Navigating labour shortages: CEO action plan

Ask questions:

• Which divisions, teams or roles have the most significant churn and recruitment challenges?
• What impact is this having on short-term operations and staff morale?
• Which labour shortages pose the greatest risk to long-term business objectives?

Take action:

• Get the picture from operational heads, hiring and line managers
• Ask for an assessment of HR data and exit interviews
• Evaluate growth areas for your business – assess team’s people and skills capacity against ideal workforce resourcing

Ask questions:

• What strategy is in place to determine how the business focuses its resources on people, tech adoption and leadership?
• What, if any, changes have been made to the business’ recruitment strategy?
• What are operational heads and line managers doing day-to-day to focus on people retention?

Take action:

• Discuss the people and skills priorities and challenges facing operational heads across all business divisions to inform an organisational people strategy that has Board agreement
• Get the latest from hiring managers and HR leads – ask them what aspects of recruitment are working well, what’s not and why
• Ensure operational heads are asking leaders and managers to prioritise development, wellbeing and recognition to boost retention

Ask questions:

• How has Covid and Brexit affected your existing workforce and the talent pool you typically hire from?
• What competition are you facing for the people you’re trying to attract and retain?

Take action:

• Get an assessment from hiring managers or HR leads – HR data, recruiter relationships and intel from CBI or trade associations are useful sources of information

Ask questions:

• Which aspects of the business’ people, technology or skills practices are better or worse than your competitors?
• What financial resources does the business have to invest, over what time horizon?
• Who are your peers, in the same sector or different, that are best placed to kick the tires on your approach?

Take action:

• Interrogate the financial forecast, and assess the people, skills and technology budget against long-term business objectives
• Brainstorm how the business can improve its strategy to navigate labour shortages with Board members or operational heads
  • Solutions are likely to lie in a combination of 4 targeted areas – maximising your job attractiveness and potential labour pool, adopting tech to optimise your people power, leading and managing to boost staff’s productivity, and investing in skills needs to access the full benefit of new technology and better ways of working​. You can find a checklist of specific ideas at the end of this page. 

Ask questions:

• Which parts of the business need to be mobilised to adopt new approaches and how will this be achieved?
• What people risks require ongoing Board discussion and decision-making?
• What metrics should new approaches be evaluated against and how will this be achieved?
• What will trigger the need to adjust approaches to maximise opportunities or challenges presented by changing labour market conditions?

Take action:

• Set out the strategy and rationale for changes to your approach to attraction, retention and productivity, and challenge teams to deliver a plan
• Communicate the role of operational heads and line managers in its delivery, and how they should prioritise accordingly
• Establish an appropriate measurement and monitoring framework, and regularly assess

Ask questions:

• What impact have changes in your approach to attraction, retention and productivity had?
• How are your business’ practices helping the people and skills pipeline in your sector?
• What have you learnt was successful, wished you’d done differently or known at the start?

Take action:

• Communicate your story – tell the CBI and promote on your own channels
• Participate in sector initiatives, campaigns or business-education partnerships to improve the people and skills pipeline for your sector