ABC of Next Generation IT Workforce

Last week, I had discussions on the subject "Shift of IT workforce" with some industry leaders and some of my clients - Here are some of my thoughts which I wanted to share:

IT industry is changing rapidly and the future of any organization depends upon the employees with the next generation technology skills. There is absolutely no doubt in that BUT the way IT industry is changing and the way many organizations are reacting to it is interesting to see. There is aggressive hiring of Next Gen skills by almost all the major IT companies – from Top of the pyramid to the bottom. But where are these Next gen resources coming from? Majority of them are the same traditional IT skilled resources who have invested time in learning new technology or skills. The resources with the vision who could see the shift in technology well in advance.

If you are one of them, Congratulations!!! But is this enough?

Take a step back and think – this is not new in our industry – this has been happening for many years. The tools, technology, programming languages, platform and methodology standards have been changing since the inception of this industry. This is more spot-lighted now because of the lesser cycle time for these changes. Instead of decades of lifetime for a technology or product, it is only couple of years now. There are more frequent changes and the changes are leaps rather than small steps.

If we try and find the reason behind that, there are couple of logical trigger points we can easily spot. First one is availability of computing power at a cheaper price across the globe. There is consistent 25-30% reduction in computing hardware cost YOY since last 10 years or so. This is helping in tapping the true potential of computing and come up with the products which are faster and with better user experience and that is happening very quickly - Alternative product is there in the market even before the pioneer product is fully stabilized. Open distribution channels also help in quick penetration of these tools into production. With most of the mesh application architecture it is also easy to plug and play the products without committing it for lifetime. Secondly, IT solutions are becoming integral part of Business roadmap. Business models used to dictate what kind of IT solution is needed and accordingly IT used to cater the solutions. However, the digitization of business in the current environment is the game changer. Based upon the power of IT, New Business models are getting developed/ refined and redesigned. Availability of IT power is now driving the business models and not necessarily the other way around.

This change of "Business and IT integration" is even more rapid as compared to the tools and technology. Mindset of traditional workforce in the IT industry is usually technology-centric and not necessarily business-centric – however the expectations are changing now. If we need our workforce trained for “Next Generation” service model, it is the approach and mindset that needs to change first. Whether it is the next generation tool or a simple excel programming, the difference is created if it helps in transforming the business. Hence, willingness to solve business problems OR innovating new business models using the power of IT is equally important if not more than the knowledge of next generation skills in our workforce.

To make it more complex, lifespan of tools & Products in the industry will continue to shrink, so rather than just thinking short term recruitment drives or one-time training, organizations need focused programs on looking ahead and keeping the workforce ahead of the business demand.  This will be reality and not a onetime phenomenon. What we call as next gen skill today will be traditional or phased out in the next cycle. The frequency of the cycle going forward will also continue to increase. 

So essentially, workforce planning needs focus on developing following "ABC" capabilities:

• Agile and quick learners

• Business problem solvers

• Capabilities and skills relevant to market demand

Unfortunately, when it comes to reality processing, demands are closed just based on particular skills and the other 2 are mostly ignored. Even the internal training programs are mostly Capability and Skill based.

The key to address the shift is to align with it in absolute terms. The culture of Agile & quick learning and Business acumen creation will make any workforce robust enough to meet ever changing business demands while we sail through the technical changes.

Tagging the workforce as legacy or next generation without the investment on top 2 bullets means inevitable higher workforce churn; increased total cost of workforce; increased demand meeting cycle and ultimately missing on the big picture!

I will be interested in your views/ comments.

Sameer Kohli