Execruit Survey Finds Digitalization is Important to Companies, but They May Face Talent and Cost Hurdles
It’s no secret that digitization is growing at an explosive rate and making its way into nearly every industry. With this in mind, experts working in the human resources and talent recruitment and development sectors must expand their services and capabilities to help their clients meet their digitalization needs by finding talent that has the skills necessary to move their organizations into the future.
Execruit, a global talent recruitment and development firm, recently released a survey to HR professionals working in a variety of sectors to gauge the level of and interest in digitization across their companies. Included in the survey were questions regarding organizations’ knowledge and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), roadblocks to digitization, and needs for digitalization upskilling and training in their workforces.
The survey found that in terms of progress towards complete digitalization, the firms responding averaged a 7 on a scale of 1-10, with 1 indicating little digitization and 10 indicating full digitization. These results demonstrate that many firms across the globe recognize the many benefits of digitization and are making strides toward it in all facets of their operations.
In more specifically looking at AI and ML, respondents were asked what they saw as the greatest advantages in moving toward digitization. The results show that 33% cited improved efficiency and reduced costs as the main advantage in digitization. Other advantages included capturing data relevant data (27%), research and development (20%), and other reasons (20%), specifically related to their professional niches.
While organizations recognize the importance of digitization, respondents indicated a variety of roadblocks standing in their way to achieving complete digitization. Some of these challenges include Differences in strategic direction with leaders (33%), cost (20%), finding qualified talent (13%), having the right executive to implement strategies (13%), other (13%), and upskilling and reskilling current talent (7%).
And though many organizations see AI and ML as important in giving their firms advantages, the survey shows that the majority of respondents’ organizations (60%) have 10% or fewer of their R&D teams skilled in AI and ML. The results also show that though many firms view AI and ML is critical to their operations and moving them forwarding into the future, with 80% of respondents indicating AI and ML are critical components of their companies’ goals, there may be a need for their teams to receive additional training in this area.
In fact, nearly 70% of our digitalization survey respondents noted they had considered upskilling their current talent in digitization skills and 27% of respondents indicated their organizations would benefit from a training program in digitization.
“These survey results show that companies across a wide range of sectors recognize the value of digitization and are interested in moving toward it,” said Signe Riedla. “Upfront costs and current talent capabilities seem to be the biggest concerns holding many firms back in reaching their full digital potential. With this in mind, HR managers can make hiring talent with the right technical skills a priority, and talent recruitment and development firms can make identifying this type of talent and creating relevant upskilling programs their focus.”
