IT leaders and IT professionals believe a skills gap exists, but the two sides disagree on reasons for the gap, according to a TEKsystems survey.
The survey found 80% of IT leaders and 78% of IT professionals believe the IT skills gap is real. Only 32% of IT leaders and 33% IT professionals believe their organization has the skills in house to address their needs.
IT leaders cited an unqualified candidate pool and mismatch of skills as overriding challenges to filling open positions, while IT professionals cited unrealistic technical requirements as the biggest challenge to finding a job.
IT leaders were asked, “Which of the following candidate issues best describe why finding quality candidates is difficult?” Responses include:
- Lack of preferred technical skills: 49%
- Lack of preferred soft skills: 21%
- Unqualified/lack experience: 13%
- Overqualified/possess too much experience: 3%
- Lack preferred educational background: 4%
- Not the right cultural fit: 10%
Similarly, IT professionals were asked, “Which of the following best describes why you were not offered a position for which you were considered?”
- Lack of preferred technical skills: 20%
- Lack of preferred soft skills: 5%
- Unqualified/lack experience: 19%
- Overqualified/possess too much experience: 29%
- Lack preferred educational background: 18%
- Not the right cultural fit: 12%
While 60% of IT leaders reported the skills gap moderately to severely affects their organization, nearly the same number, 63%, indicated their organization either lacks or has uncertainty around strategic workforce planning initiatives.
“There shouldn’t be any doubt that the IT skills gap is real and is having a significant impact on organizations’ abilities to be successful — it can lead to a vicious cycle of lower employee morale, inefficiency and attrition,” said TEKsystems Research Manager Jason Hayman. “The cycle can only be broken by deliberate, careful analysis of the skills needed to achieve organizational goals. A well-defined workforce strategy is by far the most effective weapon organizations can deploy to combat the IT skills gap.”
The survey included more than 600 IT leaders (CIOs, IT VPs, IT directors and IT hiring managers) and nearly 700 IT professionals in North America. It was conducted in spring 2015.
