Insider Media North East Manufacturing 100 Roundtable
GEM Partnership were delighted to attend the Insider Media North East Manufacturing 100 Roundtable event.
The event held on 28th September which saw companies from this years list come together to discuss issues and successes from the previous year and look forward to the future of North East manufacturing was held on site at Gestamp’s Newton Aycliffe plant.
One of the topics which was discussed was each companies recruitment experience – whether positive or challenging. GEM’s Volume Operations Manager, Chris Boughen had this to say on the current recruitment climate:
“I’ve worked in recruitment for 16 years and in all that time the industry has never been as it has over the last year or so. While previously it was generally an employers market, there’s been a massive shift towards being an employees market. Post-Covid we’ve seen a change in what candidates were requiring, what they saw as being important in their career choices.”
Chris further talked about competition on wages:
“People are now looking much more for work-life balance opportunities and working from home. But we seem to be entering a new phase, over the last 12 months as the cost of living crisis has hit which has affected the manufacturing sector hard and is a real challenge for many of our customers. For employers there is real competition on wages now while at the same time having to deal with issues such as skills shortages.”
To read more from the roundtable discussion: https://www.insidermedia.com/roundtables/north-east-manufacturing-leaders