Demand for skilled FM professionals is only increasing in the first quarter of 2023. Many companies have unfilled vacancies and finding the best talent to fill crucial roles is a constant challenge. There has also long been a skills crisis in the sector, which, as has been much discussed, has been compounded by experienced professionals leaving the sector over the last 7 years due to Brexit, the pandemic and retirement.

How Businesses can Reduce Barriers to Re-Entry to the Workforce for Over 50s or How to Reverse The Great Retirement

In the last 2 years, around 700,000 workers aged 50+ have left the jobs market. This is of particular significance to the FM sector as it has an aging workforce which has suffered from a loss of labour over the past 2 years due to Brexit, the pandemic, early retirement, and other factors. This means we have lost some of the expertise needed to productively bring the next generation of FM professionals into the sector. More experienced professionals are a boon to any sector as they can take on a mentoring role for young people who will do their work in the future.

2022 was a year of records for the recruitment industry, with vacancies hitting record highs in the summer and unemployment hitting record lows. The amount of people economically inactive rose too, as people left the workforce due to long term sickness and early retirement. The overall map of employment in the UK showed people moving much more between roles with employment figures maintaining high levels throughout the year, and we expect this to continue through 2023, despite some economic uncertainty.

We are delighted to announce our partnership with the new Yorkshire-based, FM dedicated job board – FM Recruiter. The new site was launched in November, and is the latest edition to the Business Daily Group which include media and recruitment arms covering the Facilities Management and Rail sectors.

Comment from 300 North given to Facilitate Magazine for their September / October 2022 edition. To see the magazine, visit Facilitate where links to the magazine are available.

The labour shortage in FM is under increased pressure. The skills gaps and effects of Brexit have been exacerbated as an ageing workforce re-evaluates its options and looks to early retirement.

At the start of June, 300 North attended the annual IWFM Conference. This year’s focus was on the theme “Agents of Change”. We were delighted to attend to meet many of our colleagues in person again, and to see the keynotes and guest speakers who promoted the good in the profession and the way organisations in the sector can move to push FM forwards to meet our various goals and targets on sustainability, the future of work, and innovation, amongst other things.

300 North was invited to the Facilities Show to discuss how recruiters could tackle skill gaps and shortages across the Facilities Management sector, how that would impact the industry going forward and what can be done to solve it. The panel, titled “Turbulent Times: FM’s Best Upskilling Opportunity?”, was chaired by Mark Whittaker (Chair, IWFM and General Manager, Thomson FM), and had Conrad Dinsmore (Head of Projects, CBRE), Sofie Hooper (Head of Policy, IWFM), Andrew Hulbert (Managing Director, Pareto FM) and Theresa Lamarque (Director of Strategic Partnerships, 300 North), as speakers.

This Learning at Work Week we spoke to our 3 Kickstart trainees about how they have found working alongside external study. Josh and Kieran are our most recent recruits from the Kickstart programme and each have a couple of months left to complete their courses. Joe on the other hand recently finished his 6 months of Kickstart learning with us and decided to stay on with 300 North and take on further learning to attain a Foundation Certificate in Accounting.

300 North, experts in Facilities Management recruitment, is proud to be partnered with Uptree, a careers education and work experience platform championing diversity, inclusion and equality for all. The partnership emphasises an alignment of values between the two companies, and a wish to advance equitable, diverse and inclusive hiring practices.

"My experience with 300 North was very positive. Jenny took time to explain the role in great detail as well as providing considerable support to prepare me for my interview. The team were very friendly, professional and informative. Communication was very frequent as they regularly kept me up to date. I would highly recommend 300 North."