Building Skills in IT&T – Focus is Everything
Reskilling programmes require sharp planning, strong experience and a delivered outcome to succeed
Meeting the talent shortage by reskilling and retraining to build the skills organisations need to meet their long-term strategy is often flawed because of execution problems – most critically, a lack of outcome focus, insufficient planning, and weak change management support.
Internal reskilling programmes can resolve many of the skills shortages in IT&T. However, a strong focus on a predetermined outcome is necessary for success
Reskilling opportunities are considered as important as financial remuneration, work-life balance and flexible working options in IT&T
Many organisations offer internally managed training and reskilling programmes to existing workers, but the results can be sub-optimal due to flawed planning. Development programmes that have an outcome driven focus – where the exercise is created with a clear path to the desired result, for example, creating new cyber security analysts to fill a future hole in the workforce, instead of merely upgrading staff technical skills – have been proven to be most effective at creating interest, participation and positive end results.
Conversely, training and reskilling programmes that lack an outcome focus typically suffer from low management input (belief in success) and a corresponding lack of interest by participants (what’s the point?), which leads to student drop-outs and poor participation – a situation with the potential to generate a reskilling ‘doom loop’ where poor programmes drive low investment by middle management - which invites weak interest by employees - creates low participation by students – and continues to drive poor programmes – repeat and repeat again.
According to the Infosys ‘Future of Work 2023’ survey:
Companies that increased their staff retention between 2020 and 2022 were almost a fifth more likely to see increased revenue and profit compared with those that saw retention fall during this period.
65% of surveyed senior executives concurred that incorporating remote working resulted in better staff retention.
Companies that incorporated wellness initiatives, home office stipends, and reskilling programmes saw an increase in staff retention.
Modernisation and automation of digital tools, compensation rise, and bring-your-own-device strategies were also impactful on retention.
Additionally, IT&T organisations that pursue an effective reskilling programme stand to gain more than an answer to the talent shortage – they will also see an uptick in staff retention. Employees stay when they see positive career opportunities and development - and leave when they don’t.
The pace of innovation in IT&T is increasing, with design, development and launch windows shortening in a permanent race for competitive advantage. UK IT&T organisations must continuously equip their people with new skills in order to compete.
No matter if it’s meeting the challenges of climate change, growing the effectiveness of AI, building high-performance robots, or just launching a new delivery app, innovation is key in IT&T. Today’s big idea is tomorrow’s unicorn business, which means training programmes that fit an IT&T organisation’s short-term tactical and long-term strategic objectives, and that will deliver the skills they need to compete in a rapidly changing marketplace are critical not just to success, but to survival. However, according to PwC, only 20-30% of 4,000 surveyed global businesses, including organisations within IT&T, agreed that they are taking strong action to achieve their reskilling goals. This discovery should be considered alongside a World Economic Forum report from 2022 that estimated that 25% of all jobs worldwide have required new skill sets since 2015. More tellingly, they forecast this number will double to 50% by 2027.
Even though most business leaders know reskilling is an effective way to make employees more productive (up to 12%according to McKinsey), and reskilling and upskilling pays off economically in approximately 75% of all cases, many organisations – including those in IT&T - remain confused as to what reskilling programmes are most effective, how to apply the best teaching methods, and what the end-value of the new skills may be.
Additionally, organisations often struggle to accurately assess the business case for reskilling – unable to ascertain the total time and cost to reach productive effectiveness or compare the true cost/return ratios of competing internal or externally-led training programmes.
