9 insights on how to secure tomorrow’s IT workforce now

If your company has developed a forward-looking digital strategy, but you are still desperately looking for the right IT specialists to successfully implement the transformation plan, you’re not alone. Countless other IT and HR leaders are currently facing an extreme shortage of urgently needed IT skills in the labor market. ?

One of the biggest hurdles to digital transformation today is the shortage of skilled workers.?

• According to the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey for Q3 2022, 76 percent of all IT/technology employers are finding it difficult to source the necessary skills.?
• According to the Talent Shortage Survey of the ManpowerGroup for this year, 8 out of 10 (81%) Greek employers report difficulty in finding talent, while 23% report that IT/Data skills are lacking.

Addressing skills shortages: a critical hurdle for your transformation ??

The lack of available IT specialists not only complicates technical implementations within the IT function but also presents a fundamental business risk. Nowadays, our data-driven business models and all-digital processes are the backbone of business. So, IT staff shortages are:??

• locking up growth with opportunities remaining untapped,???
• delaying new products and services launches,??
• slowing customer experience improvements,???
• jeopardizing competitive position in the face of new market participants,??
• inhibiting businesses’ ability to innovate, and???
• damaging stakeholders’ belief in IT’s ability to deliver, impacting both culture and IT employee satisfaction.??

? ?

How can we overcome the Talent Shortage???

If the skills needed are not sufficiently available in the market, then the obvious thing to do is develop these skills yourself from within your existing workforce. By reconfiguring your existing staff, updating skills, and boosting employee motivation thanks to new roles and opportunities, you can address the IT skills shortage in the long term.??

• According to a 2022 survey, a lack of employee availability is the biggest current challenge for 48 percent of companies in the tech sector there as well (52 percent worldwide, Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey ). As a result, attention is now increasingly focused on the upskilling/reskilling option.?

Building IT skills: Tips for skilling your IT workforce of tomorrow ??

In many markets, there are not enough qualified IT specialists available to support digital transformations. However, there are alternatives. You can close your skills gaps by building up technical talent internally. Upskilling upgrades the skills of your existing IT staff for new technologies and more complex tasks. With reskilling, you retrain proven employees from other areas for use in IT. However, there are many challenges that need to be addressed. ??

The guide highlights the key watchouts for leaders during the planning and implementation phases of such a program, providing you with detailed insights. These important steps include: ?

• Analyses of your company's situation and future IT skills needs, ??
• Building a holistic workforce strategy, ??
• Motivation of your employees ??
• Identifying risk areas such as automation and cyber security. ?

However, even if the usefulness of upskilling and reskilling is widely perceived, not all companies are adopting a promising strategy for it. Many initiatives are deficient, especially when it comes to designing training materials and providing incentives.??

• According to the McKinsey study, there is further potential for improvement in the alignment of training measures with operational requirements or in the use of suitable metrics to measure the value contribution of the programs. In other words, there’s still a lot of work to be done here.??

The following nine insights will provide some guidance on where to focus your attention.?

1. The workforce of the future: Establish workforce planning for digital transformation?

Upskilling and reskilling a crucial lever for ensuring you have a sufficient talent pool to embrace digital transformation. Yet in order for organizations to leverage this effectively, they first need to know where they want to go and how they want to get there. The forecast should be made with a time horizon of at least three years and must consider likely tech trends, developments, and disruptions during this period.?

?

2. Willing and able: Track, promote, and leverage motivation?

A central aspect of upskilling and reskilling is motivation. It goes without saying that this is an important characteristic of employees in general, which you should be tracking and evaluating in one way or another. Companies should also think about how they can specifically boost employee engagement when it comes to IT upskilling and reskilling.?

?

3. Out with the old, in with the new: Solving the legacy problem through reskilling?

In many industries, especially in areas such as financial services, outdated legacy technologies are a major hurdle to digital transformation. For such sectors, modernisation brings personnel challenges. In some cases, there’s a certain resistance to innovation among legacy IT staff, for example out of loyalty to the old technology and a desire to defend their outdated competitive edge. An obvious solution, however, is parallel reskilling of long-standing employees to provide them with the necessary skills for the new technologies.?

?

4. The human factor: Automation requires employees and skills?

Automation is a key driver of many transformation projects and for good reason, as implementing innovative digital approaches can significantly boost productivity. Successful automation results in quality improvements and the cost profile being improved. automation requires further training for non-specialised personnel.?

• Large companies with high levels of automation maturity and well-developed upskilling programmes realise cost benefits averaging $278 million over a three-year period.?

?

5. The hidden treasure trove: Harnessing business expertise across the workforce?

HR leaders can provide support by reskilling business employees, allowing both skills gaps to be bridged and relevant business perspectives to be brought into IT.?

• One UK retail company enjoyed impressive success with such a programme: it was able to identify suitable employees from its stores who had prior computer skills and retrain them as IT specialists in a programme lasting just a few months.?

?

6. Security through know-how: Reskilling as a path to cyber security excellence?

Digital transformation is gripping the world with its technological achievements. Yet far less attention is being paid to the fact that without appropriate cybersecurity concepts, the transition to data-driven business models is destined to fail.?

• IT processes are now central everywhere, with cyber security being one of the top risks in digital transformation, according to Deloitte .?

?

7. Striking their own accord: Create choices and transparency for employees?

Upskilling & reskilling programs should be seen as a targeted offering from which both sides can benefit. An employee-centric approach to the options helps them to be accepted. It’s necessary to remain clear that the programs are entirely voluntary on the part of the employee. And of course, the future role must also fit the employees who are looking to participate in the measures.?

• Companies should create transparency about the possible training options for employees.?

?

8. Strengthening ties: Upskilling/reskilling reinforces employee loyalty?

It’s important to understand that IT upskilling/reskilling is an option that??

benefits both sides and is typically very beneficial for employee retention. The employer gains more qualified and efficient employees for its digital transformation, while the employee gains additional skills and possibly improved career prospects. This way, employees see their role upgraded, are valued by their employer, and are given opportunities to develop further – all of which contribute to increased loyalty.?

9. Achieving more together: Partnering to scale?

Some areas of expertise required for upskilling and reskilling are not yet available in some companies. So, a highly interesting option is to collaborate with relevant external partners to effectively scale upskilling and reskilling.?

• This way, companies not only make use of additional capacities that they do not (yet) have themselves; they can also further increase the accessible talent pool through external options. By reaching out to other groups, they increase diversity, while new perspectives enrich culture and drive innovation.?

Our Solution: Tech Academies ?

Software Engineers Wanted??

Manpower Digital, a member of ManpowerGroup Greece, creates Tech Academies with the aim of training STEM graduates in technologies such as Java, C#/.NET framework, cybersecurity, data analytics, and skills that the market demands today. Through an accelerated university-level program, under the supervision of professors from international universities, we build software engineers ready to join your team and become immediately efficient, since the upskilling and mentoring processes are undertaken by our own experts.?

Our aim is to provide you with useful ideas for building your IT workforce of the future and to help your company prepare for the next phase of its digital transformation.??

With these practical tips, you can effectively overcome your IT skills shortage, to create a highly qualified IT workforce without relying solely on talent acquisition. ??

Take your next step to overcome your IT skills shortages.????

For more information and media inquiries contact us at: [email protected] , 211-1069963.?

Download the guide .