BT’s Future in 2021 survey revealed that businesses view one of their biggest challenges as developing internal skills for technological and digital roles. Rob Waugh investigates
business.bt.com/insights/the-future-in-2021
Find out more from BT’s Future in 2021 survey at
Why bridging UK’s digital skills gap is a race against time
The UK is facing a serious skills gap caused by a shortage of hundreds of thousands of workers with digital expertise. Government research earlier this year suggested that almost half of businesses (48 per cent) are recruiting for roles requiring data skills and almost half of those (46pc) have struggled to find candidates.
UK businesses also suffer from a lack of internal skills, with 34pc of business leaders saying that this is a challenge (and a barrier to digital transformation), according to a survey of 1,217 business leaders by BT.
The challenges of the digital skills gap are growing year by year, says Mark Brill, senior lecturer in future media and creative innovation at Birmingham City University. He says: “While the number of people taking IT-related skills in education has dropped by up to 40pc, there has been an increase in the deployment of advanced technology in the business environment. Cloud computing and AI are rapidly becoming the mainstay across every business sector. These advances have been boosted by the pandemic.”
Employers are also falling short on training, with 70pc of young people expecting employers to teach them digital skills on the job – but only half of employers are able to provide such training, according to research by the Learning & Work Institute.
The world is undergoing one of the biggest transformations in business history, says Zahra Bahrololoumi, executive vice president and CEO of Salesforce UK and Ireland. “Nine out of 10 UK workers will need to learn new digital skills to do their jobs by 2030, at a cost of £1.3bn a year,” she says. “Next year, 65pc of global GDP will be driven by digitised products and services. Companies will be hunting for people skilled in using the latest tools and implementing digital transformation.”
Bringing together different IT systems into a larger system where they work together
of businesses say that insufficient internal skills will present a challenge in the next five years, according to BT’s survey
of businesses say that the lack of skills around system integration will pose a challenge for the next five years, according to the survey
of businesses say technical architecture will pose a challenge for the next five years
of UK workers say they are considering changing jobs, according to Microsoft
of workers have an ‘excellent’ or ‘outstanding’ time in the office, according to workplace analyst Leesman Index
More than four in 10 workers (41pc) are considering quitting their jobs or even changing professions this year, according to research by Microsoft’s Work Trend Index. The trend has been described as “the great resignation”, and occurs as job vacancies in Britain hit an all-time high, at more than a million.
During the pandemic months, many workers rethought what they want from their jobs, says Janine Chamberlin, UK country manager at LinkedIn: “The past 18 months have given many employees the time to evaluate what it is that they are looking for out of their professional lives, with remote and flexible working proving to be top of the agenda.”
Microsoft’s research found that one-fifth of employees said their employer did not care about their work-life balance, and 37pc believed that their company was asking too much of them during the pandemic.
“Julie”, a worker at a digital marketing agency, says that her bosses piled on pressure during lockdown. “I feel there has been greater pressure to prove that we’ve been working hard, as our employers aren’t seeing us physically at our desks,” she says.
“At the height of the pandemic my work-life balance was in shreds as it was assumed we would happily work any hour of the day because it was not as if we would be doing anything else. Yet there has never been any acknowledgement of the extra work. Lunch breaks are a thing of the past as are many aspects of the job that made it enjoyable prior to the pandemic.” She says she now plans to leave her job.
The pandemic has led workers to question the status quo, says Jane Amphlett, head of employment at law firm Howard Kennedy: “Widespread remote working has debunked many of the reasons employers gave in the past for refusing flexible working applications, and has made flexibility and work-life balance a priority for many workers, not just working parents. They are often less willing to accept ‘That’s how we have always done it’ as a reason for resisting change. Staff have bided their time until lockdown was over before looking for new jobs.”
The skills gap is a growing problem for UK businesses, BT’s research shows. Skills in three specific areas are in high demand: system integration, technical architecture and cybersecurity.
Designing IT systems so that different elements interact to meet a business’s needs
Protecting businesses against criminal use of electronic data
System integration is the No 1 challenge for 40pc of businesses, especially small and medium businesses, according to BT’s survey. Technical architecture is the top challenge for 38 pc of businesses and cybersecurity for 33pc, the research found.
Find out more from BT’s Future in 2021 survey at
business.bt.com/insights/the-future-in-2021
To attract employees with sought-after skills (such as developers), employers may have to rethink their approach, says Jane Amphlett: “Candidates with valuable skills in short supply are expecting that to be reflected in their salaries – particularly with the rise in the cost of living and the National Insurance increases,” she says. “There are also plenty of ways to incentivise employees that are less costly but are valued by staff. Innovative businesses are increasingly embracing a results-driven culture rather than one based on presenteeism, focusing on output rather than when and where individuals work.”
Overhauling employee experience
“Mental health continued to be a top priority during the pandemic. We replaced essential training with more than 270 virtual sessions covering stress management, mental-health awareness and more. We also introduced a Wellness Committee to discuss employee needs, which led to initiatives such as a ‘happy hour’ to encourage people to take a break from their desks, motivating playlists and Wellness Wednesdays, which provided tips to ensure people think about their well-being. Job satisfaction has risen to 90pc. Retention has also increased and sickness absence days were reduced by 44pc.”
