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Entrepreneurs are afraid that they will run out of employees
An example here is the manufacturing industry. According to Intelligence Group analysis, in 2012 only 7% of European manufacturing companies faced staff shortages. Last year this percentage increased to 26%. The situation is even more difficult in logistics. A study by Descartes Systems Group shows that today three quarters of European logistics operators suffer from a labor shortage.
Native perspective
In Poland, in the period from 2012 to 2023, the number of companies from the industrial sector whose operations are hindered by the lack of employees has doubled. There is currently a shortage of approx. 300,000 workers in the trade industry. employees, according to recent media reports. As for the logistics sector, over 320,000 were published last year. job offers in this industry. Data from the Central Statistical Office show that the total employment in this area of the economy is approximately 955,000. people, which clearly indicates the scale of demand for personnel. And it can make you realize how much this sector may lose due to unfilled positions.
A very large, if not overwhelming, part of these advertisements concerned the position of a warehouseman. In the case of the commercial sector, the greatest shortage of staff occurs in the case of cashier positions. In the production industry, as many as ¾ of enterprises in Poland report a problem with a shortage of non-specialist employees, according to the study prepared by Tikrow "Market of regular employees 2024. A perspective for retail, production and logistics".
Application? There are widespread difficulties not so much in finding highly qualified specialists, but above all in finding employees performing non-specialized tasks that are fundamental to maintaining business continuity. Especially in the case of the three economic sectors mentioned.
– One of the main topics of conversations with our clients is the issue of losses caused by personnel shortages regarding non-specialist employees. And although companies usually do not have tools that can precisely calculate how much they lose due to reduced productivity, they agree that we are talking about significant amounts. These result from missed opportunities for higher revenues due to serving fewer customers, reduced production volumes and delayed supply chains. Hence the rather perverse, but accurate thesis that the most expensive employee is the one who does not exist – says Krzysztof Trębski, member of the Tikrow management board.
How much does the lack of employees cost?
Losses should therefore be understood as the loss of opportunities and potential to achieve higher sales, production or efficiency. This is confirmed by the companies themselves participating in the above-mentioned study "Market of regular employees 2024". In the trade industry, as many as 44% of companies lose customers due to lack of labor. In turn, 56% of enterprises record delays in the execution of orders due to a shortage of employees. In industry, 1 in 2 companies have to stop working due to staff shortages, and 41% have difficulty acquiring new customers as a result. There is still logistics, where 45% of companies record delays due to staff shortages.
Although the value of losses caused by labor shortages will be different for each company, one can try to recognize the scale of costs related to this problem in a broader perspective. Deloitte in its study “Skills gap in manufacturing. Future of manufacturing: the jobs are there, but where are the people?” he calculated that in the period 2018-2028, the American GDP may be deprived of as much as USD 2.8 trillion, which will not be generated precisely due to the shortage of workers in the local production sector.
Let's look at the example of Germany, which is much closer to us. At the end of last year, the local Chamber of Commerce and Industry reported that as many as half of German enterprises had difficulties in recruiting employees, which meant as many as 1.8 million unfilled vacancies. The announcement was accompanied by a calculation according to which the economy of our western neighbor will be deprived of over EUR 90 billion in 2023, which, to put it bluntly, will not be generated due to staff shortages.
– This is important not only for the condition of individual companies, but also for entire national economies, which are often deprived of very significant funds due to the inability to implement their plans and the need to reduce their productivity. Since it is usually very difficult to measure how much a specific company will lose due to a shortage of employees, it is worth looking at the calculations on a macro scale to see that we are dealing with a really big problem. However, it is increasingly opposed by the Gig Economy and the growing share of casual work, i.e. non-specialized workers ready to fulfill orders from one day to the next – comments Krzysztof Trębski from Tikrow.
Gig Economy to the Rescue?
Of course, casual work cannot be a substitute for highly specialized employees, whose shortage is also felt in both the Polish and European economies. However, it has a chance to eliminate the shortages among employees performing simpler activities that do not require high competences, while at the same time relieving the work of specialists who can thus become more efficient in their field.
The Tikrow Casual Work Index, published quarterly, shows that since the beginning of the year, the interest in casual work among trading, production and logistics companies has not decreased. According to the latest edition of the survey, 61% of companies will seek support for temporary workers this quarter. More than 1/3 of them admitted that they would go this route due to great difficulties in finding permanent staff of non-specialist workers.
