How Can Welsh Businesses Best Prepare For Brexit?

As with all periods of economic uncertainty, we need to knuckle down and get on with the job; as a nation, it is what we are historically renowned for doing.

There are lots of politically motivated scare tactics and hyperbole surrounding Brexit currently and unfortunately, when even the Bank of England is getting their predictions wrong, industry is simply just holding its breath and awaiting the outcome of the Brexit ‘negotiations’.

The biggest challenge facing the UK currently is with low levels of unemployment.  Levels are at a 40 year low, and it is a skills shortage impacted by the fall in immigration since the Brexit vote that is hitting most businesses.  This skills shortage means that salaries must rise so that the UK then becomes more attractive to overseas workers. We need immigration to grow our economy.

At the same time the strain on the UK welfare state has dramatically reduced and this is the time for Government to be looking at investing some of this reduced liability in the 8 million people aged between 16-64 who are currently economically inactive.  It is these people who can help fill the skills shortfall in the short term.

Economies fluctuate and as businesses we need to be agile and adaptable.  So my advice is hold your nerve, spend time and money recruiting the right candidates for your business and once recruited, look after them! It is always more economical in the long run to retain and train than to lose and recruit.

Contribution by Dr Debbie Garside, CEO of GeoLang Limited, as originally published in BusinessNewsWales:
https://businessnewswales.com/how-can-welsh-businesses-best-prepare-for-brexit/