When it comes to developing business strategies and formulating detailed financial models, almost all global business executives would say they are experts. But, too often, these “experts” still forget to plan for their most important asset — their people. Times are changing, and relying on yesterday’s skills can no longer ensure that companies maintain their competitive advantages.
Companies need to plan for the Fourth Industrial Revolution that we are now entering, where digital skills will be a prerequisite for success.
The increasing demand for digital talent has put companies under pressure to further understand where talent can be found today, at what rates and of what quality. Many companies have understood that in order to thrive within the current digital economy, they will need to gain further insights into where talent pools will be located both today and in the years to come. The urgency to gather these insights has become even more pressing, as the rate of digital change is only set to accelerate.
Only a handful of leading companies have identified how their human capital needs will change. Even fewer have started planning and implementing the processes needed in order to transform their current workforces to fulfill their future business objectives. The reality is that there are still too many companies carrying on with “business as usual” — focusing on short-term investments, current cash flows, profitability, etc. But are they thinking about how their people strategies will
need to change in the future? In order to safeguard cash flows and profitability, companies need to plan for future talent requirements today. Only time will tell what the consequences will be for those companies not taking any action now. We are on the brink of a fully digitized economy — something no one will be able to avoid.
Given the aforementioned increased rate of digital change and the effects those changes are having on many organizations’ business and people strategies, we wanted to explore what companies are doing to source, retain, attract and reward three of these business-critical digital roles —cloud engineers, cyber engineers and data scientists.
Africa