Published on the 04/07/2023 | Written by Heather Wright

As hiring takes backseat to doing more with those you already have…

Local companies are increasingly looking inwards – and to upskilling – for their workforce requirements, Gartner says, with the analyst firm urging local companies to get on the ‘quadrant’ train and create internal skills roadmaps to guide them.

The company has long been known for its ‘Magic Quadrants’ which provide a graphical competitive positioning of technologies, or vendors, in different markets.

Neha Kumar, senior advisory director at Gartner, says it’s a tool she’s advocating clients use too, as the company fields increasing questions on how to continue their digital journeys amidst ongoing skills shortages.

“Every time you accumulate a new badge you get a step closer to becoming a data scientist.”

A recent global Gartner survey showed 81 percent of large enterprise CIOs were planning to increase their IT headcount this year. However, Kumar told iStart, that’s not the case for Australia and New Zealand.

“Hiring is still very important because the demand for digital work in most organisations is still very high, but with the overall budget constraints and economic uncertainty we are seeing local CIOs reducing their reliance on hiring as their first step for every digital need,” she says.

Instead, organisations across Australia and New Zealand are battening down the hatches and looking to do more with less – or more with the people they already have.

“We are starting to see hiring freezes in place, and organisations are having to justify a lot more in order to be able to go to market for those roles, so they’re taking the conversation in the direction of who to do more with the people they have.”

Which brings us to the skills quadrant.

Gartner has its own skills quadrant, but Kumar says clients are also creating their own in order to highlight the skills their organisation needs in the coming years, tightly aligned to their specific business needs.

“Progressive CIOs in the region are forecasting for technology skills in the next couple of years and building that skill roadmap for their people to see which areas where more skills are needed.”

Kumar says clients’ skills maps are created around a vertical axis showing a technology’s importance to the organisation’s specific needs, and the horizontal axis showing any gaps.

“Where the importance is high and your gaps are high – those are the areas where you want to show people the need for upskilling,” Kumar notes.

Companies are getting more innovative with that upskilling too, introducing gamification, badges, rewards and recognition as they step up the pace to get teams trained in the high demand technologies needed.

“The skills road map is a first step to get the message out, but then you need to make the journey a bit more tangible for people. You’re not expecting them to pivot overnight and become an expert in AI. You need to show them the path to take.”

As well as clearly articulating the path to upskill, companies are highlighting the big benefits people willing to walk that path will gain – from promotions and increased pay to new roles.

“One example we have seen is where an organisation introduced digital badging as a way to encourage people – showing the badges they can accumulate and the role they will unlock for you.

“So, there are learning pathways to become a data scientist for example and every time you accumulate a new badge you get a step closer to becoming a data scientist.”

Workforce data for A/NZ shows upskilling and career growth are key areas employees are looking for in their job – and are a criteria which has climbed significantly in the last few quarters, providing further incentive for companies.

The learning pathways are open to those beyond the IT department too, she notes.

“The communities of practice we are seeing are no longer just for IT staff. They are opening learning up to people within the wider business as well, because the reality is there are so many technologists within an organisation who are outside of IT.”

Kumar says the companies winning in the upskilling race are also using more experiential, on-the-job, learning, noting that taking time away from day-to-day work often isn’t desirable.

“Trainings don’t get as much uptake until there is on-the-job learnings – if you are willing to commit to this learning you can get on a project right away, working with someone else who is already doing it so you can see how it is applied.

“It’s more bite-sized, micro bursts of learning, where you start to learn on the job rather than having to carve time out from day-to-day work.”

Organising communities around learning is also proving a winning strategy, Kumar says.

“The tip we bring to conversations is around organising a community around learning, getting people to learn from each other, building a bit of gamification and competition around learning and having learning champions who are going to show others how they came on their journey.”

For organisations who can get their upskilling pathways right, there’s also potential to harness less skilled workers – something Kumar says A/NZ companies are only too aware of.

“Organisations are realising that hiring all the time is always going to be a reactive approach: When you go to market to hire, those roles are already open so you need people who are already proficient in those particular skills because you need them to be successful on the job from day one.”

Those people are also more expensive, she notes.

To break that cycle, some organisations are increasingly looking to graduates who are willing to commit to upskilling, hiring not just for skills, but for that willingness, and integrating them into the internal community of practice.

“It’s not possible in every organisation, however. When I speak to government clients, theyneed to justify the role and show a five or 10 year need for it before they can hire people in, so they are restricted in bringing fresh talent in for roles that may not exist today.”

Generative AI’s talent implications

Another hot topic for talent conversations is, unsurprisingly, the implications of generative AI, and Kumar says one area of concern holding companies back is the question of how to get staff to use the technology.

While it might still be in its early stages, Kumar says Gartner is fielding large numbers of questions from clients locally about how to harness generative AI safely, how to train up their teams and where they can get the biggest bang for their buck from generative AI investments to drive productivity.

Of particular interest for many companies is how to get coders to use generative AI tools to build code faster.

GitHub research last week claimed the productivity boost form AI-powered developer tools and services could increase global GDP by more than US$1.5 trillion by 2030.

Kumar says productivity gain from generative AI is the biggest focus for most leaders at the moment and the low barrier to entry is spurring activity.

“We are seeing that there is a lot of productivity gains to be had from investments in generative AI, she adds.

“But there are questions IT leaders need to look at such as what it means in terms of integrations, cleansing data, making sure data is usable, architecture implications, and lock ins – they’re already locked in with contracts, this could make it even harder so what are the impacts there.”

Kumar says many clients seem stuck with the question of where to start with generative AI.

“My recommendation is often to put in an AI centre of excellence or community of practice.

“Make sure you are including people from technology, but also from across the business so you get the business perspective and advocates in the business. They get involved in the assessment and prioritisation of use cases, where you should apply it, and then when they go back to the business functions they’re you’re learning champions, creating momentum. “Make it inclusive when you start, rather than at a later stage.”

It’s a practice she’s recommending even for medium sized businesses – potentially hiring in one expert to become a coach, while also augmenting the work of others on immediate projects.

“You might not have a big community, but even for experiential learning, it is a very good way of upskilling your people very quickly rather than trying to hire for all those skills externally.”