Published on 22 April 2022 by Peter Mayer

Reframing the resource challenge

It’s widely accepted that it’s become more difficult to find and keep talent in recent years. Particularly in the tech world, but increasingly across all different sectors and skillsets, employers are finding it hard to ensure they have the right people in place in a landscape where work kicks off with less lead-time. As a result of these challenges, managers and leadership teams are having to think of increasingly creative ways of attracting and keeping talent, and how to repurpose those people they already have in place. In our most recent Intelligent Projects Forum we brought together leaders from different industries to discuss their resourcing challenges and share the ways in which creative thinking can reframe what on the face of it seems a challenge, into an organisational strength.

 What’s causing the resourcing challenge?

While the pandemic and the shifts in personal and professional ambition has something to do with it, it would be unfair to blame the shortfall entirely on covid-19. In some industries, particularly technology, the dearth of talent has been long known. As more and more companies find themselves needing highly skilled workers with specific skill sets, competition for the right candidate has become increasingly strong.

 As more people have reassessed their work life balance in recent years, part time or remote only workers have become more commonplace. More and more people are looking for different ways of working, and employers have not all been as quick to accommodate those demands as they need to be. On a similar note, lots of people (particularly in mid-senior roles) are reluctant to go back into the office 5 days a week having become used to working from home and the freedom that brings. For organisations that allow working from home or hybrid working, but haven’t put the right tools in place to ensure productivity remains as high as office working, the resourcing challenge has been exacerbated; not only do we not have enough of the right people, those that we do have might not be as productive as they could be.

 How can we reframe the resourcing challenge?

In the simplest terms, reframing the resourcing challenge is about 3 things; planning, management and assessment.

Planning - short term thinking is simply not feasible any more. If it’s going to take 3 - 6  months to find, hire and train the right person then it’s essential you have as much foresight on that need as possible. This requires longer-term, bigger picture thinking and an acceptance that you may need to hire the right person in anticipation of work that might kick off in the coming months.

Management - with people working in different locations, or new team members joining mid-stream, good management is essential. Team members need to be clear on goals and deliverables at every step. Similarly, the softer side of management is increasingly essential. Can your managers spot when a team member is struggling, and help to make things better before they decide to move on?

Assessment - By correctly assessing personal performance as well as the overall delivery performance, organisations can increase energy in its workforce and also spot the need for differing resources earlier.

The changes that the resourcing challenge is provoking are certainly difficult, but could actually prove a business asset once adopted. Which organisation wouldn’t be happy to have lower staff turnover, greater staff satisfaction, higher efficiency and more effective training and internal promotion?

Pelicam’s Intelligent Projects Forum (IPF) is a series of events bringing together the leaders of some of the most well known organisations in finance, insurance, utilities among other sectors. The intention is to create a space where people can share their experience and engage with peers from outside their organisation.

Pelicam are experts at ensuring organisations can identify the areas of risk and put steps in place to make the changes that really have a positive impact.

If you would like to join our next IPF or find out more about Pelicam get in touch via info@pelicam.com