New research from executive and interim recruitment specialist Executives Online shows that a large majority (83 percent) of senior executives feel personally able to keep up with digital advancements in their industries, although more than two thirds (69 percent) believe their employers are not investing enough to ensure that their companies do too.
Andrew Nicholas, Director at Executives Online, said: “It is interesting to see that while senior employees are confident in their own abilities, they are not confident that their employers are doing enough to address digital skills shortages across their businesses.”
The research found that executives in the telecommunications, IT and technology; business and professional services; and retail, FMCG and food and drinks sectors are most likely to be confident about their own digital skills (92 percent, 83 percent and 83 percent respectively). Conversely, those in finance, financial services and banking are the least confident in their own skills (77 percent) and least likely to think that their companies are investing sufficiently in keeping up with advancements in digital technology (73 percent).
The large majority of respondents (80 percent) feel that digital innovation has changed the way that their company does business, but only a third of all companies (31 percent) believe that skills shortages have been caused as a result. Nicholas continued: “Our research shows that digital innovation has had the most significant impact on business operations in the finance, financial services and banking sector (92 percent) and the telecoms, IT and technology sector (88 percent). However, with fast-paced changes in multi-channel customer engagement and the need for traceability, it’s surprising to find that nearly a third of senior executives working in the retail, FMCG and food and drink sectors believe digital technology has not changed the way they do business.
“Our research also revealed that companies are extending their employee training and recruiting digital specialists to a similar degree to keep up with digital advancements in their industries. The investment in both training and recruitment is highest in the telecoms, IT and technology sector (48 percent and 38 percent respectively) and lowest overall in the industrial, manufacturing and construction industries (33 percent and 22 percent respectively).
“At Executives Online, we provide executives with experience across all industry sectors for both permanent and interim roles. So whether there’s a need to bring in new digital skills, or to guide training programmes in-house, we deliver a highly tailored service to match our clients’ needs. Our Global Talent Bank contains over 18,000 operations personnel alone, including specialists in fields such as business turnaround and performance improvement coaching; their skills include the strengthening of existing operations enhancement programmes, utilising Six Sigma, kanban, kaizen, just-in-time, MRP, process automation, and lean manufacturing techniques, as well as overseeing the introduction of business-critical new technologies.”
