Manufacturing recruitment: what can we do about the talent shortfall?

It seems that despite there still being some prevarication in the marketplace caused by Brexit negotiations with our strongest trading partners in Europe, it has not been sufficient to dent the enthusiasm to recruit top talent across the food and industrial manufacturing sectors. 

However, this is against a backdrop of a lack of support in this sector in more recent years as manufacturing migrated to low-cost environments in Eastern Europe and Asia in particular, and the nett increase in imports into the UK due to consumer spending habits. However, could the battle cry of ‘buy British’ be just around the corner? Sourcing commodities, power, and technology locally will provide better value and support the UK as overseas sourcing, with a weak pound, is hindering manufacturing margins through production price increases. So buying British and sourcing locally could be the essential ingredients we need for a manufacturing renaissance. 

So, other than the economic and political volatility, what else could hinder this seemingly inevitable progress? My answer to that would be talent. Or more importantly, the availability of it.

Since I have worked in recruitment, demanding talent selection criteria has been rigorously enforced by the UK’s top businesses when recruiting. CV’s must meet many pre-requisite requirements for candidates to make the cut and successful applicants are very often required to make personal sacrifices to accept an offer. For example, relocating if they are living outside a particular mileage radius. The need for degrees has also been made essential for management roles or even skilled introductory roles, especially within OEM automotive environments.

As a portion of manufacturing work has migrated abroad over the last 10 years, it seems the UK youth’s appetite to study engineering also dissipated against a backdrop of seemingly endless negative feedback surrounding the sector. The argument that a diminishing sector is not worth studying in, could be easily rationalised, especially as tuition fees now need to be self-funded, often leaving many postgraduates with sizeable debts. So committing student tuition fees in a progressive sector is seen almost as an investment decision.

The upshot seems to be that as the existing engineering workforce is getting older, the proportion of workers under the age of 25 has been decreasing over the last 10 years. To make matters worse it seems that engineering has typically been the last male bastion. According to Engineering UK, only 1 in 8 professionals in engineering occupations are women.

When the rather demanding parameters that employers use to decide which candidates make a shortlist are added to this equation, you have an especially challenging scenario. Little wonder, therefore, that the question over what needs to be done to satisfy the recruitment needs of an expanding manufacturing sector has reared its head.

In light of these challenges and concern over what needs to be done, questions such as; “Where do we find the talent from? What needs to be done to attract and land talent? How can we increase the pool of candidates to support shortlists and give line management the choice they crave when making a decision?” are commonplace in recruitment. But perhaps there are glimmers of hope in the change in behaviour of hiring companies.

Manufacturing as a sector is growing up. From big blue chip pharmaceutical manufacturers, OEM automotive businesses and household consumer product manufacturers, traditional boundaries are being challenged. Breaching these boundaries has also enabled the pool of talent to widen.

Many large businesses now have very active diversity and inclusion policies that will enable greater reach when it comes to sourcing talent and attempt to appeal to previously under-tapped areas. The need for a degree, in a brief, is less prevalent although still a preference while the ability of an individual to bring knowledge and initiative is taking precedence. 

However, in the face of expensive university fees, is it inconceivable to think that the apprenticeship route may be a great idea both for the industry to bridge the shortfall in talent and equally satisfy the student’s ambition to embark on a career in manufacturing?

In April of this year, the Apprenticeship Levy came into force which has introduced a levy of 0.5% payable by employees with pay bills over £3m to help fund apprenticeship training. This presents an enormous opportunity for organisations to not only help close the skills gap but invest in their future talent pool.

When comparing options, university is costly and often seen as less vocational but on the plus side enables the graduate to have more choice when it comes to the variety of employment opportunities post-university. Choosing an apprenticeship enables an individual to earn while they learn but ‘commits’ them to a career where on the job learning can generate skills that will add short-term value to the employer. From a personal perspective, I don’t see this as too much of an issue as I have committed twenty years to the industry I work in. The challenge for the manufacturing sector will be to ensure that once they have a captive audience of apprentices they deploy all the retention practices they can muster to keep and develop their talent. 

If care isn’t taken, one business’s apprentice scheme might be another business’s plunder pool. And let’s be clear, in a market where talent demand is high and skills are in short supply, there is a very real risk of wage inflation to add to the misery of production price rises for the UK manufacturing base.

In the short-term, we need to laud the success of UK Manufacturing to entice the youthful gaze on this sector, but judging by some of the creative efforts that our clients are deploying, this initiative is well underway. I just wonder how long it will take to shift the balance in favour of more apprenticeships in engineering to bridge the immediate shortfall in talent. After all, this is a workforce that is immediately ready to work which the market won’t need to wait three years for! 

For more information or to discuss how we can help with your recruitment process, contact Jonathan Abell, Managing Director, Michael Page Engineering and Manufacturing and Design.

T: +44 121 230 9384

E: jonathanabell@michaelpage.com