76% of IT leaders experience skills gaps on their teams

76% of IT leaders experience skills gaps on their teams, but only 56% have plans to train existing staff.

For Skillsoft's Global Knowledge 2021 IT and Salary Report, 45% of the respondents were IT decision-makers with a considerable amount of responsibility within their departments. They control the direction of staff, technology, budgets, skills development, and more. But, with that responsibility comes a multitude of challenges that can disrupt and jeopardize meeting organisational goals.

The biggest hurdle reported is managing the IT workload. Resource and budget constraints also create difficulties for 41% of IT decision-makers.

The heavy workload and lack of resources can lead to even bigger problems for decision-makers when staff doesn’t have the time or budget to gain valuable skills through training and certifications.

Other notable challenges faced include the inability to develop stronger teams, innovation and time management issues, employee morale, and executing with urgency and excellence. These challenges are no doubt a by-product of the heavy workload faced by many IT professionals.

Over the last six years, there has been a significant increase in the percentage of companies that are reporting a skills gap. Skillsoft’s reporting on skills gaps started in 2015 and since 2016, there has been a 145% increase in the number of IT decision-makers who report a skills gap in their department.

Skills gaps create a multitude of problems for everyone in the organization, ranging from internal operational challenges to loss of business. 55% report that it adds stress - a 10% increase since 2020 - while 42% have difficulties meeting quality objectives and 36% have trouble meeting business objectives.

Leaders are also saying that skills gaps lead to projects taking longer, decreased innovation, increased operating and talent acquisition costs, and delays in new hardware/software upgrades.

All of this adds up to a big hit to the bottom line. IDC predicts that by 2022, the monetary losses resulting from IT skills gaps will be $775 billion worldwide.

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