INSIGHT - The Intersection of Diversity and Mentoring to Survive the UK Skills Crisis

There is a skills crisis in the UK – Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit  and hold onto the talent they need. Key shifts in human trends are beginning to threaten the sustainability of so many businesses.

• The UK skills gap has now reached over 870,000 unfilled jobs

• Staff attrition cost the UK economy £6.3bn last year

• The job tenure of younger works has plummeted – Gen Z’s average is just 2.4 years and Gen Y’s just 1.2 years

Only those who act now will survive. In our modern world, attracting, retaining and engaging the precious resource of human skills requires a whole new paradigm. It requires a framework that supports new pools of talent and new ways of working.

Companies need to spread their recruitment nets further. Many are beginning to recruit from increasingly diverse backgrounds. This brings the benefits of opening roles to new volumes of people, alongside access people with more varied perspectives and thoughts – something that is increasingly valuable in a global economy that is driven by creative thinking and ideas.

Despite so many companies investing in outreach recruitment programmes, social mobility has been stagnant in the UK since 2014 (according to the UK Social Mobility Commission). Companies are starting to access the new diverse streams of talent, but few find they can hold onto those people or they find that these new recruits never progress beyond entry level jobs.

In order to activate these new pools of talent and integrate them successful into a business, companies need to also invest in their existing employees. Only when Diversity and Social Mobility combines with effective Mentoring can a truly sustainable workforce be achieved. Effective mentoring becomes the framework to carry change and people through an organisation.

For companies to see real retention and people progressing, the mentoring must be effective. This means it must be established under a robust framework and trained through an organisation.

In order to establish a mentoring framework effectively a company must consider the 3 P’s of Mentoring Programmes:

1. Purpose – have a clear objective for the programme that align to the company’s commercial goals.

2. People – understand who will benefit from being involved, train the mentors and engage everyone to ensure the right levels of motivation. Engage key stakeholders to champion the programme.

3. Practicalities – Create an effective framework to establish, maintain and evolve the programme on an ongoing basis.

The intersection between a more diverse workforce and effective mentoring to support it holds the key to ensure companies have sustainable people strategies.

Fran Boorman is the CEO and co-founder of www.goal17.global - A training company who deliver the leading mentor training programme that offers an end to end solution for businesses committed to engaging and retaining the best talent. She was also voted the UK’s number 1 female business influencer by Global Woman in 2019.

Fran spent a decade building a multi-million-pound business. Due to the unique mentoring culture that she developed it became the fastest growing in its sector with a team of over 1000 people nationwide. Goal 17 deliver training under the KEEPER Methodology that Fran developed to such success. It helps avoid many of the typical mistakes made by companies when establishing mentoring and provides a robust framework for success.

Contact Fran at [email protected] for your free 'Top 10 Mentoring Success' report which shares valuable insights to help you establish a mentoring within your organisation.