Friday 15 September 2023

Skilled workers are key to the success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Europe according to a Eurobarometer survey.

A total of 90% of Irish and 82% of EU SMEs say that it is very important for their business model to have workers with the right skills. However, 70% of Irish and 74% of EU SMEs say they concretely face skills shortages for at least one job role in their company at the moment.

A large majority of Irish (64%) and EU (78%) SMEs surveyed also said that it was generally difficult for them to find workers with the right skills, and more than half of them (51% and 53% respectively) said that they found it difficult to retain skilled workers. 

Also, nearly four in five companies say in the survey it is generally difficult for them to find workers with the right skills, and more than half of them (53%) find it difficult to retain skilled workers. 

A total of 95% of all SMEs say that it is very (82%) or moderately (13%) important for their business model to have workers with the right skills. 

However, three quarters (74%) of SMEs in Europe say they concretely face skills shortages for at least one job role in their company at the moment. This situation holds nearly two-thirds (63%) of the companies back in their general business activities. Nearly half of them (45%) also say it hinders their efforts to adopt or use digital technologies, and four in 10 (39%) see difficulties to green their business activities. 

When they face skills shortages, SMEs already apply a broad set of measures to find and retain workers. This includes efforts to make better use of talent within the company (eg staff mobility or job rotation), more investment in training, or increasing the attractiveness of jobs in terms of financial and/or non-financial benefits. 

To make it easier to recruit staff with the required skills, SMEs say they would need better collaboration with public employment services (58%), better tools for assessing the skills of applicants (49%), and better tools for assessing the company’s skills needs (46%). Many companies also wish easier procedures to recruit staff from outside the EU. 

Full survey results can be viewed here.