Each year, the IT industry faces multiple challenges ranging from talent shortages, supply chain disruptions, and budgetary constraints to rising infrastructural needs. In 2022 and 2023, the industry faces specific challenges related to talent staffing shortages and skill mismatch, among many others. A rapidly changing workforce adopting hybrid work environments revolutionized by the pandemic have heightened these challenges. To learn more, read about the challenges the tech industry C-executives face and how they plan to overcome them with the help of data analytics.
Competition for Talent
One of the critical challenges facing the tech industry today is finding and retaining great IT staff. In 2022, the industry experienced intensified competition for top talent, and experts warn this competition will heat up in 2023. Although distributed workforces have expanded the talent pool, there are simply not enough people with the necessary skills to fill available positions. A recent report from Gartner reveals that IT executives list talent shortages as the primary barrier to adopting 64% of emerging technologies even more so than security and cost. The talent shortage is due to a couple of factors:
- Increased adoption of digitization: The pandemic increased the speed of digital transformation across all sectors of the economy, leading to a huge demand for IT staff to develop and maintain digital infrastructure.
- Great resignation influence: Besides, many workers are leaving jobs en masse in what is now emerging as the Great Resignation trend. The new trend, which started in 2021, involves employees voluntarily resigning from their jobs due to wage stagnation, the rising cost of living, job dissatisfaction, and the desire to work for employers with better remote working policies.
Skill Set Mismatch
The IT industry is also dealing with a skill gap that is becoming increasingly difficult to bridge. Many organizations report gaps between the skills their workers possess and the skills needed to stay competitive in the next three to five years. As the world experiences a rapid pace of digitization, there is an apparent lack of skills needed to succeed in critical areas such as data science, digital transformation, Power BI automation for seamless connectivity, and innovations. Companies are struggling to find existing employees with enough expertise to handle emerging demands meaning they won’t have the staff needed to implement more digital transformation and reach long-term goals.
Maintaining Hybrid Environments
There is no doubt remote and hybrid working is the new norm. With more employees adopting hybrid work, the IT industry needs to adopt a new work model to attract and retain talent. However, there are several challenges related to maintaining a functional hybrid environment. One key issue is the reliability of AV tools needed to connect employees in the office and those at home. Existing conferencing and audiovisual tools present challenges related to cost, compatibility, latency, and network reliability issues. Organizations require consistent, reliable communication and collaboration systems to connect workers from disparate locations. Companies should invest in high-quality AV solutions to guarantee a consistent, reliable conferencing environment and enable remote employees to collaborate seamlessly via Power BI automation.
Combating Cyber Criminals
Cyberattacks have grown in number and sophistication in the past few years, and experts warn that the situation could only worsen in 2023. Combating cybercrime needs continuous implementation of robust cybersecurity strategies. Today, leaders are looking for a single cohesive cybersecurity strategy to best secure their multiple devices, platforms, and applications. Companies are increasingly relying on third-party security providers to protect their IT environments. Managed service providers constantly monitor suspicious activity and alert organizations whenever they discover threats to corporate assets.
Increased Burnout
The heavy demands placed on IT teams have triggered an increase in burnout among employees. Unfortunately, IT budgets have not grown in proportion to the increased workload, leading to further job dissatisfaction. These challenges continue to influence how IT C-suite executives perform their role and their degree of success in 2023 and beyond.
Besides recruiting more workforces to handle increased workloads, organizations are also considering rotating jobs within the department. Experts reveal job rotation allows employees to take on new projects and work with new teams, so they face new challenges and acquire new skills. Organizations are also deploying RPA tools, bots, and smart applications to ease employee workload, keep them happy, and minimize frustrations.
Why Data Analysis Is the Key to Solving IT Challenges
There are too many competing priorities within the industry now, and nobody can afford to waste money. C-Suite executives need data to gain insights that help them make critical decisions, including how to budget. Leaders can also leverage the power of data analytics tools such as Power BI reports to gain actionable insights on ways to attract talent, improve retention rates and create a better work environment that drives productivity and job satisfaction. The following are a few ways data analytics can help the IT industry tackle the problems facing them today:
- Determine the talent gap and find suitable candidates: Organizations must adopt a strategic approach when seeking IT talent to fill vacant positions. High competition for talent and high turnover rates means recruitment is a recurring responsibility. Data analytics tools can help HR leaders determine the talent gap facing them now and in the near future. They can also use data analysis reports to scout candidates for emerging trends roles.
- Improve work environment: One of the factors causing high attrition rates is job dissatisfaction. Leaders can use data analysis from exit interviews to gain insights into the specific reasons IT employees are leaving their organization. With such insights, improving the work environment and reducing attrition is easier.
- Determine employee skill sets: Data analytics specific to HR can help leaders gauge employee skills and experience in light of emerging demands. With such data, organizations can execute strategies to upskill their employees and empower them with new skills to handle new responsibilities.
- Enhance workforce productivity: A key strategy to address employee burnout and increase productivity is to create an employee-friendly work environment. Data analysis can help leaders understand the different frustrations facing employees at their workplace. After gaining insights, organizations can implement ways to increase job satisfaction, including segmenting roles, setting goals, and creating a positive work environment that meets the expectations of each employee. Organizations will also gain insights on automation tools to implement with a view to reducing employee workload.
Why You Need Power BI Report Scheduler (PBRS) in Your Organization
Power BI Report Scheduler (PBRS) is a software by ChristianSteven that offers a complete suite of applications and processes to help you gather, process, analyze, and distribute data in real-time. It comes with an easy-to-use and customizable dashboard an employee can easily access through mobile phones, desktop servers, and web browsers. Key features that can help you understand the problems bedeviling your IT organization include:
- Performance grid.
- Employee retention dashboard.
- Employee turnover dashboard.
- Employee attrition prediction and analysis.
- Training analysis.
Get Help to Customize Your Data Analytics Dashboard
Experts reveal the challenges facing the IT industry can only get worse in the coming years. Competition for the best talent will likely get hotter amid a talent shortage. Finding and retaining talent is becoming more challenging thanks to changing employee expectations, shifting workplace models, and budgetary constraints.
A data analytics tool like Power BI can help organizations understand the specific problems facing them and help them make data-backed decisions to resolve those challenges. CS can help you create a customized dashboard for data analytics to help you maximize the benefits Power BI tools offer. Contact us today to learn more.