Across all sectors, it’s SMEs that encounter the greatest
challenge in this respect, but the research suggests that this is not just down to lack of resources. Rather, it also has to do with an absence of recruitment and retention strategies that target employees’ and prospective employees’ priorities, needs and values – fl exible working, for example, or wellbeing incentives, or sustainability, or inclusivity based on ethnicity or neurodivergence. In short, recruitment and retention need to evolve very
rapidly to deliver success in a market that is very much loaded in the candidates’ favour. But where do you start?
Recruitment, retention, training - a one-stop-shop T e good news is you don’t have to do all this yourself. As with any programme of change, success is often down to taking advice and accepting guidance from experts – and at Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce, we have a proven track record of connecting businesses to experts who can deliver successful, cost-eff ective recruitment and retention expertise to our members, both through networking activi- ties and through our Member2Member off ers. Membership delivers everything you need to enable
your organisation’s recruitment and retention benefi ts – and its company values – to stand out from the crowd and help you source and keep talent. T ey include, amongst many others; health, wellbeing
and reward services, incentivisation programmes, remote and hybrid working planning, childcare, counselling, and sustainability measurement and improvement. At the same time, Chamber membership also connects
you to expertise within the network for the practical and logistical elements of actually recruiting staff,
including immigration processes (to enable you to counter local and national shortfalls in talent by recruiting from overseas), onboarding, HR contracts and compliance, and so on. And we can also add value to your recruits and
employees by connecting them to extensive training and upskilling services, member webinars, and learning tools – covering everything from IT literacy to professional and industry qualifi cations – helping you ensure you have the right people in the right posts, with the right skills.
A generational transformation But if there’s one truth the current situation has exposed, it’s that the roots of the skills shortage in particular go back a generation or more. We are, essentially, paying the price now for a decline
in the alignment between young people’s skills and employers’ needs that started many years ago. For this reason, at the Chamber we’re tackling the problem from this perspective,
too, working closely
with educators, training organisations, employers, and the Government on programmes like the Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs). These will prepare today’s young people more
eff ectively for recruitment and work, and so make growth and development less of an uphill struggle for businesses like yours – today and in the future.
For more information on how to join Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce, visit
www.chamber-business.com, or call 01582 522448.
Scan the QR code to read the latest LSIP Report
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