Multiskill your staff to mitigate digitisation demands

Recruitment specialists say the best way for businesses to adapt to increasing workforce digitisation is to multiskill staff.

Kevin Hayes, the Regional Vice President of OpenText.

Demand for information technology experts is skyrocketing because of increasing workforce digitisation, but recruitment specialists say the best way to adapt is to multiskill staff and avoid the rush for tech graduates.

With worksites becoming increasingly digital — from cafes that allow people to order a preferred style of coffee without cash by using smart-cup chip technology, to nurses recording patient notes on tablets and tradies using phones as spirit levels — companies are being forced to keep up.

In every office workers generally use more than one of their own devices, whether it be a tablet or smartphone. Looking around worksites, chances are the phone system is digital, people are sitting at a computer, there is a television in the background, a photocopier or scanner in the corner, and personal phones in hands.

Given working lives are affected significantly by technology, many businesses cannot function without the use of a computer system to run their operations. And there is a fast-growing need for increased systems security and data protection.

A recent Australia’s Digital Pulse report found demand for IT workers in Australia will increase by 100,000 workers during the next six years — an enormous increase — from 600,000 last year.

By 2020 there will be a huge demand for workers to fill those needs, and universities will have to ensure graduates are adequately trained and interested in general IT jobs to fill gaps, and not be set on working in popular areas such as gaming or app development.

There also will be greater competition from companies to recruit the best talent and, as job jumping becomes more prevalent, they will have to offer their staff more incentives to stay to ensure the best IT staff are not poached by rivals.

IT recruiter Peoplebank’s chief executive Peter Acheson says while graduates and people trained in IT areas are important to any business, companies can make the most of existing staff through multiskilling.

“In large organisations like the financial services sector, the banking and insurance industries, you’ll see people working in other areas enticed across to run projects or work in IT,” Acheson says.

Acheson says the lines between IT work and business management are blurring, as project managers move into tech areas and IT staff learn the soft skills associated with other sections of their business. He says universities are keeping up with graduate demand, but degrees remain unattractive to women and there can be a misconception IT is all about gaming and app development.

Acheson says universities are having to modernise their programs to suit rapid changes in the industry, ensuring graduates can be work ready and up to date when they complete their studies.

Qlik Asia Pacific regional vice-president Phillip Beniac says universities must incorporate more IT-related subjects in humanities courses, as technology pervades all areas of business and life.

“People from business schools are using technology to solve business problems but they’re not IT people, they’re using technology,” Beniac says. “You can be sitting in a humanities lecture but you come out and you’re on your smartphone … it’s about exploring that and how it can be used in a business environment.”

Beniac says the most progressive and innovative companies are those that are less likely to struggle to find the right candidates, because they will offer opportunities for staff to collaborate on projects and come up with innovative business ideas.

That may mean incorporating IT experts across an entire business and multiskilling others, rather than employing tech graduates solely in backroom operations. “People like to do things, they like to explore, they want to be intuitive,” he says. “If people are boxed in they feel they have to move.”