Councillors hear of workforce worries
FUTURE workers will be less likely to want to work five days a week due to the changing economy, councillors have been warned.
Members of Northumberland County Council’s Corporate Services and Economic Growth overview and scrutiny committee were presented with the council’s annual workforce report at a meeting on Tuesday.
It revealed that the council – like many other local authorities and private companies – has been struggling with recruitment since the Covid-19 pandemic.
There has been a particular shortage of apprentices. Last year, the council attempted to bring in 60 new apprentices, but was only able to fill 29 slots.
Presenting the report, the council’s HR manager Leanne Furnell explained that young people are driving a move towards a so-called “platform economy” – with commerce moving towards and favouring digital and online platform business models.
She said: “The pandemic hasn’t been kind in terms of apprentices. The employees of the future look very different to the ones we have had in the past.
“We will have to become aware of the platform economy, and it’s only something I’ve become aware of recently but we’ve moved from a gig economy to a platform economy.
“You will speak to lots of teenagers who will have a second income stream via Youtube and things like that. They’re not going to want to work five days ... so there’s a whole host of things we will have to do very differently moving forward and attract the really skilled individuals for the future.
“We’re working in a very challenging labour market.”
The meeting also heard that the council had managed to keep staff sickness levels low during the pandemic due. However, it was acknowledged that sickness was on the rise – Ms Furnell said: “With restrictions lifting and people mixing more it was always going to go up.”
Despite this the team were praised for their response to Covid-19. Coun Nick Oliver said: “It has been an amazing response from HR and IT to the pandemic and the massive change of working.”