A recent study on recruitment gaps finds that one third struggle to find staff with interpersonal skills

According to 500 business leaders, finding good interpersonal skills is the biggest recruitment challenge tech employers face in 2017. A third (31%) of those surveyed in the tech industry said soft skills were the most difficult to find among candidates.

As employees now stay at work until later in life, age has become a challenge to – 41% said it was the biggest challenge to diversity in the workplace, compared to just 28% for gender, and 21% for ethnicity. Unsurprisingly, women saw gender as a bigger challenge, with 32% of those surveyed saying it was their biggest concern.

Jack Cullen, president of Modis commented:
“While age is an increasingly prevalent issue in recruitment, diversity issues like gender and ethnicity should not be forgotten. In 2016, women held only 26% of technology jobs, so there is still a lot of opportunity to address that gap.”

As far as ‘hard skills’ go, ‘security and critical infrastructure’ was the skill recruiters struggled the most to find in candidates, with almost a quarter (22%) saying it was the most difficult to find. This is concerning when we consider that “external threats” was named as the biggest potential hazard to tech businesses in 2017 by 40% of those surveyed.

When asked about their priorities for attracting top talent, the decision-makers surveyed also revealed that:

  • 63% believe salary is more important than the longevity of a company
  • 42% said they expect a salary higher than the market average
  • 60% of men in the tech industry said benefits such as flexible working and free fruit are more important than salary
  • When hiring candidates who are employed, most respondents offer an average salary increase between 6-9% (33%) and 10-15% (32%)

 

See the full study by Modis  here