Talent, skills gap among top barriers to growing digital business

Dive Brief:

Digital skills are quickly becoming obsolete, according to data shared during the Gartner 2021 Digital Workplace Summit on Monday. One-third of tech job skills in 2017 fading out when compared to 2021 job postings.
The skill shift strains tech talent strategies, a top point of contention for organizations, according to Amanda Grainger, senior principal analyst at Gartner, speaking at the event. "Over half of the total skills needed in the average job are new, so they're displacing the old skills," Grainger said.
IT leaders list insufficient access to IT resources and a lack of depth and breadth in digital skills as the top two barriers to digital business, according to data cited by Grainger.

Dive Insight:

Keeping companies afloat as digital trends change is an uphill battle. It means keeping work methods and the workers driving daily operations up to date.

CompTIA is expecting not one, but multiple skills gaps to expand in the coming years as technologies evolve. Forty-two percent of companies say they expect to take on new upskilling and reskilling efforts among current employees, according to survey data from the IT trade group.

Data can assist organizations looking to shape their tech talent upskilling strategies.

Start by harnessing the data you already have," Grainger said. In organizations with existing learning technology tools, the embedded data analytics capabilities will help inform what, when and how learners are engaging with digital learning materials.

With data, companies can define what skills are required across the organization, create top reskilling and upskilling priorities, and then "do some external benchmarking and compare and observe what skills gaps exist in the external talent ecosystem," said Grainger.

At Discover Financial services, a training academy created by engineers for engineers shapes the talent development playbook, according to Amir Arooni, EVP & CIO at Discover Financial Services. It also has an impact on workplace satisfaction.

"You're talking about building an environment and collectively creating an environment that keeps engineers happy and engaged in their work," said Arooni, speaking last week during the Forbes CIO Summit.

Designing learning programs can be costly and time-consuming, Grainger said. Companies stand to gain by balancing curated and self-produced content. A number of providers — among them Udemy, Coursera and LinkedIn Learning — offer curated L&D content on a subscription basis.