Addressing the labour market crisis in Scotland’s public, private and third sectors: innovating our way forward

Tuesday 28th March 2023

Employees are critical to every area of work - too few, too inexperienced or insufficiently skilled creates cost, delay and damage to public services and economic competitiveness.  Yet the current labour market shortage is evident across our public, private and third sectors.  Our ability to deliver critical public services is undermined by it.  The need to grow and compete our way out of recession is threatened by it.  The capacity of our third sector to provide essential safety nets in the midst of growing poverty and household financial breakdown is damaged by it.  So how should organisations anticipate, plan and react in order to attract and retain staff, minimise employee turnover and upskill and innovate with their valuable and scarce staff resource?

The UK and Scottish labour markets are undergoing enforced change.  Many factors are at play.  Brexit has dramatically reduced available labour from the EU.  Long-COVID after pandemic has had a shrinking effect on the labour market.  An ageing population is inevitably retiring and shrinking the workforce.  Damage to health services during and since COVID means that delayed treatment of physical and mental ill health is causing further shortages.

This is a labour market where fewer available staff are able to command higher wages, are more willing to switch employers and are incentivised to do so by dramatic inflation-driven cost of living rises.  How can public, private and third sector employers react to and cope with this staffing challenge?

This conference will address this challenge in three parts.  It will firstly review the shape and drivers of the labour market challenge.  It will discuss how organisations can plan, prepare and partner in responding to the crisis faced.  Finally, it will examine the practical action that can be taken to move from reactive to proactive by focussing on retaining and innovating with workforces.

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Topics to be discussed

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• Understanding the labour market challenge 
• The impact of the public finances
• Responding to labour shortage – preparing, partnering and planning
• Joining up budgets, service demand and outcomes
• Making sense of the labour market world we are in
• Adopting partnering across the public and other sectors
• Where is the labour market going next?
• The role of skills development
• Taking practical action on staffing – moving from reactive to proactive
• The strategic priorities facing leaders and workforces – achieving change
• Moving from temporary staff to a Talent Pool

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Who should attend

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This conference will be relevant for anyone involved in workforce recruitment and planning, training, staff retention and engagement, HR management, skills development, temporary staff sourcing and management and all those concerned with labour market shortages and supply in Scotland.  This includes organisations in public, private and third sectors.  It is for those engaged in the task of forming organisational responses to labour market shortages and associated challenges as well as the policy makers, academics and industry bodies concerned with structural approaches to tackling the labour market hurdles being faced.

Speakers