Northern Skills Report: How are you investing in your talent?

You may have seen this article in the Manchester Evening News, which has picked up on a number of recommendations from a recent CIPD report exploring the ‘levelling up’ of skills in the North of the country. The report is clear that a number of actions will need to be implemented to ensure the future of a stronger economy and talent pool, and this starts at the top with improved, stronger leadership through to improving a wider range of skills at all levels.

So the big question for any HR / L&D Professional across the North is…what will you do about it? A lack of skills together with gaps in where the workforce needs to be exists across the region, with poor use of existing skills and a lack of performance. According to the The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), helping the workforce to improve skills could result in an increase of 5% in performance, which could be a huge benefit to businesses.

Investing in your talent is especially challenging while businesses are still getting to grips with new ways of working and implementing more flexible working. We are in the midst of a cost of living crisis where people of voting with their feet; it’s recently been reported that the UK has almost 2 million job vacancies.

To tackle some of these difficulties, employers could look to their Employee Value Proposition to better market and promote what they do and the benefits of working there. This is one opportunity to really focus on skills and connecting with other businesses and the local economy, to support levelling up and work together with a joined up approach.

Last year, CIPD Manchester produced a series of Skills for the Future blogs, which may provide further inspiration to support you in investing in talent where you work:

Hopefully this blog will prompt CIPD professional across the north to take some time out and consider how we can not only support colleagues at a local level but also support the economy, wider businesses and make the region even better for the years ahead.