According to the National Employability Report for Engineers, 2019, 80% of engineers in India are unfit for any job in the knowledge industry (The Economic Times). Another report by MansGroup shows that 63% of the companies in India suffer from a skilled manpower shortage across departments like IT, Engineering and Sales.
So, how do you overcome this manpower shortage issue?
How to solve manpower shortage?
The easiest way to overcome recruitment challenges due to manpower shortage is to make a recruitment plan such that you can reach out to many qualified candidates and your job offering is received well.
1. Provide competitive salaries to qualified candidates
Employees across all industries want competitive salaries to meet their cost of living. Top contenders refuse to accept jobs with lower compensation than the industry average.
Research salary data on Glassdoor, PayScale and AmbitionBox to find industry averages for different positions. Consider mentioning the salary range you plan to offer for open positions in your organisation. It will help you over the manpower shortage issue and attract more applications.
2. Provide benefits employees want
The simplest way to capture candidates attention is by offering them the best employee benefits that exist in the industry.
In addition to a competitive salary, companies offer a range of benefits and perks to attract and retain good candidates, thus overcoming the manpower shortage issues. While competitive salaries will help your employees meet the cost of living, benefits like health insurance and paid time-off give them a sense of security and satisfaction.
3. Offer flexibility and remote work options
With more employees asking for flexibility and remote work options, companies that refrain from offering flexible work hours and remote work opportunities face manpower shortage issues. Fewer qualified candidates apply to their job openings. Also, they struggle to retain good employees and suffer a high employee turnover rate.
4. Improve your company’s work culture and highlight them in your job advertisements
Companies with cool company cultures, great employee benefits and a fun work environment attract a high volume of job applications. Frame your company culture based on what employees nowadays want. Use terms like employee autonomy, ownership, and flexibility to highlight that you work for a purpose. And everyone in your company can decide their process to meet individual and collective goals.
5. Encourage diversity in recruitment
Top companies in India are taking initiatives to diversify their workforce. Accenture, Mastercard, Abbot and Nike are some of the notable organisation that strictly enforce diversity initiatives.
Companies that encourage diverse workforce have a larger pool of candidates to choose from, thus overcoming the manpower shortage issues to some extent.
6. Invest in learning and development programs
Learning and development (L&D) opportunities attract a lot of candidates. Invest in L&D programs to provide career growth opportunities. Promote it across your recruitment marketing campaigns like social media, email and job posting.
The skilled manpower shortage in India has spread across departments which are estimated to grow in the coming years. However, you can easily avoid such a scenario impacting your recruitment needs. Proactively implement the above five initiatives and measure the difference they make in your hiring process.
