TL&L Summary Notes: Workforce & Labour Market Trends

On September 12^th CRF hosted an online discussion for members of its Talent, Leadership & Learning (TL&L) community on the topic of Workforce and Labour Market trends. During the session, Anna Spaul, Director of Workforce Intelligence at Manpower Group discussed Manpower’s quarterly Labour Market trends and what they mean for those in the Talent community.

Manpower Group’s quarterly Labour Market survey is the largest outlook survey in the market, surveying over 40,000 unique employers globally and over 2,000 employers in the UK. Key takeaways from the Q4 2024 Outlook Survey are presented below.

Key Takeaways

1. UK organisations are displaying an increased intention to hire over the next few months and into the new year; upward hiring indications have risen 8% quarter-on-quarter and the intention to hire is higher than pre-covid levels. This is being driven by intentions to grow headcount, rather than to backfill vacancies.
2. However, the increased intention to hire has not yet translated to vacancy postings – there is currently a contradiction between intention to hire and action taken. Supply and demand also varies by industry, organisational size and region.
3. Employers are focusing on acquiring emerging talent to build organisational capabilities over the coming years. Similarly, Manpower Group have also noted a trend for ‘back to basics’ skills. For example, in the data science or machine learning sector, hiring initially focused on complex projects and proactive investigation but has now shifted to more ‘basic’ skills such as data cleaning and data mining. This trend likely reflects organisations recognising the scale of the transformation work to be done and is anticipated to last for another year or two.
4. The current top 5 in-demand technical skills in the UK are: IT & data, administration / office support, engineering / operations, logistics and front office / customer facing. The surge in demand for digital skills reflects the digital transformations that many organisations are currently undertaking.  
5. The current top 5 in-demand soft skills in the UK are: collaboration & teamwork, reasoning & problem solving, resilience & adaptability, accountability & reliability, critical thinking & analysis. The focus this quarter has shifted from analytical skills to skills focused on collaboration and team working, reflecting the large amount of organisational transformation occurring and the demand for skills which cannot be automated.
6. Overall, employers felt that they still had more of the power in salary negotiations. However, in certain pockets of the UK where there is a significant skills gap (e.g. for fitters or welders), unions have taken most of the market control.
7. Project-based hiring is increasing, with a growing focus on hiring based on skills, rather than the types of roles a candidate has previously had. The rights of contingent and permanent workers are also blurring and candidates are more fluid in the types of employment they are undertaking.
8. Poor line management is the number one reason people leave their role in many different skills areas. Manpower Group have witnessed an increase in organisations training managers to better support workers, such as embedding learning & development into onboarding, coaching and providing support to hiring managers in the interview process.

Recommendations

• Understand your organisation’s needs both now and over the next 5 – 10 years. Whilst conducting a skills audit is simple to say, it is not easy to achieve! Start small and, when investing in a new system, consider what gaps it might leave on the periphery.
• Consider how you are building tomorrow’s talent pipelines (for example through acquiring emerging talent).
• Don’t dop the ball on managers. In order to upskill emerging talent, you need good management. Through focusing on managers you can consider how you are investing in strategies to keep your employees engaged or  productive.  

Further Resources
CRF. 2024. Reskilling for Sustainable Growth
Manpower Group. 2024. Employment Outlook Survey UK Q4
Manpower Group. 2024. Employment Outlook Survey Global Q4

To register your interest for future TL&L community events, or if you have any further questions, please contact communities@crforum.co.uk.