accelerate your digital transformation.

how to accelerate your digital transformation and bridge the tech skills gaps

More than ever, the productivity of Canadian companies is being challenged by the scarcity of tech talent and the skills gap.  As part of our Business Transformation Insights Series, we took a deep dive at the current challenges CIOs face. The data provided in our latest edition of the Business Transformation Insights Series has been gathered through extensive research made with Leger 360 with over 400 Canadian IT decision makers and HR leaders responsible for IT talent strategies.

what is keeping CIOs up at night?

• According to data from Salesforce Research in its Global Digital Skills Index 2022 report, 86 per cent of Canadians say they are not prepared to meet the digital skill requirements of the future.
• A poll conducted by KPMG revealed that 80 per cent of the businesses surveyed say they need more workers with digital skills and two thirds of them are having trouble finding and hiring needed talent.
• Almost 80% of businesses in Canada stated that they need more tech employees and 68% of them said that they are having difficulties finding and hiring people with necessary skills, according to KPMG’s report.

an opportunity to re-architect the way you build your workforce

• 75% of respondents said that they experience delays on their IT projects. 
• 35% said delays are in part due to a shortage of qualified staff. 
• Qualified staff shortage was the main reason for delays for 21% of those who experienced them.

Based on these results, it appears clear that executives must make smarter decisions about how they  engage with talent and upskill them for the future. The digital transformation requires more than just investing in the latest technology and hiring skilled talent - IT leaders will need to focus and measure how they are effectively engaging with talent and their employees in order to attract and retain them. The pandemic seems to have accelerated the talent shortage. But, the deeper we dig into the Great resignation movement, the more we realize what it is about. The trend has even been renamed the Great Enlightenment.

Why? Because people need purpose. The pandemic has been a catalyst to elevate personal purpose and values. 

Gartner surveyed more than 3,500 employees around the world in October 2021, and 65% said the pandemic had made them rethink the place that work should have in their life. Fifty-six percent said it made them want to contribute more to society. Understanding the connection that we each have with the organization that each of us works with and being able to articulate that to employees is key to an environment where leadership and organizations are evolving to be purpose-led.

As we both enter a new digital era, business leaders will need to apply a strong strategic, creative and adaptive approach to the way they run their organizations. Outsourcing, investing in automation, upskilling, providing growth opportunities, redeploying IT teams, bringing in international talent, are all examples of how organizations can strengthen and diversify their workforce. It’s an employee’s market and businesses will be competing for the best talent. Employees want to work for reputable and empathetic companies that offer flexibility, upskilling, growth opportunities, and communicate and deliver a clear and attractive employee value proposition. While technology continues to develop at warp speed and businesses try to keep up, one thing is certain, those organizations that refuse or are very slow to adapt and continue to use outdated approaches will be left behind.