Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsJob creation and lossesLearning & developmentFixed-term contractsSkills shortages

Firms’ £1.2bn temporary staff bill ‘expensive and unsustainable’

by Ashleigh Webber 16 Sep 2020
by Ashleigh Webber 16 Sep 2020 Shutterstock
Shutterstock

Organisations have spent £1.2 billion on temporary staff to plug skills gaps over the past year, prompting the Open University to warn that such short term solutions will prove ‘expensive and unsustainable’.

Research conducted by the Open University for its Business Barometer 2020 report found business expenditure on filling skills gaps has grown by 39% over the past 12 months, despite more than half of senior HR leaders claiming reducing costs is key to their firm’s survival.

Plugging skills gaps

Firms looking to temporary workers as business recovers

Could furlough and redundancy for visa holders increase the skills gap?

Lockdown drives high demand for online learning

Many are turning to short-term hires which could end up being more costly, the research found. Of the organisations that made redundancies or furloughed workers, one in five said they plan to hire temporary staff when needed.

The university estimated that £6.6 billion had been spent on inflated salaries, temporary workers, recruitment fees and training, up from £4.4 billion last year, with the average time to fill a vacancy taking around two months.

“It’s unsurprising that after such a challenging year, business leaders are looking for quick fixes to talent shortages. And while hiring in short-term solutions to skills vacancies may solve the immediate issue, we know that further change is coming, and this cycle of hiring and firing will prove expensive and unsustainable,” said Viren Patel, corporate director at the Open University.

Patel urged employers to upskill their existing workforce in order to meet their skills requirements, with many firms reporting that management and leadership skills and digital capabilities are the most difficult to find. More than half continue to experience skills shortages.

Thirty-nine per cent of the 1,000 HR leaders surveyed require more leaders to navigate the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic in the next 12 months. Nearly two-thirds (61%) value adaptability and agility as qualities in new candidates.

“The massive increase in available workers in the labour market is not increasing the supply of the skills that businesses most need to help them respond to and recover from the crisis, instead, the skills that are in short supply have become more valuable as organisations chase a pool of talent that was already very low before the crisis began,” said Patel.

“Organisations that instead adopt a ‘grow your own’ approach to the roles they need, and re-skill colleagues into relevant roles, will find themselves able to adapt to further challenges and uncertainties more quickly than those buying them in, whilst cutting costs.”

L&D job opportunities on Personnel Today

Browse more L&D jobs

Ashleigh Webber
Ashleigh Webber

Ashleigh is editor at OHW+ and HR and wellbeing editor at Personnel Today. Ashleigh's areas of interest include employee health and wellbeing, equality and inclusion and skills development. She has hosted many webinars for Personnel Today, on topics including employee retention, financial wellbeing and menopause support. Prior to joining Personnel Today in 2018, she covered the road transport sector for Commercial Motor and Motor Transport magazines, touching on some of the employment and wellbeing issues experienced by those in road haulage.

previous post
Lockdown recruitment in a risk-averse sector: Tim Skipper interview
next post
Self-isolation, testing and SSP: employers’ questions answered

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Hiring confidence hit by national insurance rise and...

20 Apr 2022

Hiring activity in March 2022 began to stabilise

8 Apr 2022

Top 10 HR questions March 2022: is long...

1 Apr 2022

Jobs board launched for Ukrainians fleeing Russian invasion

11 Mar 2022

Tightening candidate supply hits hiring in February

10 Mar 2022

Ukrainians in UK to have visas extended

25 Feb 2022

Court of Appeal: agency workers do not have...

21 Feb 2022

Could IR35 be a force for good in...

17 Feb 2022

ONS: Pay creeps up as vacancies hit another...

15 Feb 2022

Staff shortages undermine NHS backlog plans, employers claim

8 Feb 2022
  • Strathclyde Business School expands its Degree Apprenticeship offer in England PROMOTED | The University of Strathclyde is expanding its programmes...Read more
  • The Search for Talent: Six Major Employer Pitfalls PROMOTED | The Great Resignation continues unabated...Read more
  • Navigating the widening “Skills Confidence Gap” in 2022, and beyond PROMOTED | Cornerstone OnDemand conducted a global study...Read more
  • Apprenticeships are the solution to your recruitment problems PROMOTED | Apprenticeships have the pulling power...Read more
  • What it really means to be mentally fit PROMOTED | What is mental fitness...Read more
  • How music can help to ease anxiety at work PROMOTED | A lot has happened since March 2020, hasn’t it?...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • Maternity & Paternity
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
    • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+