Seventy percent of employers say that their organisations are not in a position to undergo a successful digital transformation, in part due to the widening digital talent gap, a new report from LinkedIn and CapGemini has revealed.
The Digital Talent Gap – Are Companies Doing Enough? has revealed that employees in companies worldwide do not have the skills required to meet the demand for digital roles. More than half (54%) of organisations surveyed in the research said that a digital talent gap is hampering their digital transformation programmes, and that a shortage of digital talent has cost them competitive advantage.
Despite the UK having a proportion of digital talent that is higher than the global average, 57% of British businesses say they are responding to a widening digital skills gap.
Other key findings from the report include:
There is a supply and demand issue
Talent with digital skills are in high demand, but job openings outnumber the workers equipped to fill them. For top digital skills, 60-68% of employers surveyed in the study acknowledged high demand for the skill, while only 38-45% of employers considered their employees to be proficient in the skill.
The digital skill gap is a moving target
Digital talent is migrating across geographies, across industry sectors, and across companies. This means that while markets such as the United States, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands see strong net inflows of digital talent, they also rank among the countries with the widest perceived gap between digital skill demand and digital skill supply.
Employees are taking skill development into their own hands
The research also found that 32% of UK employees feel that their skill set will be redundant in the next 1-2 years, with this figure rising to 39% when considering a 4-5 year period. More than half of digital employees (55%) also say they are willing to move to another organisation if they feel their digital skills are stagnating, and more than half of today’s digital talent also say that training programmes are not helpful or that they are not given time to attend.
Professionals are so concerned with their development that nearly 60% of digital talent is investing their own time and money, most commonly to be on a par with their colleagues on the required digital skills.
Sarah O’Brien, Global Insights Director, LinkedIn Talent Solutions, also gave some tips to talent professionals looking to address a digital talent gap in their own organisations:
- Take the time to get to grips with the digital skill mix you need to be successful. Using tools such as LinkedIn data can help you build a roadmap for building your digital capability.
- Match the reality of your talent brand to the needs of the digital talent you want to
attract, develop and retain. By tapping into motivations and priorities of digital talent you’ll be more effective at showing them why you’re a great place to work. - Tailor your sourcing and development strategy accordingly. At LinkedIn, we find stark differences between how machine learning professionals respond to Recruiter InMails vs. Web Developers, for example.
Paul Gray is an entrepreneur and digital publisher who creates online publications focused on solving problems, delivering news, and providing platforms for informed comment and debate. He is associated with HRZone and has built businesses in the HR and professional publishing sector. His work emphasizes creating industry-specific content platforms.
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