The Lost Generation

It is clear that jobs are becoming more difficult to find. When you add this to fewer further education opportunitiues as well as employer training placements ( BT has recently announced it is doing away with it’s graduate recruitment scheme) it just does’nt look good for our young people.

This is not just a problem for young people but it affects the workforces we have in Local Government and ultimately the people we serve. What it means is that as we have ageing staffing populations we are heading for a shortfall in skilled and capable employees in the future and we must start to consider how we will be replacing our workers now.

So what’s to be done?

First of all, it is a fantastic opportunity for enlightened employers to attract the best of our young people now, as competition amongst young peope is fierce. Also, we must develop apprentiships / work experience programmes that will attract and retain talented young people.

Research shows that younger workers are not motivated by promotion or money but are more willing to stay and work for organisations that offer strong personal development opportunities as well as support their lifestyle choices through, for example, flexible working patterns. The educational establishments are out there waiting for us to contact students and to grab our next generation of talent.

Once these strategies are in place there is a need to market these benefits to attract the talent that we need.

It is often attractive not to offer any such support but just offer better salaries which attracts the higher qualified and talented employees. Some of us will rely upon the economic recession to ensure that we have the number and quality of staff to run our services. This is really short term thinking and is likely to backfire when the economy picks up.

All it takes is a little creativity to look at jobs when they become available and to ask simple questions as to whether they could be a developmental opportunity for your new intake of talent.

Most of this is not rocket science but will have a significant affect upon your workforce as well as allow you to hit regeneration / employment targets too !!!

Jack Markiewicz

Director of HR and Change at Swindon Borough

Talent Lead PPMA