Emily Tune, group associate director, New Directions:
“As a mission-led business, 2021 has been a pivotal moment in our diversity and inclusion culture. This is why our initiative ‘I’m In’ was born. It includes activities, talks and the chance to mentor schoolchildren from disadvantaged backgrounds through a partnership with a charity, MyBigCareer. ‘I’m In’ is designed to bring employees together, improve understanding and address unconscious biases.”
Emma Vass, CEO of Ecotone
“With digital technology evolving all the time it is essential that our people feel that the site environment is as advanced as our offices and the technology they use at home. Our whole transformation strategy is built entirely on the feedback from our people – we’ve not second-guessed any of it.”
Alan Ramsay, Chief Information Officer, Willmott Dixon
Business leaders recognise that employee expectations have changed. A quarter of UK businesses say that offering hybrid working is a priority, according to BT’s survey of business leaders.
Staff enjoy remote work: a study of more than 250,000 remote workers by analysts Leesman Index found that 83.5pc said working from home improved productivity and 71.5pc said it improved work-life balances. Just 25pc said they had an “excellent” or “outstanding” time in the office.
Businesses need to be bold in their response, says Louise Aston, well-being director at Business in the Community: “It’s utterly unacceptable that 41pc of employees have experienced work-related poor mental health in the past year, which would not be tolerated if they were experiencing physical injuries,” she says. “Most health promotion interventions don’t address the issues of poor job design. Remote and hybrid ways of working have created the exciting opportunity to enhance wellbeing at scale.”
Hybrid working allows employees flexibility, while bringing the benefits of in-office collaboration
Hybrid working
Listening to employees is a good way to boost employee experience
Employee surveys
Offering meeting-free days allows employees to have a break
Meeting-free days
Training can help employees manage their stress and be more aware of their mental health
Mental-health training sessions
A strong diversity strategy can help businesses attract top talent
Diversity inclusion groups
In the future, digital skills will be as important as reading and writing, says Zahra Bahrololoumi, executive vice president and CEO of Salesforce UK and Ireland: “The pace of digital transformation has hastened and we are at an inflection point. Reskilling is now a national priority,” she says.
Salesforce introduced Trailhead, an online learning system which teaches skills such as marketing, broken up into bite-sized chunks. “Through Trailhead we have already helped three million people embrace learning, taking them from a low level of technical knowledge to a Salesforce role in as little as six months. Since March 2020, we’ve seen a 40pc increase in Trailhead registrations,” says Bahrololoumi.
Partnering with other organisations can also help enterprises to learn new skills and use technology to best effect.
A range of government initiatives (some with financial incentives) can help to upskill workers
Government
BT’s Skills for Tomorrow programme is aimed at helping smaller companies boost digital skills
Tech providers
Online learning courses can teach valuable skills to a remote workforce
Online learning
In-house mentors can help employees develop useful digital skills
Mentors
Leading construction company Willmott Dixon listened to their people when they planned how to digitally transform, identifying “pain points” in their day-to-day operations and ensuring that their digital transformation was driven by people.
That has made it easier to get employees to adopt new, digital ways of working, says Alan Ramsay, chief information officer at Willmott Dixon: “When we’ve come up with solutions that directly hit the opportunities and pain points our people raise, it makes it a lot easier to get people to listen and look at the solutions.”
Willmott Dixon partnered with BT to take advantage of BT’s expertise in helping companies to plan for tech investment. Ramsay says: “We specifically wanted to have large partners that could offer a really broad range of capabilities so that we could build a strong relationship with them to leverage all the possible technology and innovation that we could.”
The company introduced new cloud-based ways of working, which has been hugely enhanced by 5G-powered access to services such as Microsoft Teams. This has reduced the need to travel to sites or return to a site cabin for people to collaborate – a huge day-to-day efficiency.
The changes cut travel expenditure by 45pc, saving the company £4 million a year. With workers able to communicate more effectively, they were also happier. Before the project, 76pc of staff said they were satisfied with levels of collaboration: after the new technology was introduced, that rose to 96pc. The company could not have continued working through the Covid pandemic were it not for the technology, Ramsay says. “When the problems the technology is addressing are clear and quantifiable, and when you can talk about the efficiencies gained in real terms to anyone, then the investments make sense.”
34%
40%
36%
41%
of UK workers say they are considering changing jobs, according to Microsoft
41%
518,000 extra digital workers will be needed by 2022, according to Government research in 2018
518,000
25%
Definitions
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BT is dedicated to digital transformation and wants its customers to be ahead of the game when it comes to tech. Find out more from BT’s Future in 2021 survey at
business.bt.com/insights/the-future-in-2021
How to collaborate and upskill
Ways to improve employee experience
System integration
Technical architecture
Cybersecurity
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The skills gap: statistics