State of the Workforce 2023
State of the Workforce 2023 examines the changing skills and labour market across the UK visitor economy sector. The findings incorporate the views of hundreds of firms employing more than 250,000 staff.
The research sheds light on some of the deep-rooted staffing issues impacting upon the sector, leading to calls for greater investment in employee retention and development. Findings include:
The research highlights the need to prioritise leadership and management skills to help businesses recruit, retain and develop employees more effectively and to take action to close the skills gap to help grow an internationally competitive industry.
The reports also showcase the approaches that employers are taking to alleviate the challenges faced and aims to help employers across the sector to better address their workforce needs, directly informing the decisions they make with regard to skills development.
Conducted through surveys and a series of focus groups, the insights from employers across the hospitality, retail, travel, tourism and aviation industries have been used to formulate findings across three key themes:
Recruitment & Retention
The first report in the series looks at the effect that the market conditions have had upon recruitment and retention.
It highlights how employers continue to face a persistent challenge when it comes to recruitment and retention. Skills shortages are by far the greatest concern, with employers finding it difficult to recruit people with the required skills and retain valued employees.
Skills gaps & shortages
The second report in the series explores the effect that skills gaps and shortages are having upon the sector.
Employers report that core/soft skills and behaviours are where they anticipate challenges both now and in the future. They also report that skills gaps are occupying one spot in a wider context of overlapping issues: high vacancies; churn; pay rises and inflation and staff shortages.
Training & Development
The final report in the series examines the approaches being implemented by employers to enhance the skills of their teams.
The findings show that whilst training and development is imperative to upskill the workforce in response to the constantly evolving demands of the industry and to enhance productivity and performance, only 37% of employers feel the training they offer fully meets the skills needs of employ.