The economic situation in the UK is so bad that chief executives of major firms are actually thinking more about how to keep their workers happy and productive.
It’s hard to reconcile the idea that CEOs are actually spending an increasing amount of time in keeping the workers they have instead of just their bottom line, but it’s true – new research findings from the Chartered Management Institute and The Conference Board says that 2014 could be the year of the worker. New initiatives are being pursued in many companies, instigated from their chief executives, in retaining and maintaining talent in a major way – something that most industry experts never expected to see in their lifetimes, let alone over the coming months!
It’s hard to conceptualise but it does make good financial sense to value your workers, especially in the current economic landscape both here in the UK and globally thanks to the crippling effects of the skills shortage. More and more companies are finding it increasingly difficult to fill vacancies because there are so few workers available that are both skilled and qualified for these crucial roles, and while the nation’s umbrella company contractors and freelance workers are keeping many of these businesses afloat there simply aren’t enough interim workers to provide a long-term solution that will ensure these companies will actually be able to grow and prosper over the course of this year.
I can only hope that these new initiatives being put into place will do more than simply offer employees and contract workers shedloads of cash for staying with any particular company. Yes, a big fat pay cheque is always nice, but the best approach would most likely be one that has a focus on training and retaining workers in order to build up the workforce to more sustainable levels. For what it’s worth, if more companies would only take the time, energy, and capital to invest in the workforce by providing the proper levels of training this skills shortage would be a thing of the past.
I know what you’re going to say – why should the private sector have to bear the burden of an education system that doesn’t prepare younger Brits for the workforce sufficiently? Well it’s either that or go belly-up, so I think less time spent whinging and more time spent taking active steps is just fine in my book.
