OnRec published an insightful post about the future the IT industry faces and its changing demands along with its present talent shortage. We look at some interesting statistics to come out of its industry research.
What Skills Are in Demand?
Leaders in the IT sector believe the most covetable skills among the industry are leadership (93% of IT leaders believe it’s important), understanding business objectives (95%) and project management (92%). The research was conducted by Experis.
And it is for this reason that leaders believe more people from non-technical backgrounds will enter into the IT sector to meet the current talent shortage.
Other Skills
Another interesting finding from the research is that 90% of IT leaders find the ability to learn new technology is as important as having existing technology knowledge. As technology is changing so rapidly, this ability to learn is seen as more important than a working knowledge of present technologies which is fascinating to us!
There is most definitely a crisis of sorts and IT leaders recognise the need to involve people with additional skills such as leadership and quick learning to both meet the needs of the talent shortage and remain competitive.
Successful IT Teams of the Future
The research also speculated on the future of the industry and what skills a succesful IT team will have. These include;
• Support continuous learning
• Have a training strategy which is responsive to tech trends
There is a problem though as currently nearly half of IT workers say their training program is currently reactive as supposed to proactive. The consquences of this include;
• A shortage of the right skills restricting growth
• Reduced competitive advantage
• Increase in stress
• Reduced morale
• Reduced productivity
What We Think
It’s clear that today’s IT leaders know what’s lacking, and how to begin solving the talent shortage. However existing environments do not currently lend themselves to this ideal picture of the future.
Castle Hill House