It’s no secret there’s a chronic skills gap plaguing employers. Regardless of the economy or unemployment rate, companies are still struggling to find the right resources and expertise to innovate, grow and compete. The sector struggling the most: technology. A recent survey by Springboard found that 73% of technology leaders believe there’s a skills gap at their company that’s negatively impacting business performance. In addition, according to Gartner, Inc., “through 2027, generative AI (GenAI) will spawn new roles in software engineering and operations, requiring 80% of the engineering workforce to upskill.”

This problem isn’t going away anytime soon; on the contrary, it’s expected to grow. The Springboard survey also reveals nearly 40% of leaders believe the workforce skills gap worsened over the past year. And recent research from International Data Corporation (IDC) found that, by 2026, 90% of enterprises will face a shortage of skilled technology workers, costing them as much as $5.5 trillion in delays and lost revenue. 

How Did We Get Here?

There are a confluence of factors that have contributed to the pervasive IT skills gap we find ourselves in today. Here are five underlying causes:

• The rapid rate of technological advancement: Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and cloud computing, are rapidly transforming businesses by driving innovation, differentiation and growth at an unprecedented pace. Given the business benefits, organizations often adopt these technologies faster than employees can keep up, leading to a gap between the implementation of new tools and the skills needed to effectively manage them.

• Resistance to training: Many of the technology related skills businesses demanded two years ago are no longer relevant. As traditional technology skills become obsolete, in-house employees must participate in ongoing training or upskilling to keep pace, but some professionals are resistant to change.

• Burnout: The skills shortage often leaves current in-house technology professionals stretched thin. When this happens, they are so focused on “keep the lights on” activities that they don’t have any extra time to devote to technology training and development. Worse yet, the demanding nature of the job could lead to burnout and churn, widening the IT skills gap.

• Rigidity in hiring: Many organizations hiring for technology roles focus solely on the technology related skills candidates possess. They overlook soft or durable skills, which is a missed opportunity. Candidates who excel at life skills, such as problem solving, communication, collaboration and critical thinking, as well as demonstrate an eagerness to learn technical skills, can also make excellent technology professionals.  

• Ineffective talent models: Traditional training and talent acquisition models, such as learning management systems (LMSs) and IT staffing agencies, are too expensive, inconsistent or slow, and can’t keep pace with changing technology and business demands.

This last point is worth elaborating on. In an attempt to address the IT skills gap, many organizations rely on a mix of traditional, disparate point solutions and talent models—typically some combination of in-house talent, integrators and staffing firms, and content learning systems (e.g., LMSs). While these methods can work, each comes with its own set of challenges.  

In addition to the IT skills gap, there is also a talent shortage, making employee acquisition difficult. In-house recruiting teams are forced to compete for experienced talent in a competitive market, leading to high costs and long recruiting cycles. In addition, hiring in-house talent always comes with the risk of attrition and bad hires.  

Organizations that rely on integrators and IT staffing firms are dependent on these third parties. They also often face high ongoing costs and mark-ups as well as a low return on investment (ROI). Finally, content learning systems often lack measurable outcomes, customization and curation, and result in poor compliance and a subpar experience.

The bottom line is finding global IT talent is hard and getting harder, and traditional methods of building technology talent just can’t keep up. Given the severe impact the IT skills gap can have on a business, maintaining the status quo is no longer an option. In fact, the aforementioned IDC survey found nearly two thirds of respondents said that a lack of skills has resulted in missed revenue growth objectives, quality problems and a decline in customer satisfaction. 

Disrupting the Status Quo With Revature

How can organizations disrupt the status quo? In IDC’s survey press release, Gina Smith, PhD, research director for IDC's IT Skills for Digital Business practice, said: "As IT skills shortages widen and the arrival of new technology accelerates, enterprises must find creative ways to hire, train, upskill, and reskill their employees."  

Revature is a talent as a service company that empowers organizations to do just this by thinking differently about skills development and taking a more strategic and sustained approach to cultivating the right technology talent to support their business objectives. In fact, we lead the market in helping mid-to-large enterprises build a high-performance, skills-based technology workforce.  

Revature has built a portfolio of services and expertise that spans the entire IT and engineering landscape—from application development, enterprise platforms, QA and data engineering to AI, ML, security and cloud infrastructure. In fact, earlier this month, we announced our Total Talent Solution, a holistic approach to building a skills-first technology workforce. Our Total Talent Solution combines two essential offerings designed to identify people with the right attitude and aptitude—both existing in-house employees and emerging talent—and provide them with the technical and soft skills training they need to be successful:

• Emerging Talent Program – Custom-trained talent, continuous technical and soft skills development, and dedicated mentorship to develop the next generation of technology leaders. The Emerging Talent Program provides productive, day-one-ready junior technology talent at 30% lower cost and 70% faster time-to-productivity.  

• Digital Academies – Identify, upskill and reskill existing talent for new roles within organizations. Powered by the eXa Platform, Revature empowers organizations to leverage AI to identify existing employees who are ready to step into new roles or be upskilled or reskilled through a tailored technology training program. The company’s technology academies leverage project-based, hands-on group training supported by world-class instructors for career advancement—bolstering loyalty and retention of an organization’s most valuable asset: its employees. By adopting this outcome-based approach, enterprises can drive high ROI and avoid competing for talent in critical skills.

The best part: We understand that one size does not fit all, so we collaborate with our customers to create a highly personalized and consistent strategy for talent development and enablement. One that fulfills even the most specialized or immediate needs while elevating the skill set of internal teams. One that lets companies grow and prepare for the next generation of technology talent and the future of work. And one that allows organizations to overcome the IT skills gap by building a skills-based technology workforce that is more productive, predictable and cost-effective—putting them in a prime position to innovate, differentiate and take their business to the next level.    

For more information on Revature’s Total Talent Solution, please visit https://revature.com/. To find out how Revature can help you transform your workforce, contact us today.