I see the recruitment crisis that has been discussed in our pages extensively over recent months has finally reached Westminster.
As I was drafting this blog up on Thursday morning I was going to ask how many government jobs are available now, as Big Dog faced his own staff retention emergency? It was difficult keeping up - even with the help of the BBC News Channel's 'total resignation ticker' they kindly put up on screen. But as he finally realised (via everyone telling him) that his position was untenable, it leaves us all in an extremely weird position of limbo at precisely the wrong time. Leave means leave, doesn't it?
There are certainly now many top governmental jobs that need filling with permanent replacements - and quickly - in order to guide the public and business through difficult months ahead..
Perhaps Number 10 could take a leaf out of Ernest Doe's book and establish themselves a thriving apprenticeship scheme? Because returning focus closer to our home sector, it's great to hear from the dealership today, just what value they place on nurturing their own future industry talent.
Angus Doe tells us, "We are trying to encourage more people into the industry, particularly given the pressures we are all under with regard to recruiting.
"We are delighted to have such a strong cohort this year but we are always looking to expand our training scheme and attract even more motivated and committed individuals to join our industry and build a career with us."
Positive, forward thinking words - and ones that we know are echoed by dealerships around the country who also place apprenticeship schemes in high regard as a means of ensuring their staffing levels into the future. As we are all too aware, there are genuine concerns in the industry right now regarding how to attract fresh blood.
That said, we shouldn't lose sight that it's not just our specific outdoor power equipment sector (and the Tory party) who are struggling. I saw some research this week undertaken by Claims.co.uk that looked at how the current 1.3million job vacancies in the county are broken down in terms of industries.
It might not come as much of a surprise to readers that according to this research - that was done by analysing adverts on job site indeed.com - that in fact the wider retail sector came second only to the health service in having the most vacancies currently available.
Between the analysed dates of 8th June 2022 and 21st June 2022, the retail and wholesale industry was found to have 33,587 job listings available on Indeed.com. Within those figures, product managers at 6,734 vacancies and sales assistants at 5,397, were the most in-demand retail positions. Chuck in workshop technicians and I'm sure many readers will relate to this.
The hardest year
I had a conversation with a dealer this week who told me they were going through the hardest ever year they'd experienced throughout their long career in the industry. To be fair they weren't talking specifically about recruitment, it was more the ongoing stocking crisis - which in itself was leading to a myriad of problems.
Essentially they told me they were constantly chasing their tail. Attempting to keep customers satisfied who have orders placed for machinery promised by suppliers, but that as yet has still not arrived, is all consuming. There is little scope to be looking for new business when as a dealer you are forever firefighting, they said.
What was particularly concerning was that this dealer did not envisage the situation being markedly different next year. In fact it could be compounded by the cost of living crisis biting harder. With continuing price rises and the expected recession this autumn or winter, the fear held was that customers could end up seriously thinking twice before making purchases.
However, as we all know, the network has survived recessions before. This dealer I spoke to - and I'm sure many others like them around the country - accept that it's going to be tough, but they are determined to work through it. We've spoken plenty of times about the network's famed resilience and entrepreneurial spirit - well we're seeing that in action again now.
Dealers will get on with the task at hand with hard work and good humour.
