Here’s the thing: the talent landscape is changing, demand dynamics are shifting, and there’s a greater emphasis on future skills and transformation roles. Organizations will have to re-imagine units of work as a portfolio of skills from individuals with specific skill passports rather than the traditional job demand-person supply lens.
Transformative Talent Supply Chain Management
Talent constitutes over 80% of the cost of delivery in our industry and balancing this cost with employee aspirations is key for organizational effectiveness.
The cost-aspiration balance can be achieved only through an effective Talent Supply Chain instrumentation, that is characterized by high throughput of talent across skill groups and roles and organizational processes that enable the same. The need for effective Talent Supply Chain Management is accentuated by the current industry context, workforce preferences, and marked shifts in end-client expectations from the industry.
Organizations will have to re-imagine units of work as a portfolio of skills from individuals with specific skill passports rather than the traditional job demand-person supply lens.
It’s time to embrace a paradigm shift in workforce management, focusing on skill-based portfolios and standardized demand language and the integration of Gen AI for advanced workforce management.
Navigating the Changing Landscape of Talent Demand in IT Services
Quantitative easing and geo-political factors influenced economic slowdown has reshaped demand dynamics with a reduced demand for run and operate roles, an increased demand for selective skills in digital transformation roles, and a high demand for future skills, especially those that can automate run and operate roles with AI/ML. Most importantly, the language of demand is slowly but steadily changing from that of being role-focused to skill-focused.
The language of talent demand is slowly changing from being role-focused to being skill-focused.
Tech-led outcomes have come into focus over tech-enabled outcomes, resulting in increased demand for roles in data analytics and machine learning-enabled decision sciences. Unexpected levels of repatriation from cloud back to on-prem and hyper-scalers offerings of industry-specific cloud have led to the consolidation of cloud operations roles and higher demand for availability, reliability, and performance-based roles.
Companies are currently addressing this demand largely through external sourcing, which increases the cost of delivery. To fulfill the new shape of demand, they will need to invest in reskilling and upskilling adjacent skill holders.
Companies will need to invest in reskilling and upskilling adjacent skill holders to fulfill the new shape of demand.
Balancing Demand and Future Skills
Looking ahead, the dynamic landscape of the IT Services industry will continue to experience headwinds. Conservative outsourcing budgets will result in the re-apportioning of spending, characterized by:
A lesser rate of incremental spending for run-and-operate work,
Curated spending on transformation initiatives with outcome impact, and
In-house investments into future skills
To meet the increased demand for skills in transformation roles and future skills that are currently managed by ad-hoc compensation changes, organizations will have to invest in creating an internal supply.
Organizations are likely to set up and scale GCCs with the help of specialized staffing companies as a viable alternative to total outsourcing. This will mean that IT services companies will have more underutilized run-and-operate talent and a higher demand for future skills.
In 2024 and beyond, IT services companies will have more underutilized run-and-operate talent and a higher demand for future skills.
From Job Roles to Skill Portfolios: The New Paradigm in Workforce Management
With the language of demand changing from role to skill focussed, organizations will have to re-imagine units of work as a portfolio of skills sourced from individuals with specific skill passports rather than looking at it from a traditional job demand-person supply lens.
Rethinking Workforce Dynamics: Skills-Based Work Units
- Standardizing Demand Language
- Maintaining Canonical Employee Skill Passports
- Reimagining Project Staffing Methods and Shape of Delivery Pods
- Operating a Self-Priming Internal Talent Marketplace
- Paying for Outcomes
Organizations will have to re-imagine units of work as a portfolio of skills from individuals with specific skill passports rather than the traditional job demand-person supply lens.
Integrating Gen AI into workforce management practices will significantly impact demand-supply dynamics. A combination of skills ontology knowledge graphs replacing traditional skill taxonomies, large language models, and machine learning will substantially impact talent supply chain processes like demand management, supply management, and throughput acceleration. Advanced analytics will facilitate skill enablement and organizational capability management, and new generation systems of intelligence will offer the capability of seamless integration with enterprise systems of transaction and record.
Future-Proofing Workforce Strategies
As organizations navigate the current workforce demand-supply challenges, they should invest in these transformative measures to thrive in the evolving landscape.
Skill-Based Transformation: Invest in transforming your organization into a skill-based paradigm.
Standardized Demand Language: Implement standardized demand language to be skill-focused.
Employee Skill Passports: Maintain comprehensive skill passports for employees to better utilize their skills.
Project Delivery Reinvention: Re-engineer project delivery methods for improved efficiency and outcomes.
ML-Enabled Talent Marketplaces: Operate intelligent internal talent marketplaces powered by machine learning.
Internal Talent Growth: Foster internal talent growth through robust reskilling and upskilling initiatives.
Compensation Innovation: Re-imagine compensation systems, focusing on paying for outcomes.
It’s time to embrace a paradigm shift in workforce management, focusing on skill-based portfolios and standardized demand language, with the integration of Gen AI for advanced workforce management.
For more insights, strategies, and tools that will help organizations navigate the dynamic talent market read Diamondpick’s Talent Trends 2024 eBook. Download your copy today!