Although many employers in Puerto Rico expect to hire more workers in the coming months, 83% of them state that they are facing difficulties in recruiting the necessary talent, according to the most recent employment forecasts. ManpowerGroup.
This figure, which comes from 1,000 employers of companies of various sizes and in different sectors of the economy, puts Puerto Rico among the countries where employers find it more difficult to recruit talent, which is not limited to the trend. Insula, however, is notable in many other nations.
Specifically, Puerto Rico ranks as the fifth country in which employers have the most difficulties in hiring, after Taiwan, Germany, Hong Kong and Portugal, according to a report by ManpowerGroup, which conducts this survey in 41 countries.
“Puerto Rico has an 83% unemployment rate and a talent shortage. This is how complex the mission is for all industries in Iceland right now,” said Melissa Rivera Roena, Manpower’s general manager for Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.
The executive stated that the talent shortage is a phenomenon that is being experienced globally. “That’s the thing, we have more jobs than people who want to fill them,” he said.
He added that this shortage of talent had reached such a level that he called it “terrifying.” According to data compiled by Manpower, employers globally indicate that complexity in talent identification will increase, from 35% in 2013 to 77% in 2023.
On the other hand, the ManpowerGroup survey shows that the expectation of hiring in Puerto Rico remains, as in the previous quarter, 26%, placing it in 19th place in the world. That 26% puts Puerto Rico above the global average for recruitment prospects, which stands at 23%.
With the added data, Panama (41%), Costa Rica (38%) and Guatemala (38%) are the countries with the highest rental income.
Looking more closely at the prospect of hiring in Iceland, 43% of companies are planning to hire new staff; 17% expect to reduce their workforce; 37% do not plan to make changes; and 3% do not know if they will make changes in their hiring intentions next quarter.
Within the group of companies that intend to hire more people, the figure increases by 2% compared to the previous quarter, which is indicative of “greater hope in the possibility of hiring in Puerto Rico”.
The industry with the highest hiring expectations is the communications services industry (70%), followed by the healthcare industry (42%), and the information technology industry (42%). The list continues with financial and real sectors (33%); services and consumer goods (29%); and transport, logistics and automotive (26%).
Manufacturing, a company of great importance in Iceland, is placed with the expectation of contracts of 16%. Rivera commented that when investigating why expectations in manufacturing were so low, experts attribute “legislative moves that are made in the face of new incentives to attract more manufacturing to Iceland”, for which they expect a second improvement. trimester
When addressing hiring expectations from the perspective of company size, micro-enterprises (1 to 10 employees) had a hiring expectation of 43%; small companies (10 to 49 employees) at 45%, while medium-sized companies (50 to 249 employees) had hiring expectations at 14%, and large companies (250 employees or more) at 26%. Rivera commented that the lower figures in medium and large companies “depend much more on financing”, which has been impacted by the growth of interest rates and the uncertainty that has been generated in the banking industry.
Looking at the rental expectation by the different regions of Puerto Rico, the northern zone leads with 36%, followed by the southern zone (33%), the western zone (30%), the eastern zone (25%), the metro (20%), and the central zone (18%) He stays with the lowest expectation of the conduct.
When assessing the technical companies most looking to hire, the greatest demand for “hard skills, that is, superior experience”, is in: information technology (or IT, as it is known by its acronym in English) and data analysis; engineering, sales and marketing, operations and logistics, and customer service.
On the other hand, among the “quantity skills”, those “which are difficult to measure in institutions”, because it is not something that is reflected in some part, are the most sought after: self-discipline, resilience and adaptability, critical thinking. thinking and analysis, creativity and originality, reasoning and problem solving.
Regarding this particular “soft skills”, Rivera Roena affirmed that “the human part stands out as a fundamental basis in the process to identify our talent”, adding that the aspect “becomes more critical today when we see that 77% at the company level say they have a condition to identify talent and a total lack of talent it is”.
Faced with this situation, he explained, Manpower is much more involved in the personal interview or candidate evaluation processes, which precede the experience, include many questions, open-ended questions such as “what would you do in situations, how would you like to handle them. or how did you overcome them, and so a little more carefully We value the figure of the people.
To the questions of the journalists and businessmen who participated in the presentation, Rivera Roena confirmed that, in general, employers “look kindly” when someone has started his initiative and has taken the risk of making his project or company, what he sees. increased during the pandemic.
He also stated that, after the remote and hybrid adapted work, which has been forced during the pandemic, companies must take into account, give many talents to other more valuable systems, so that they have more time with their family and adaptations and have the necessary flexibility to attend to this new reality.
“Yes, you can work remotely and be productive. But I have to measure you. I will make sure that quality is not lost. And I care about being well, that’s part of health, which is important. And we had to think or create that from today to today, that people did not want to return,” Rivera Roena commented. “Because yes, we are living in a beautiful sad and tragic (pandemic) experiment.”
“We have more humane needs. And we saw the need to do it, because it is not necessary to be attractive and add $10, more than it can say, for example, to work in person until 12, but to work in the afternoon at home so you can do it. personal management,” he commented. “And we were so affected, because in the face of this kind of flexibility we did not know how to measure productivity. But we are happier. Because nothing is more important than the balance of family and work. And how good it is to work in this company that I can do.”
Companies must innovate, be more flexible, and consider and adapt to the needs of these talents “to create a more enjoyable work environment with greater commitment.”
“We must achieve that when we see this number of 26% of the net expectation (of hiring) … the question is, how do we ensure that this 26% is transferred into a job created, because it contributes to the economy, because it contributes to family life, because it brings experience”, insisted the executive , calling on all associations and industries to collect ideas and objectives and praising academic institutions that have made adaptations to the generative changes and challenges that have arisen. from the pandemic
Let’s reinvent ourselves, because identification 10 years ago is not the same as identification today. Before you had ten candidates for a vacancy. You already have ten vacancies and no candidates”, he repeated.
