In 2024, being a CTO is no longer confined to just technology management.
You're the strategic brain behind driving innovation, shaking up processes, and giving your tech infrastructure a modern makeover. A curious, skilled team is essential to achieving these goals - and yet the recruitment landscape is more challenging than ever. As you know, the technology skills gap is stark.
The demand for technical skills is increasing year-on-year and people are struggling to keep up, unable to access the training they need. What’s left is a significant gap where your IT talent should be.
... of businesses reported an IT skills gap in their organisation (Forbes’ 2023 IT Skills Gap Report)
...of the UK workforce will be significantly under-skilled for their jobs by 2030 (Oxford Learning Skills Gaps Statistics Report 2023)
Your organisation is probably more than willing to spend on qualified IT and tech talent, but the churn rate makes it extremely difficult to keep hold of the best talent. Companies are always willing to raise the stakes and offer qualified tech professionals even more incentives and remuneration.
Vacancies in roles such as software engineering and DevOps are in particular high demand, with Deloitte finding that 87% of employers are struggling to not only attract but retain top DevOps talent. Further to this, future generations of tech talent also seemed limited as the Royal College of Engineering found: “At A level, computer science may be among the fastest growing subjects, but the 16% year-on-year growth represents an increase of just 2,600 pupils or one half of one percent of the total cohort.”
Only 13% of employers can attract and retain the tech talent they need most.
IT leaders are struggling with both retention and recruitment. The demand for qualified IT talent is much higher than the number of qualified professionals available and this makes IT experts an extremely valuable asset. To reach the demand in software engineering and DevOps, you, as CTOs and CIOs need a new approach.
Lack of training opportunities combined with not enough people studying in the areas needed is contributing to the problem. Forbes’ study found that the leading contributing factors to the IT skills gap in the UK job market are rapid technological advancements (42%), insufficient training opportunities (41%) and lack of relevant educational programmes (37%).
Beyond recruitment, retaining top IT talent is also a concern. One Harvard Business Review survey of 230 organisations found that only 13% of employers can attract and retain the tech talent they need most.