Talent wars | Firms struggling to match competitors' pay and benefits as fight for skilled workers continues

UK employers are struggling to match the pay and benefits being offered by competitors as the war for talent rumbles on, a new study has found.

XpertHR found that UK organisations are struggling to find the skills their business needs, with poor quality applicants (78%) and skills shortages (77%) being named as the biggest hiring issues HR and recruitment professionals have faced over the past 12 months.

However, 44% said they had difficulty matching competitors’ packages (pay and benefits), meaning they could be losing the top candidates to other organisations. 26% of organisations also stated they had difficulty retaining new hires.

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Despite unemployment currently at 4.2%, employers are still struggling to source talent because candidates lack the necessary skills and experience, putting their business resiliency at risk. Of the skills HR and recruitment professionals are looking for, specialist skills (either required in their organisation or specific to individual roles) were the most-cited skill that organisations, regardless of sector, were struggling to recruit for (88%). Alongside this, soft skills like leadership (37%) and management skills (33%) were also proving difficult to source.