Mismatch in employee/employer expectations “will play out over the next year”: Hays

An annual survey run by recruiter Hays — considering the views of “more than 15,000 employers and professionals” — has found manufacturing employers want to expand their headcount but are stifled by skills shortages, while a concerning number of professionals are looking to take their talents elsewhere.

The Hays Salary Guide (linked) appears to show high levels of dissatisfaction among employees in the industry, with 79 per cent of manufacturing professionals either looking or planning to look for a new job in the next 12 months.

Eighty-four per cent of employers plan to increase manufacturing salaries in their next review, and 50 per cent planned to make an increase above 3 per cent, while 83 per cent of employees expect a pay rise of above three per cent.

“The mismatch between what employees want and what employers are willing to offer will play out over the next year, with 41 per cent of manufacturing employees being dissatisfied with their salaries and 74 per cent saying it doesn’t reflect their individual performance,” Hays CEO APAC, Matthew Dickason said in a statement on Wednesday. 

“There’s a trend of employees expecting higher salary increases over the past three reports with 55 per cent indicating they believed they would benefit financially from changing jobs in the next 12 months.”

For the manufacturing professionals considering their departure, poor workplace culture (70 per cent), poor training and development (62 per cent) and a lack of promotional opportunities (70 per cent) were top reasons.

On the employer side, there were signs companies are looking to grow their teams though are being impacted by skills shortages.

Fifty-four per cent of employers expected to increase headcount for their permanent staff over the next 12 months, an increase of 6 per cent on last year. 34 per cent will look to increase temporary or contract staff, an increase of 14 per cent.

Sixty-four per cent of employers are expecting business activity to increase.

However, 86 per cent of organisations were being impacted by skills shortages with 22 per characterising these as extreme and 64 per cent as moderate or minor. 

“We also saw a rise in manufacturing employers being forced to offer higher salaries in the past year due to the skills shortage with 32 per cent per cent offering substantially higher salaries and 45 per cent offering nominally higher salaries,” added Dickason.

“The survey also found 77 per cent of organisations expected skills shortages to impact the effective operation of their business in the next 12 months.” 

Picture: credit Industry Capability Network