discovered that they already have the people they need but are merely using them in an ineffective way. It’s important to keep an open mind when looking at your available skill sets, paying close attention to skills that could be transferable.

Consider employees that might be able to apply their skills in a different way – someone with engineering skills and a background in the automotive industry could easily find themselves in a comfortable career as a resource manager, someone with a strong sales background could easily apply their abilities to marketing content for example. Basically, the key to solving your skills shortage might be hiding in plain sight.

Business leaders and managers should begin by establishing a competency model with clear-cut expectations for employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. This approach is woefully underutilised. By utilising data-driven information on where a workforce is lacking and pairing this with clearly defined expectations, standards, and goals, you can gauge which areas to target in terms of training and career development.

The end results will vary based on the workplace, but the most essential step is to implement an analytical approach. Informal workplace training, unreported stoppages and vague information on personnel skills and job requirements only facilitate confusion and mask the source of recurring problems.

As part of a competency model, managers should make note of the age and impending retirement of senior employees and plan for them to train younger staff members before they leave. This is an extremely valuable and cost-effective strategy for overcoming skills shortages and preserving the experienced workers’ knowledge base, particularly because these individuals can offer insight specific to the machines and conditions in their workplace.

For many short-staffed plants, competency modelling and training may be far too demanding in the face of daily operations challenges. Third party consultation can provide expertise and effective solutions without consuming the limited time and energy of overworked personnel. Once competency models have been created, managers can then make informed decisions on how and where to train their staff.

3. Re-evaluate your recruiting practices

When skills shortages become a serious concern, it might be time to re-evaluate how you recruit new employees. New staff members don’t have to be perfect from the get-go and white knights riding to the rescue don’t exist. Without hurting your company, you could easily hire applicants with 70 to 80 percent of the right requirements and help them grow into the role. Or, you could try hiring applicants with all the right skills, but ones perhaps with less experience than you were initially looking for.

If you diversify your hiring practice, and consider transferable skills as mentioned before, you could find excellent, motivated individuals who could easily help your company reach its goals.

4. Partner with nearby educational facilities

Many companies can partner with local (or national) educational facilities – this would mean you would have a fresh supply of skilled potential workers, and the college/university would be able to help graduates in job placement. You can also open your company up to apprenticeships, co-op work placements and internships, which can help cultivate the next generation of skilled workers. Best of all, you keep a close eye on the future of your industry.

5. Use contingent workers

Naturally, one of the easiest ways to fill skills shortages is by hiring contingent workers. With freelancers, consultants, contractors and more, you can fill massive gaps in your operation quickly and in a cost-effective manner. Contingent workers are becoming an incredibly popular option for many companies. Their expertise, availability and flexibility allow them to work within the confines of any timeframe, budget, and project.

Unlike a lot of areas of the labour market, the number of contingent workers is only increasing. The result? There are enough contingent workers to meet your needs for as long as you need.

On the flip side, however, companies should be wary of depending too heavily on contingent workers.

While a contingent workforce can help with filling an immediate skills shortage, it’s a Band-Aid solution to closing the skills gap because it doesn’t address the root cause of why a skills gap exists in the first place.

By wiping out onboarding costs and ongoing remuneration, outsourcing can also be an effective cost-saving strategy, however in the current skills-constrained market, employers could end up paying “top dollar” for specialised workers.

6. Rethink the workforce

More than a million people over the age of 65 are now working on a part-time or consultancy basis. Such staff can be an excellent way to bring skills and experience into your business, even if you don’t offer them full-time and permanent contracts. Not only do such workers provide expertise that may otherwise be lacking, but they can also play a valuable role mentoring less experienced personnel.

7. Focus on staff retention

If your business is struggling to find new talent, it can’t afford to lose the knowledgeable workers it already has. Successful companies work hard at creating a culture that encourages people to stay. That doesn’t have to mean more pay – flexible working, or recognition through increased annual leave, for instance, can be just as attractive to some

Address your skills shortages

If you need help developing your approach to your skills shortages, feel free to get in touch or have a read of our White Paper – Growing your Business, The People Dimension.

You may also find this article useful – How to attract a talented team into your small business.