Research carried out by the CIPD suggests that over the last 12 months, 78% of businesses in the UK have found it difficult to recruit staff with the skills they require.

The 2015 CIPD/Hays Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey corroborated these figures, suggesting 77% of employers found it difficult to retain staff over the past year.

Those HR professionals who responded to the surveys indicated that all roles were now harder to recruit for, management, specialist and technical candidates being the hardest to find.
Competition for well qualified candidates over the last two years is seen as the biggest factor in causing skills shortages in the UK, indicating anticipation in the economy of a healthy period of growth whilst candidates are still more cautious to make a move.

Over 40% of HR professionals surveyed indicated that they believe their organisation’s staffing levels will increase over the course of 2015.

UK business appears to be working hard to keep their employees, with almost 90% of employers surveyed indicating that they have initiatives in place to improve retention. Half of those employers implementing retention schemes use pay and reward incentives keep staff whilst 49% said they have improved their learning and development opportunities.

It continues to be the case that employers prefer to bring talent into the business rather than up skilling or promoting internal candidates. This trend has significantly increased on 2013 survey results, raising from 51% to a 74% propensity to bring in new talent.

Jessica Cooper, research advisor at the CIPD, said: “In the ‘make or buy’ debate, the ‘buy’ decision still seems to dominate investment in talent, but hiring new talent is just part of the solution for addressing skills shortages. Once people are in a role, they still require ongoing development to achieve their full potential and meet ever-changing and critical skills needs.”