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| Think differently about plugging your skills gap |
Join The Resource Broker to save time and reduce costs when outsourcing.
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One of the biggest challenges facing businesses in the UK today is the skills
shortage. There is nothing more frustrating than being unable to take advantage
of new business opportunities, or even to continue implementing existing
projects, because you can't find the skilled personnel you need. If you’ve
experienced this problem you are not alone - there are over 650,000 vacancies
at present and 85 per cent of businesses have experienced recruitment
difficulties as a result of the skills shortage in the last year.*
The Resource Broker business services marketplace provides the means to address the skill shortage in a new and innovative way. Managing Director Steve Christian comments, "The Resource Broker gives you the tools to optimise your resources by making your workforce flexible enough to meet the fluctuating demands of business. "Rather than being forced to maintain more staff than necessary during lean periods in your business cycle, or having to desperately try and find suitable people during very busy times, which at worst can manifest itself as terrible hire and fire merry-go-round, the Resource Broker enables you to loan-in staff when you need them and loan-out staff when you don’t. In this way you can help ensure your employees are never overstretched or under-utilised, and it can keep the threat of missed deadlines or even redundancies at bay." The concept developed by the Resource Broker works according to a very simple principle. The skills shortage exists not only through a lack of adequately trained people, but also through the inefficient use of existing skills. Many employees are retained in positions where their skills are under-utilised because their employers know how difficult it would be to replace them in the future. The Resource Broker addresses this problem because businesses can use it as a tool to loan-in skills from other organisations by simply describing what, when and where skills are needed and the Resource Broker will match these requirements with other businesses that have staff available with the necessary skills profile. For example, an SME in Swansea may require additional skilled staff at short notice to help implement a new IT project, and a South Wales based multinational may have IT staff available. Because you can specify the precise skills or services you require the employees you loan-in should fit quickly and seamlessly into your organisation. It’s rather like a football club loaning-in a player from another team. On the flip-side, businesses can also use the Resource Broker to loan-out skills to other organisations. During times when employees are being under-utilised you can take advantage of these opportunities in any number of ways - from one employee working for another organisation one day a week to an entire team working for several weeks at a time, on-site or off-site - The Resource Broker is designed to be flexible so that any business requirement can be met. The ability to loan-out skills to other organisations also enables businesses to add value to under-performing departments. At present there is a growing trend for businesses to outsource their IT requirements, which is bad news for in-house IT directors and their departments. But an alternative to redundancy for enterprising businesses is to use in-house resources to generate additional revenue streams (and safe-guard jobs). For example, an IT department in a large company could use the Resource Broker to provide computing services to smaller businesses in the locality. Employees will develop new skills in the process, which could be valuable to the organisation in the long-term. The benefit of loaning-out skills lies not only with the employer. Working in a fresh environment for a different organisation is an excellent way for employees to develop new skills, enhance their career development opportunities and increase chances of promotion. Steve Christian comments, "The idea of loaning-in and loaning-out skills to meet demand is quite a original business concept, and we expect only the most forward-thinking businesses to adopt it immediately. Indeed, the Resource Broker can also be used to fulfil service requirements in a more traditional way by simply describing your needs and choosing an appropriate supplier. But we feel it's important to give businesses the opportunity to start thinking differently about skills and services. The Resource Broker is here to help make that possible." * Source: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 2004 Membership of the Resource Broker is free - Join today. Please contact us if you would like more information Back to News |
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