“Schooling doesn't assure employment but skill does.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words
Pay attention to the news stories about the hiring challenges facing companies around the world and a common narrative emerges. Loads of jobs, in virtually every industry, but a lack of talent hampering recruiting efforts.
And the situation appears even more daunting in the tech sector given the competition for talent. Why? Because every company is now a tech/digital company. If they hadn’t already, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated efforts to adopt and deploy new technologies to help businesses pivot and stay afloat over the last year and a half.
According to our latest report, Stack It Up: Tech Skills in Demand, we found tech-related jobs make up more than 50% of the top 20 in-demand roles. Some examples of the most in-demand tech jobs include:
Data analysts and scientists
AI and machine learning specialists
Big data specialists
Digital marketing and strategy specialists
Digital transformation specialists
Information security analysts
Software and application developers
Database and network professionals
While the search for qualified talent checking those skills’ boxes is ongoing, and an uphill battle, getting talent with the necessary tech skills is just one side of the coin.
It’s not enough to just have the right technical skills anymore
Those roles are in demand at companies across a variety of sectors, from financial and professional services to healthcare to retail and e-commerce, government to logistics, advanced manufacturing, and more, and job functions. And when you couple that with the growing need for human soft skills to effectively execute these roles, demand for talent is going to continue to skyrocket and finding the right combo of skills is increasingly competitive. Some of the top soft skills that are desired are:
Analytical thinking and innovation
Active learning
Complex problem solving
Critical thinking and analysis
Creativity
Leadership and social influence
Resilience/stress tolerance/flexibility
Reasoning/problem solving/ideation
Emotional intelligence
Persuasion and negotiation
As tech evolves towards 5G driven by the rapid rise in remote and mobile work, and demand for cybersecurity and cloud engineering continues at pace, the future profile of talent is morphing.
Two-thirds (64%)of companies do not have the skills required to implement their digital transformation strategy and capitalize on growth potential. What’s an organization to do?
Build, Buy, Borrow and Bridge
Changing workforce dynamics and the acceleration of tech adoption are forcing organizations across all industries to redesign their workforce composition and rethink their skills mix. Companies want to be employers of choice, achieve the first-mover advantage on scarce and in-demand talent, and ensure a durable competitive edge in the market.
Companies must develop sophisticated, competitive workforce strategies to Build, Buy, Borrow and Bridge to ensure they have the specialized IT talent and increasingly in-demand skills their organizations need. What do the 4 B’s entail? We’re glad you asked:
BUILD- Invest in learning and development to grow your tech talent pipeline
BUY- Go to external market to find the best tech talent that cannot be built in-house in the timeframe required
BORROW- Cultivate tech talent outside the organization, including part-time, freelance, contract and temporary workers to complement existing and emerging skills
BRIDGE - Help people move on and move up to take on new tech roles and acquire new technical and soft skills inside or outside the organization
How Experis can help
To maximize the return on digital investments companies need a forward-looking skills agenda: infusing a digital mindset in the workforce and making technical and soft skills development the focus of training and hiring programs.
As a global leader in IT professional resourcing, project solutions, and managed services specializing in Business Transformation, Cloud and Infrastructure, Cybersecurity, Digital Workspace and Enterprise Applications, Experis supports companies to build a skilled talent pipeline with the powerful combination of in-demand technical and soft skills that are critical for business success.
Our team has the data, insight and expertise to bridge the tech talent and skills gap with leading IT professional staffing (permanent and contract), innovative training and data-driven workforce solutions.
To learn more about Experis, visit: www.experis.com.sg