With businesses looking to embrace new technologies and ways of working, the pressure is on for IT departments to deliver tech transformation. Yet they continue to experience a shortage of talent across a vast range of tech skill sets.

According to the recent Tomorrow’s Tech Teams report, the skills required in IT teams are very different to what we currently have in many organisations today. Continuously evolving technology, fast changes to the market and intense competition lead businesses to demand employees with the right level of skills, competencies and abilities, to allow the organisation to continue to grow and stay ahead of the competition. But this sudden demand for particular skills and specialisations only creates a further struggle with a shortfall of qualified people. So what should businesses do to address this issue?

Rise of non-tech team members

90% of IT leaders believe that the ability to learn new technology skills is as important as maintaining existing knowledge. But that’s not to say non-tech skills aren’t equally important. An understanding of business objectives, leadership skills, and project management skills have become attributes that are most valued in IT teams. And this growing range of skills required is reinforced by two-thirds of IT leaders who expect to see an increase in people from non-tech backgrounds entering their IT teams over the next two years.

To meet the increasing demand of businesses, IT leaders are recognising that they need more from their tech teams. Integrating individuals from non-tech backgrounds, as well as encouraging a stronger growth mindset will help to ensure that individuals are able to challenge the status quo, question existing systems and processes, and bring a fresh perspective on how IT can best meet the needs of their organisation.

The IT skills conundrum

However, building an IT team with the perfect combination of tech and non-tech skills is one thing. Sustaining it is quite another.

One of the key factors in maintaining a successful team is being responsive to emerging tech trends. It’s important to stay one step ahead and become a proactive innovator, and one of the best ways to do this is for IT leaders foster a culture of learning and development. Individuals should be given the opportunity to up-skill in different ways in order to help drive this culture change. For example, offering flexibility to work across different areas of the business and learn from different people, along with mentoring and coaching in tech and non-tech skills. Failure to do this will not only affect your ability to innovate, business growth, productivity and team morale will take a significant hit too.

Act now

Now is the time to act. Nurture your teams and put learning and development at the heart of your organisation. You can start by sharing your company strategy more widely, developing a better integration between HR and IT to align business goals with emerging tech. Creating a continuous dialogue between managers and workers will allow managers to nurture and respond to a ‘growth’ mindset as well as uncovering issues at an earlier stage.

These are just a few suggestions. Whichever approach you take, remember – it is all about piecing together a team that is equipped to meet the business challenges and become an active contributor to goals of the organisation. By building a culture of learning, successful IT transformation can be achieved.

Discover more and receive our full list of recommendations with Experis’ Tomorrow’s Tech Teams report.

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