Twenty four senior leaders met yesterday at Caledonian Club in Belgravia to discuss recruitment challenges, skills shortages and the workforce of the future.
As a discussion topic, it was one of the broadest to have featured at a Leaders Council roundtable. This meant that we were able to include representatives from a number of different sectors.
The conversation began with a discussion of the skills shortage and the difficulties companies are facing when it comes to recruitment.
Working from home
One of the reasons put forward for this was that many applicants today are keen to be able to work from home for at least part of their working week. Some people around the table said either that this was not something that their company was willing to offer or that this made it much harder for them to train staff to the required level. It was argued that employees, at least at the beginning of their time with a company, need to be in the room, learning skills from the colleagues who have the experience.
An alternate case was put forward that it is perfectly possible to train new employees remotely, if this is what they prefer, and that it was crucial for businesses to adapt to the needs of the workforce. Young people today are more likely to prioritise work/life balance and wellbeing over an ability to earn a high salary, and businesses should adapt accordingly. The key was to make sure you had a clear programme in place to facilitate remote training.
In terms of support for working from home, there was a clear difference in the room between those who had willingly embraced remote working, some of whom had done so prior to the Covid-19 lockdown era, and those who had adopted the practice out of necessity.
There was broad agreement for the notion that, ultimately, it should be left to each individual company to decide on their working from home policy and that different strategies will work for different industries, organisations and, indeed, people.
Skills shortage and Education
Of greater concern, and an area where the whole room seemed to be in agreement, was the sense that young people were entering the jobs market without the requisite skills to enable them to contribute positively. In industries such as manufacturing and construction, this issue was more acute.
This took us on to a consideration of how the connection between school, university and industry can be strengthened. Concerns were expressed that young people were finding themselves in silos in regards to their future prospects, often based on the education and career paths taken by their parents/ family. This meant that a number of sectors, with architecture raised as a prominent example, were finding that the workforce was lacking in diversity.
It was suggested, amid a few notable counterpoints, that education should place a much greater emphasis on preparing people for the workplace. At present, most young people require at least a year of hands-on experience before they are able to deliver genuine value to their new organisation. But with a more joined-up approach between education and industry, graduates would be able to contribute in a meaningful way much more quickly.
It was suggested that universities are at crossroads: is their role to provide a rigorous academic education or is it to prepare people for the workplace? And should some courses/ institutions focus more explicitly on the former while others are geared towards the latter? At this point, a case was made for a return to the Polytechnic system.
Manual skills and AI
One issue with this, however, is the perception among young people that office-based (or indeed working-from-home based) jobs are more desirable than manual jobs such as roofing and labouring. As long as this remains the case, we will continue to have a dearth of viable employees in these sectors, particularly given the difficulties of hiring from abroad in the present climate.
And yet, it was argued that manual skills are exactly the sort of skills that are most likely to provide people with a guaranteed long-term career. As recent developments in artificial intelligence have shown, white-collar jobs such as copy writing, graphic design and even certain aspects of the legal profession are being taken over by AI.
This is likely to affect every sector in the near future but the areas in which AI is currently less able to operate are precisely those where there are a high number of vacancies and a low level of interest from young people. Namely, manual trades. It was argued that it is therefore incumbent on educators and parents to make young people aware of this.
Aligned to this, a case was made for the government to take a more active role in encouraging people into these sectors, perhaps by subsidising pay or offering other incentives. At present, the wages earned by a trainee roofer, for instance, are too low to attract a high number of individuals, even though the long term prospects for someone with these skills would be quite strong.
Other jobs that are less likely to be replaced by AI include those where interpersonal skills are at the core, such as within the care sector and the NHS.
Of course, as a number of attendees were quick to point out, AI may take over certain functions within an industry but it will not necessarily cause a net decrease in the number of jobs in that industry. As we have seen consistently in the past, new technology tends to create more jobs than it gets rid of.
Special Report
This summary will be passed on to relevant figures in parliament and Whitehall, along with an invitation for them to take part in our upcoming ‘Workforce of the Future’ special report. This report will contain commentary from MPs, heads of industry bodies and senior business leaders. It will build on the ideas raised in the roundtable with the aim of creating a dialogue between policy makers and the people their policy affects.
The document will also serve as a snapshot of how business leaders in 2023 believe the next ten years will pan out. As such, it will be looked back on with curiosity a decade from now as we assess how much we got right and how much we did not anticipate.
The report’s enduring relevance will mean that it serves as the Leaders Council’s flagship special report for at least the next year, and its release will be marked with an event at the House of Lords in the summer.
