Talent Crisis: Bridging the Widening IT Skills Gap
Today’s businesses are no stranger to innovation. From enhancing products and services with cutting-edge technologies to honing productivity with cloud-based applications and new ways of networking, innovation has become a key differentiator across virtually every industry. In the vast majority of cases, that innovation is almost wholly dependent on a company’s IT capabilities. More IT capability means faster innovation and greater resilience, as evidenced by businesses that rapidly adapted to remote working during the pandemic. But while businesses have been dealing with a disrupted global supply chain and computer chip shortages, another potentially devastating problem now threatens every company’s digital journey—an IT skills gap crisis.
According to Skillsoft’s Global Knowledge 2021 IT Skills and Salary Report, more than three-quarters (76%) of IT decision-makers are currently experiencing skills gaps within their departments. That’s an increase of almost 150% over the previous year, which points to the development of a very alarming trend. Any hopes that this emerging talent gap might be a one-off pandemic blip that will self-correct were dashed when The Learning and Work Insitute reported that the number of young people in the UK taking IT subjects at GCSE level had dropped by 40% since 2015. Throw the so-called ‘Great Resignation’ into the mix, with 41% of the world’s workforce strongly considering a change in their career and more businesses will soon be on the hunt for a diminishing and increasingly valuable resource—IT professionals.
A few years ago you’d have been forgiven for thinking that an IT skills gap was unlikely, yet here we are. What’s more alarming is that cybersecurity, which is now more important than ever, is at the top of the skills gap list with cloud computing closely behind it. It’s very difficult to think of a single industry in 2022 in which cybersecurity and cloud computing aren’t critical business components, so the term ‘crisis’ certainly isn’t a misnomer. If anything, it’s an understatement. According to this year’s Allianz Risk Barometer, cyberthreats outrank COVID-19 and broken supply chains as the number-one business risk. Check Point Software revealed a 50% increase in average weekly attacks on corporate networks between 2020 and 2021.
Businesses that are already ahead of the curve will no doubt be making provisions to increase employee retention and engagement—perhaps offering more attractive packages to secure the best talent—but even that might not be enough to remedy the emerging skills gap. So what should businesses do?
Get Proactive
Prevention always beats cure, and that’s as true for cybersecurity as it is for any other IT problem. Getting the IT skills and capabilities in play to spot potential issues before they become problems is the number-one way to raise cyberresilience. And getting better cyberresilience will not only help to future-proof a business but allow them to focus less on damage control and last-minute remedial action and more on proactive problem-solving and business development.
Continuous Optimization
We’re now living in an age of real-time business. Just as point-in-time audits have become somewhat meaningless when it comes to risk reporting, step-based innovation is also starting to feel obsolete. Today’s businesses need to be in a mindset of constant innovation and continuous optimization if they are to take full advantage of the opportunities open to them. From planning to execution, businesses need to start thinking about working with what they’ve got, as well as planning for the future if they want to earn that sought-after title of being future-proof.
The ‘O’ Word
Outsourcing. By 2025, the global IT outsourcing market will be worth a staggering £294 billion, with 83% of IT leaders already making plans to outsource elements of their IT security to a managed service provider in 2022. Far from being seen as an added expense, enlisting the help of a third-party IT partner is typically done to reduce costs and it can certainly take the strain off internal IT staff who, more than ever, are going to be feeling the pressure. It also takes a lot of the pressure away from HR teams who, instead of managing hires and high staff turnover in the IT department, can get on with helping to run the business.
As businesses continue to navigate the global IT talent shortage, outsourcing is set to become a core part of the so-called new normal, not necessarily to replace in-house teams but to support them and complement their efforts.
