I play in a local cribbage (crib) league, with ten players playing for
each team. You play in pairs, which means there are 4 players a game.

Last Thursday, our ‘skipper’ was having to make the rounds to let us all
know that our opponents couldn’t field enough players. An hour later however,
we were getting the news that we were in fact playing.

During the game, it became apparent
that our opponents had been forced to rope in anyone that had some connection
to crib.

One of the opponents I was playing
against made a comment along the lines of “I vaguely remember the game”. The
opponent in question was the child of the captain of our opponents (who’d had
to travel close to an hour to play). To their credit, they played a very good
game!

Back To The World Of Staffing And Recruitment.

Our opponents at one point had a team (staffing) shortage. They were
able to bring in additional players (temps), which allowed them to play the
match.

It is widely documented that there is a skill shortage in the UK at the moment, with thousands of positions available. A key list of professions where there is a shortage of talent in the UK is the “United Kingdom Shortage Occupation List“

The list isn’t in a format that is the easiest to understand, being grouped by “Standard Occupation Classification” (SOC) codes. To give a general idea, here are 32 jobs which are in high demand in the UK:

1. Civil Engineers
2. Mechanical Engineers
3. Electrical Engineers
4. Electronics Engineers
5. Design and Development Engineers
6. Production and Process Engineers
7. Programmers
8. Web Design/ Web Developers
9. Cybersecurity Specialists
10. Doctors
11. Nurses
12. Psychologists
13. Vets
14. Medical Radiographers
15. Occupational therapists
16. Speech and Language Therapists
17. Maths Teachers
18. Physics Teachers
19. Computer Science Teachers
20. Mandarin Teachers
21. Informatician
22. Bio-informatician
23. Architects
24. Landscape Architect
25. Quantity Surveyors
26. Social Workers
27. Quality Control and Planning Engineers
28. Paramedics
29. Classical Ballet Dancers
30. Graphic Designers
31. High Integrity Pipe Welders
32. Head Chefs

If you are recruiting one of the above positions, the UK Government
recognises that recruiting from outside of the EU is, in all likelihood, the
fastest way to fill the role as there are too few suitably trained people in
the country.

If on the other hand, if you aren’t
recruiting a position on the occupation shortage list, there are certain criteria which you have to follow.

1. You need to be posting a job twice (two different job sites)
2. The job advert needs to be live for at least 28 days, or broken into two stages, with a minimum stage length of 7 days.
3. You need to demonstrate that none of the applicants were suitable

Using a system such as an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to keep track of your job applicants, might help you to prove that none of the applicants were suitable.

We recommend reading Centralising Recruitment With ATS.

You may have to demonstrate that the salary you were offering for the role was appropriate and you will probably need to include it in all adverts. If you end up paying someone you are sponsoring a higher rate than advertised, you will need to re-advertise your role to demonstrate that no one in the country is suitable.

Hopefully, this post has helped
highlight a number of roles which are in short supply, with the start of the
process which you might need to go through. We are involved in recruitment, not
immigration, so please seek guidance from an appropriate professional.