Organisations are struggling to find the right talent to meet digital business needs, and new technical skills alone are not enough to create successful digital transformation projects. What more can businesses do to attract and develop talent?
Technology services company Infosys recently conducted a global survey of 1,000 business leaders to discover what companies that are good at staffing their digitalisation projects do differently.
The bottom line is that it’s about recruiting the right people and then developing their skills.
Companies that are good at filling their digital talent needs don’t necessarily pay more for recruits, nor spend more to train them, explained Ravi Kumar S., president and deputy chief operating officer of Infosys, and Jeff Kavanaugh from the University of Texas at Dallas, who heads the Infosys Knowledge Institute, in an article for Harvard Business Review.
Instead, they hire people who can develop the necessary skills and then incentivise them to do so.
Firms that have a robust talent pipeline do a combination of four things, the survey found:
- They look for potential, not credentials. The life cycle of any given technology skill is only about two years. So instead of focusing on technical expertise, cast the net wider and look for a strong candidate who is curious, adaptable and quick to learn.
- They value soft skills as much as technical ones. Skills such as critical thinking, creativity and collaboration are just as important as technical ones — if not more so.
- They think about teams, not individuals. Companies need a mix of skills. In the research, leading companies are much more likely to hire graduates with non-STEM degrees, non-graduates with high aptitude scores, and people with vocational qualifications.
- They incentivise employees to grow. Employees in leading companies know that they must upgrade their skills continually — for example through online courses – and are given opportunities and incentives to do so.
Investing in skills will help companies capitalise on advanced technologies and next-generation internet connectivity, according to our Next-generation connectivity report. Download your free copy to learn more!
