Facilities Management Recruitment – A Review of 2021

FM recruitment, or in fact recruiting in any sector has been challenging over the last 18 months. With the skills crisis, Brexit, the pandemic, and the volume of available jobs, it’s been an interesting year for many hiring managers. We look at the key findings from 2021. What have we learnt and what can we all take with us into 2022?

Here’s our top takeaways from 2021 for facilities management recruitment –

The skills gap in FM recruitment gets a little wider

Whilst we may be getting used to living in a pandemic, the turbulent environment is still causing a skills shortage. And it’s not just in facilities management either. The skills gap is evident across many sectors in the UK. However, it’s important to compare this to previous years to get a better picture –

Here’s what we’ve learnt –

• A lack of required skills – 61% of companies have struggled to find candidates with the required skillset
• Recruitment spend is up – 30% have spent more on recruitment in last 12 months due to lack of skills availability
• Salaries have risen – 27% of companies have had to increase a salary to hire someone with the right skills
• Training has been necessary – 79% have spent money on up-skilling and training due to the skills crisis
• Recruitment is taking longer – It now takes on average 44 days to recruit (LinkedIn)
• Recruitment will rise in 2022 – 41% of companies are planning to increase recruitment levels in the next 6 months to help bring new skills to their teams
• Businesses are moving on from Covid – 68% of companies agree that they are optimistic about the next 12 months

(source: Open University Business Barometer)

What can we expect for FM recruitment in 2022

Up-skilling and training take centre stage

CV Library recently reported that over 76% of candidates will be looking for a new job in 2022 and over half (57.6%) are looking to re-skill or up-skill. Therefore, by offering training and development opportunities you can not only attract new recruit more easily, but it can also help you to retain your workforce. Research from the CBI before the pandemic reported that 90% of the UK’s workforce will need to gain new skills by 2030.

The government has also identified that investment in skills is one of the three pillars that will provide the foundation for further economic recovery in 2022. Expect modular based learning and other initiative to help up-skill your workforce.

Diversity and inclusion will be crucial

If you are planning to make your facilities management workforce more diverse in 2022, you won’t be alone. Almost two thirds of companies are looking to make their workforce more diverse and their workplace more inclusive next year. Candidates are also looking for organisations that place importance in inclusion in the workplace.

How we can help with your FM recruitment

We have built a reputation as the UK’s number 1 facilities management recruitment company. From SMEs to large national organisations we can supply all of your FM staffing needs, even in times of a skills shortage.

Here’s what our CEO Simon had to say –

“There’s no doubt that FM recruitment has experienced a challenging year, but despite this, we have continued to help many of the top 50 FM specialists in the UK secure the very best talent. We’ve been building our database of exceptional FM candidates for 40 years and it’s in times like these when it really is worth its weight in gold. We have also put a lot of focus on including social recruiting in our attraction methods this year enabling us to reach more people in less time. 

With some exciting plans for 2022 that will continue to enable us to find the best candidates for you, we are looking forward to a great year.” 

If you are looking for a facilities management recruitment agency you can trust, get in touch with our expert team today.