But with rapid advancements in the tech field come new challenges for businesses looking to keep up. One of which is a severe tech talent shortage. As demand continues to outstrip supply, companies struggle to find and retain top talent in areas like software engineering and data science.
What can organizations do to bridge this ever-widening gap?
What's causing the tech talent gap?
The tech talent shortage is a global phenomenon that has been exacerbated by the rapid growth of the technology industry and the increasing demand for technical skills.
According to IDC, the shortage of full-time developers will reach 20% by 2025. Several factors are leading to this talent drought.
According to a recent report by the World Bank, the shortage of skilled tech talent impacting Thailand's digital transformation is due to a combination of mismatched skills and an inefficient technical and vocational education and training system, which is a big challenge affecting Thailand's future growth prospects and economic competitiveness. The Thai education system must adapt to digitalisation because the higher education courses do not meet the industry or the country's needs.
All these factors end up having a brutal effect on business.
Organisations are often forced to pay higher salaries or offer other incentives to attract and retain talent, leading to increased operating costs. Projects, including critical initiatives, are delayed or even canceled.
There's an additional impact on adjacent industries that rely on technology. For example, the healthcare industry struggles to find enough qualified IT professionals to fill critical roles. This results in longer patient wait times and higher costs for healthcare providers.
So, what can organisations do to fight this flow?
Retention: The key to closing the tech talent gap
It may sound obvious but unless you have deep pockets and are able to compete with the salaries and exciting innovative projects offered by tech giants like Google and Amazon, retention is your best bet.
Especially now, in the post-pandemic world where remote work and flexible hours have become mainstream. You are not just competing against companies within a limited geographical radius of yours; you're competing against the entire world.
But to retain tech talent, you must know what keeps developers engaged and motivated.
Robert Walters releases Salary Survey 2023 report that shows talent offering digital skills can expect to be in high demand with competitive offers, while employers will need to adjust remuneration and benefits to secure hires in a smaller talent pool and to retain employees. Over 84% of companies are concerned about skills and talent shortages in their fields. More than 77% considered this shortage to be at senior/team leader and managerial level. The survey also shows that 9 in 10 companies are consequently reskilling existing employees, with most opting to do this internally. More than 79% have initiatives in place to retain staff, including improved learning and development and a hybrid work policy, plus increased employee benefits and wellbeing initiatives, and pay reviews and promotions outside of the normal cycle. This is particularly important as close to 40% of talent in an existing role are looking for new opportunities, with over 53% wanting to do so to progress their career. The competition for talent will become greater in 2023, as many younger professionals may wish to run their own businesses and would often leave before moving up to middle management.
Tech talent's top three motivations for changing jobs include looking for a more interesting position or higher seniority at a new job (55%), lack of opportunities for upward career progress at their current place (31%), and unsatisfied salary and benefits at their current job (26%). Tech talent also prefers a stable job with a good work-life balance, which 68% of them see as their ideal career path, giving them time for family, friends, and hobbies. Moreover, only 18% of tech talent are willing to go back full-time to the office, while 64% prefer hybrid models.
That's what a new report by OutSystems and Evans Data Corp looked to find out. In Developer Engagement: Are Your Developers Happy or Halfway Out the Door? over 800 developers worldwide shared their insights on what keeps them motivated and engaged with a company.
- Less than half of developers plan to stay at their current company
Most developers love their jobs (64%), but only 48% "definitely plan" to be with their current employer in one year — and that percentage falls to 29% when looking two years out.
- A better work-life balance is the #1 reason to stay
With many employees working remotely by choice, retaining talent has become more complex as financial benefits and "fun" perks in the office are not enough to attract developers. According to the survey, 42% of respondents were confident they could easily find a better job based on the sheer number of job opportunities.
Developers need a better reason to stay.
When asked what would keep them motivated, they answered:
- Better work-life balance (50%)
- Better salary (28%)
- Better team staffing (29%)
- Developers that use low-code are more likely to stay
Organisations have been adopting low-code to boost the productivity of their developers. The survey data not only shows that developers enjoy the benefits of low-code, but also that using low-code correlates with what they identified to be critical for motivation:
- Developers who use low-code are much more likely to report high satisfaction with their tools than traditional developers (57% vs. 36%).
- 49% of respondents strongly agreed that low-code improves creativity.
- 50% of developers surveyed said low-code improves the quality of apps.
- Despite having significantly smaller development teams, low-code developers are more satisfied with the size of their teams.
- Low-code developers have been promoted an average of 3.5 times at their company compared to 2 times for their traditional developer colleagues.
Solve your tech talent shortage with low-code
Bridging the tech talent gap is crucial to meeting the agility and adaptability demands in this era of "digital urgency." The global tech talent shortage is not expected to disappear anytime soon, and low-code can play a key role in ensuring your developers feel productive and engaged.
With OutSystems, you can:
- Increase speed-to-market: quickly develop and deploy custom applications with minimal coding. This can help you market your products and services faster than your competitors.
- Reduce development costs: reduce the cost of developing custom applications by eliminating the need for expensive coding resources.
- Increase flexibility and agility: change or customize your applications as your business needs evolve. This can give you a competitive advantage in today's rapidly changing business environment.
A high-performance low-code platform like OutSystems can help close that gap while maximising your resources and giving you the agility and power needed to cope with the modern business landscape.
Attributed to: Termsak (Jimmy) Virakachornpong, Regional Vice President, OutSystems
Source: inwis
