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Staff attraction and retention

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AJEKLimited

New Member
Think it depends on all manner of things, sure the job market opening back up and people leaving is a major factor for employers who have taken people on with their own interests first, employing them at the lowest possible rates etc, but i would think that employers who had done this probably had one eye on the horizon waiting for the reccesion to end; ie they knew it would happen but wanted to milk it for all it was worth before things started to get better, as im sure we are all aware some companies profited from the fact people were in some cases willing to take anything that was going.

The type of company you mentioned in the blog; the factory? I dont see them having any problems replacing any staff who should choose to leave to be honest. There is always an abundant workforce for these type of businesses/industries, all that will happen is that Joe A the Engineer will find a job back in Engineering and be replaced by Joe B who is one of the current unskilled unemployed, sure the skillset will be different, but it wont matter in that type of industry. They wont have to raise their wages as those unemployed at the moment will be in some cases grateful to be back in employment.

In our industry the mention of the Reccesion being over has somewhat turned the tables; where we were forced to take what rate we were offered as 'it was the only thing going', we now find ourselves being able to go back to the previous way of things by asking for what we want, what with the rumoured work in Aberdeen/Dubai/Abu Dhabi etc. This could very well leave my current employer short staffed, but we are in an industry where the employer would simply raise their rate to retain. Like i said, theyve milked it for what it was worth when they could and in return people in my line of work will now return the favour as it were.

So in short, i think the news of recovery will only really affect things higher up the chain, but even then i think the result will only be offers of rate increases and new contracts based on the rates before the recession 'happened'.

Sorry if this is a little disjointed, its rushed as im typing with one eye looking over my shoulder!
 
BraeScotland

BraeScotland

New Member
Thanks for the reply (hope Im not getting you into trouble by replying to you).. actually factories will be amongst the hardest hit .. they have had some great applicants willing to work for low pay who would normally not even consider factory work. There are local companies to us who normally struggle to find workers (because so many people do not want to work there!) who have found it easier during the recession. They will be back to their old problems very soon!
I wish you well and hope your rate improves!

kind regards
Jayne
 
A

AJEKLimited

New Member
Thanks Jayne,

I can understand that, the company doing better in the recession.

A lot of skilled unemployed folk who were looking to weather the storm as it were, who were willing to take on factory work as a stop gap until things picked up again.

In regards to not struggling for a workforce, i meant it from the other angle, sorry for not making that clear.

A company who were able to choose the higher skilled people over the non-skilled and pay the same rate, but who can now go back to the unemployed un-skilled and now take them on when the skilled staff leave to go back to their old sector. This would really only apply to companies who had no problems getting staff before the recession.

The two sides of the coin are really, companies who had no problem recruiting staff but were able to employ higher skilled staff during the reccesion for no extra cost, and the company that had staffing issues before the recession but were able to fill any empty roles due to more people being willing to work in that kind of industry.
 
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