GTI: 68% of Armenian businesses find it difficult to recruit skilled workers because of shortage of technical skills

YEREVAN, February 6. /АРКА/. Grant Thornton International, one of the flagship audit and consulting companies, says in its International Business Report that 68% of Armenian businesses find it difficult to recruit skilled workers because of shortage of technical skills. 

A lack of work experience (86%) and increased migration out of Armenia (60%) also cited as the primary problem for recruiting qualified people.  

The reported shortage of technical skills is as much an issue in developed as emerging economies. It is cited by 61% of the BRIC businesses and 65% of their peers in the G7. 

Almost four in ten (39%) businesses around the world are struggling to recruit the right people, with a lack of technical skills cited as the primary problem (64%).

The concern is that a lack of talent will dampen business productivity, ultimately threatening future growth and profitability.

The impact of these workforce issues on business growth prospects is evident: the IBR reveals that more than one in four businesses (28%) expects their 2013 expansion plans to suffer as a result of skills shortages, rising to more than one in three in the BRIC economies (36%). 

Paul Raleigh, Global leader of growth at Grant Thornton International, said: “With unemployment running so high in many mature economies, it is somewhat ironic that business leaders are concerned by a lack of skills. In the short-term they will need to plug these skills gaps with people from outside the organisation as best they can. But in the longer-term they need to invest in their internal training programmes to mould the people that will help them deliver on strategy, innovate and ultimately grow.”

He added that a business is nothing without its people. “A great team with an average plan will be far more successful than an average team with a great plan. The best people increase productivity, save an organisation time and money and ultimately grow the business. So in the long-term, business leaders need to be confident that their own training programmes will be able to deliver talent sustainably.”

Paul Raleigh said that some evidence of improved dialogue between educational institutions, governments and business leaders is seen today, “but this research should give fresh impetus to their discussions”.

“There is clearly a disconnect when, on the one hand, business leaders are crying out for more skilled labour, and on the other, swathes of unemployed people are crying out for a job,” he said. “The situation amounts to a huge waste of human capital, which is good for neither businesses nor the unemployed. Ultimately economic growth suffers: businesses are constrained from expanding and people without work don’t have sufficient income to create demand for products and services – it’s a vicious cycle. Efforts to boost skills should be high on the public policy agenda.” -0-