Near half of London firms complain about skills shortage, new survey reveals

45 percent of London firms have complained about a serious skills shortage that's currently affecting the capital's workforce, figures obtained from the latest CBI/KPMG London Business Survey were able to reveal.

The survey of 115 London firms shows that 66% of companies reported difficulty recruiting highly skilled people, such as IT/technology (20%), creative (14%) and finance and engineering specialists (12%).

In order to mitigate the lack of skilled workers, many firms have established links with schools or colleges, with half of the businesses providing work experience to students and over a third (37%) offering careers advice and talks.

Research also revealed an increased level of optimism about the economy (59%), despite it growing at the slowest pace in a year, while about half of respondents (47%) were also optimistic about their business prospects over the next six months, with 66% planning to expand their business over the next year — the highest figure recorded since the start of 2014.

Furthermore, nearly two-thirds of firms (62%) aim to increase headcount over the next six months, 10% up on the last quarter, and only 18% plan to reduce headcount, 5% down on the last quarter.

Faced with such concerning prospects, every company and organization should also consider the possibility of implementing extensive workforce management system designed to permanently assess, evaluate and report the available skill base. This is specifically where Tensor's extensive expertise in the field can be put to very good use.

Tensor plc offers a range of solutions designed specifically to streamline workforce and skill management within companies of any sizes. Our WinHR suite enables managers to save and easily access a wide array of data pertaining to each of their employees, thus allowing them to better use the available resources and skill ranges at any given moment.

Moreover, Tensor's range of products offer both a high level of reliability and good value for money, which means that companies who do decide to implement our solutions will immediately see the returns, without taking a hit as far as their balances are concerned.

If you'd like to find out more about the range of workforce management and Time and Attendance solutions supplied by Tensor, just contact us or Book a Demo, our representatives will be more than happy to answer any questions or queries you might have.