Can your Business Afford a Skills Gap?

The Open University Business Barometer reports that three in five UK senior business leaders say the skills shortage has indeed worsened in the last year alone. When we look at cybersecurity specifically, the threats are particularly stark. Nearly 100 percent of European enterprises agree there’s a security skills shortage, according to IDC. The implications of that shortage for our collective digital security and national interests are alarming. 

It is the financial aspect of this threat, however, that takes it from the abstract to the painfully tangible for business leaders. Cyberattacks cost businesses an astronomical $45bn in 2018 alone, IDC reports, and presumably much of that cost is attributed directly to hacks and data insecurity.  Then there are impacts on less measurable, or at least less measured, facets of business. Loss of productivity and innovation -- among the first casualties when employees are poorly trained or under-motivated -- spread faster than any virus can in an office environment, and cause irreversible internal damage to retention, culture and reputation. New technologies and IT methods, some nefarious and built by hackers, and others built for good but evolving exponentially fast, are making the challenges even harder to spot let alone tackle.

There are as many internal as there are external hindrances to building a skilled team, and they face every area of business. The recruitment process is simply longer today -- by an average of one month and 22 days -- meaning it’s legitimately harder and slower to fill tech roles within an organisation. At that kind of pace, an applicant might be well-matched to a company’s needs when they apply, but by the time they’ve gone through the hiring process and started the job their skills are outdated. Every week brings a new type of hack or malicious attack. 

With a rapidly evolving threat landscape, HR cannot afford to look for the perfect IT candidate because, simply put, they don’t exist. What’s more, it’s unrealistic and unfair to expect any person, new or experienced, to start their job prepared to take on your specific and ever-changing IT needs. In this environment, hiring managers could do well to move from asking “What have you done?” to “What could you do?” Until that shift occurs, the blunt reality is that many IT teams are dealing with the lion’s share of culpability for external threats, but are underprepared to meet them. 

What are the realities of having an incomplete or poorly prepared tech team? 

1. Productivity. With more technologies to manage, but fewer people available to carry out necessary IT work, all processes run more slowly and existing employees are too busy.

2. Pace. Many employees who are expected to use those technologies on a daily basis struggle to do so, meaning the learning curve is insurmountable right out of the gate.

3. Retention. A steep learning curve in addition to a high volume of daily job responsibilities puts employees at greater risk of poor performance reviews, being let go, or quitting out of their own frustration.

4. Reputational damage. Websites like Glassdoor give prospective employees and clients a behind-the-scenes look at the culture of any company, and if IT or performance issues are prevalent, disgruntled former workers won’t hold back from sharing that with the wider world. 

All of this internal strife around IT threatens companies with the loss of valuable business. Every digital interaction or transaction can and does impact, positively or negatively, a razor-thin competitive edge. That’s the obvious, known threat. But internal discord and deep-seated tech inefficiencies also perpetuate the very weaknesses and vulnerabilities that make underperforming companies a prime target for external threats. That threat is often harder to see and address. 

Closing the IT skills gap will markedly strengthen the cybersecurity of UK businesses, but business leaders who think there is a shortcut to doing so are mistaken. A long-term solution to the cybersecurity issue will involve a hefty investment of willpower and forward-planning, and a commitment to changing the mindset of employers and employees alike. 

Technology is changing the ins and outs of business, and if we look closer, it’s changing the very essence of what it means to work and to be employed. That change is exciting and challenging, and it’s also why the risks are so great. But the answer isn’t “don’t adopt new technology”. The UK can ill afford to lose more of its momentum or standing as a global economy. The impact of doing so would be dire. Consultancy.uk reports that the skills gap we’re facing could lead to the power of digitalisation going unrealised, “with the UK facing forgoing more than £140 billion to that end.” On the contrary, now is the time to become more fluent and comfortable with the technology we have and expand our peripheral vision to see where digitalisation is really heading and what it can do for us. 

Some level of IT threat will always exist regardless of skill and preparedness. But most of the UK’s digital vulnerability can be ameliorated by improving the adaptability and preparedness of our workforce. That comes from changing the way we think about training and skills development. 

It’s very rare in business to find a panacea for challenges, but industry benchmarked training is about as close as we can get. If we in IT are all constantly learning...if we embrace our inherently flawed or dated understanding of tech, become comfortable with our lack of perfect knowledge, and use that humility to improve, to train and work together as teams, we stand a chance of closing the IT skills gap. Only then can we move from being reactive to external threats, to facing them head-on. Our time can then be spent on true innovation and embracing the positive, transformative power of technology.