The Great Place To Work Report on Talent Attraction and Management in the Technology Sector highlights what were the people’s needs as they progress in their working livesestablished in six categories from those with less than two years of service to those with more than 21 years in the company. The smallest differences can be found in aspects such as ‘Development and training opportunities’ (23%-3%) or ‘Work I do every day’ (8-19%), with more stable indicators such as ‘The compensation and salary I receipt’ (5%-3%) or reconciliation (18%-20%).
Factors such as ‘Pride in working for this company’ grow from 7 to 14% over the years. At the beginning, training is highly valued, while later conciliation and even pride in working for the company are the most important factors. In this context, Great Place to Work highlights the importance of «generational coexistenceespecially in cases such as the technology sector, in which people of very different ages work and it is even encouraged to mix them in work groups to gain the strengths that each generation has. “The younger ones can be more creative and innovative, while the older ones know better the situations that can occur at work depending on the path chosen to develop it.”
In times of the ‘great resignation’ and gaps such as digital and gender, the labor market faces a new era in the way of working and thinking about work. Environment in which companies recognized by the Best Workplaces ranking in the technology sector emphasize the importance of diversity. This is what Iñaki Hidalgo, People & Culture director of the software company Cívica, does: «We create environments where the experience of the most veterans is complemented by the innovation of the new generations. This diversity allows us to have a more comprehensive vision when tackling projects, thus promoting the growth of talent and better service to our clients.
In this era of (continuous) change, reports such as those from the World Economic Forum (‘The Future of Work’) point out how traditional forms of employment and the skills necessary to face a globalized, hypercompetitive scenario are being redefined, “in which almost 65 million young people around the world are unemployed. And in the case of ‘STEM skills’, “the shortage of workers with these skills is almost everywhere. In Europe, almost half of companies are struggling to hire people with the STEM skills they need. In the US, 45% of employees with a doctorate in STEM disciplines are foreigners.
A paradigm shift in which senior talent and the pending issue of the greater incorporation of women into technology studies (and jobs) continue at a high level. And there is much to do, in areas typical of the century of Digital Transformation, of innovation in its broadest sense: big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain, etc., all at the center of another debate, which will affect Social Responsibility of companies: can ‘occupied’ positions be filled (almost a quarter of all current professions will change in the next five years) due to technological advances?
The ‘ages of work’
If DigitalES’ Digital Talent Overview 2023 report estimates that, in 2025, Spain will need “more than 250,000 additional technology professionals, with an emphasis on advanced digital skills”, the role of ‘ages of work’ will be essential, from incorporations younger people to the ‘upskilling’ or ‘reskilling’ of the elderly, with a necessary-urgent adaptation of the educational system to the “current needs of the market, which poses a strategic challenge for companies and government.”
The study ‘Most Demanded Positions and Competencies’, by the Human Age Institute, indicates, for its part, how (good news) “there is a growing need for Senior talent in high-level technology positionsespecially in areas such as project management, systems architecture and cybersecurity. Accumulated experience and strategic knowledge stand out in the part of the ‘checklist’ of seniors, necessary, in addition, in the supervision of teams in which young talent predominates… although in the ‘must’ part there are considerations such as resistance to digital change and the lack of professional retraining programs.
Looking ahead to the present and the future, two other performance companies recognized by the Best Workplaces ranking in the technology sector highlight their contribution from the point of view of intergenerational employment. This is the case with GFT Spain (IT solutions for the financial sector), as its CEO, Manuel Lavín, emphasizes: «We are committed to young talent looking for their first opportunity, to the sustainability of the company and to social responsibility. It is enriching to combine different generations: the freshness that ‘generation Z’ brings with the experience of ‘silver’ professionals. “Innovation does not ask about age.” In the case of Domi Fernández, CEO of Visual MS (group of business software development companies), “if we want a 20-year-old girl who starts today to be CEO in another 20, we have to prepare her right now, with the best training and the best itinerary. And so with the entire team. Lasting 100 years requires designing the company like this: training, growth and replacement.
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