Recruiting Daily Advisor recently reported on tech hiring in the United States, citing a survey that finds companies nationwide except to increase staff during the first half of 2018, creating increased competition for tech talent. In Europe, employers are also confronting tech talent challenges.
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New technologies have already started to change staff requirements in the majority of European companies, leaving employers to face a huge skills gap as they struggle to find suitable staff, a new survey shows.
Widespread Difficulty
The survey, conducted by The European Business Awards, Europe’s largest cross-sector business competition, and sponsored by RSM, a network of independent audit, tax and consulting firms, finds staffing challenges related to new technologies are indeed widespread.
Sixty-two percent of European businesses say new technologies have already changed their employment needs, resulting in a requirement for higher skilled positions in 59 percent of firms. In addition, 40 percent of businesses are finding it difficult to recruit for these new positions.
The main reasons cited are a lack of available IT and software solution specialists combined with a lack of high-level training and education available in country. There are also market constraints that are leaving traditional sectors overlooked in favor of tech and financial sectors.
The Future Is Here
The European Business Awards approached the survey from the standpoint of identifying future tech talent challenges, and was surprised by survey results.
“We wanted to investigate how quickly the consequences of the new wave of technology would affect the European business community and the jobs market, and we found it is not simply an issue for the future, but the impact has already begun,” said Adrian Tripp, CEO of The European Business Awards.
“The concern is that as the rate of technology adoption increases the positive impact on competitiveness could become constrained by skills shortages. The increasing mismatch in the skills required and those that are available will lead to an employment crisis unless all stakeholders – business, educators, and government – act now.”
Putting the brakes on new technology investment and implementation is not an option. The survey finds companies recognize the role new technology plays in business success.
The main motivators for investing in new technology (defined as new software that radically changes how something is produced or performed) are to give companies a competitive edge (57 percent), to solve business issues (21 percent) or simply to keep up with the changing market (11 percent).
Additionally, 77 percent of businesses say new technologies have made them more productive.