Results of the IET’s most recent annual skills survey, published in December 2021, suggest that almost half (49 per cent) of UK firms are experiencing problems because of the shortage of skilled people in the market. Aside from fighting it out with the competition by offering higher pay, and more bells and whistles, what can employers do to become genuinely more attractive to the scarce pool of talent with science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills?

The longer-term solution is to create a talent pipeline to attract young people to the sector and train them. But this will take time. In the shorter term, there are practical steps employers can take quickly to attract the best people.

To attract and retain workers in this new world, organisations have to offer something genuinely different, that appeals to the type of people they want. That means becoming an employer that is more attractive to people than those they have previously encountered...