The skills’ shortage challenge
Tina Moorhouse, managing director of Oakland Glass, takes a closer look at Skillexit, what it means for the glass industry and what employers can do to rise to the challenge.
The skills’ shortage is not a new topic for our industry. And for good reason; a sustainable commitment to attracting, retaining, training and developing the best talent lies at the heart of every healthy business and economy.
But the escalating skill’ shortage – driven by an aging workforce, fewer apprenticeships and the impact of Brexit on our migrant workforce – is forcing employers to the edge of a precipice. Without intervention, costs will rise and quality will decline to levels not experienced before, making Skillexit a highly fitting term. We may even see more companies withdraw from the wider construction sector as they become unable to fulfil the obligations placed upon them by their clients.
According to the latest research from the FMB, the UK construction worker shortage has hit its worst level on record. This severe skills gap is driving up wages and squeezing businesses already battling higher material costs. Looking ahead the problem doesn’t go away. Farmer predicted that the construction labour force will decline by 20%25% in the next decade, a culmination of a record low level of new entrants, and the need to replace 700,000 retiring workers.
In terms of new people entering the sector, only 21,000 new apprentices entered roles in construction in 2017, which equates to less than 1% of the sector’s workforce. Value is being removed from the supply chain at all levels, with training often seen as a loss leader in terms of funding relative to costs. The practice of not having directly employed tradespeople on the payroll has led to a skills’ vacuum in organisations. Entire generations of in-house skills are being lost.
Nurturing in-house skills and keeping control in house, is not a ‘nice to have’. It’s a commercial imperative that will lead us all in the direction of a healthier, vibrant and attractive industry to be part of. It is also a way of demonstrating and promoting best practice. To continually deliver quality products and quality service you need to be sure that your entire workforce has your best interests at heart, and even more importantly are committed to maintaining the high standards your customers have come to expect. The more you invest in them, the more they will invest in you.
At Oakland Glass we place the focus very firmly on people and are proud to say that 100% of our factory floor and office employees are employed directly. This means we can focus on our people, whichever department they work in, and develop their skills to ensure they play an integral part in continuously improving the business.
The action we have already taken includes introducing a new role in business support with one big focus being training and development. We are also currently in the middle of a retraining program of all staff and standardising the processes across the site and on different shifts. Managers at all levels are also currently doing NVQ’s. But we want to do more.
To cement our commitment to this important need in the window industry, we are launching the Oakland Academy at this year’s FIT Show. Encompassing all the good work we already do to develop our people, the purpose of the Oakland Academy will be to attract, train and retain the best talent.
We will be celebrating 33 years in business this year, so there’s not much we haven’t weathered in terms of highs and lows in our industry and the wider economy so we’re confident we can meet this latest challenge head on.
And we’re proud that through the tough times and the good, we have kept our focus where it matters: quality. Quality products, quality service and – to make both of those possible – quality people.
