An emerging worldwide battle for IT skills is stopping UK
businesses from re-organising for growth and preventing new
recruits from fulfilling their potential in the workplace. Unless
UK plc changes its mindset towards IT recruitment, it could be at a
catastrophic competitive disadvantage in the future,writes Chris Miller, senior vice-president and general
manager UK & Ireland atCA.
As Gartner emphasised in its
Talent in Trying Times report, irrespective of market
conditions, growth, innovation and globalised brands are paramount.
Organisations need a "right people" strategy ahead even of
appropriate technology. In these conditions, the battle for IT
talent is a global one, causing serious long-term implications for
UK employers.
As competition from other economies bites, China is experiencing
IT skills shortages, while Indian outsourcers refine their business
models with "local" recruiting in Europe and the USA.
Multinationals are planning general outsourcing of more functions
to beat the downturn. These trends are taking away companies' core
IT development programmes. IT and business skills are being removed
from companies and denied to new recruits, undermining of all types
of businesses' long-term development.
Despite hikes in UK education spending over the past decade,
Britain's employers remain dissatisfied by recruits' suitability.
CBI research revealed that two-thirds of employers think graduates
lack the business skills necessary for the workplace. This could
become a wider chorus of disapproval when recovery finally arrives
and workplace talent remains thin on the ground.
Paradox
But there is a paradox here. Britain is failing to understand
and nurture the strategic role of technology at the precise time
when we need skilled practitioners to harness the power of IT to
run the connected enterprise. This is all leading to a significant
gap between the complexity and changing needs of an organisation
and the ability of different departments to meet them with new
strategies, smart technologies and innovation.
As senior management reach for the short-term offshoring
medicine, the real cure lies in equipping workforces with a balance
of technology, project management, commercial and communications
skills to recognise and build innovative alternatives to
large-scale IT outsourcing.
Employers must find alternatives to costly development of
workforce talent in-house. They need to build relationships with
the community, schools and universities to bring exciting business
and IT skills into the way we learn.
Equipping students for the workplace
In the UK, blue-chips, the skills body E-Skills UK, and
universities are updating the perception of IT, with new degree
courses that balance business with technology skills. These courses
are integrating face-to-face mentoring from IT executives and
exposure to real business environments, to cultivate wider business
skills among their undergraduates. Students that are able to
discuss a CIO's role with them face-to-face will more quickly grasp
the potential of IT in the workplace.
UK business needs a more far-reaching and structured approach to
help young people understand the pivotal role technology plays in
business and society. Parents across the globe are no longer
surprised by the way their children bring different technologies
into their everyday lives. Yet the falling numbers of applications
for A-level and degree-level technology courses shows the task that
awaits UK plc in sparking greater interest in technology within
business.
Only through determined outreach to schools and colleges that
inspires potential recruits with technology's possibilities will UK
employers show what IT can do for them. To remain competitive on
the global stage, Britain's CEOs must to fight harder to bring IT
talent into our industry. These brave companies will reap the
rewards - as will a better skilled, more fulfilled young
workforce.