What can HR do for UK skill shortage?

Head of Learning & Development at Resource Management, Oliver Hartley give us 3 key tips…

Recent reports by the CIPD suggest the UK is still falling behind on skills growth by comparison to other major EU countries. The report detailed UK employers spend less on training than other major EU economies and less than the EU average generally. This leaves the UK in fourth from bottom on the EU league table on participation in job-related adult learning, with evidence showing a marked deterioration since 2007.

 But has anything really changed? Skills shortages and calls to government to improve investment in skills growth is a recurring conversation and one that HR professionals in particular are no stranger to. The subject is broad, complex and difficult to negotiate from a single standpoint. So what can HR really do to combat the issue?

“We partially refer to ‘talent’ as an ability to recruit people instead of growing capability – but we need to be thinking about an organisational renewal agenda,” says Norman Pickavance, senior independent adviser to A Blueprint for Better Business, “Organisations need to benefit from innovation-related commercial development, and we need to be thinking not only about skills development, but job design, work design and skills design.”