Tech skills deficit costs Irish companies €1m on average

Ireland’s IT skills deficit has cost the average enterprise here almost €1 million over the past year, a new study has claimed.

The survey, commissioned by technology company Expleo and carried out by Tech Pro, found the shortage is also impacting growth at some companies and putting others at greater risk from cyber security threats.

Some 76 per cent of companies said the skills shortage was causing them to lose money, and 41 per cent claimed they were not scaling at the pace they wanted due to a lack of suitable workers, with 13 per cent claiming it was hindering revenue growth.

While 25 per cent said the skills shortage was putting their business at risk from cybersecurity threats, one concerning finding was that almost a fifth are finding it difficult to meet their regulatory requirements due to a lack of in-house tech skills.

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Revenue growth

"It's evident from our findings that skills shortages negatively affect every function of an organisation – from halting revenue growth to putting the company's cybersecurity, and therefore customer data, at risk. Most worryingly, a significant majority of large enterprises are losing a lot of money in Ireland and this isn't sustainable. Addressing the skills shortage needs to be front and centre for businesses and government," said Phil Codd, managing director Ireland, Expleo.

“After all, organisations that have availability to IT talent and technological know-how will continue to develop innovative solutions and get to market quicker than their competitors.”

There were other effects of the deficit, with almost half of those surveyed blaming it for hampering their digital transformation, and a third said they were slower to get to market with innovative products.

The research, which involved 143 IT decision-makers from Irish-based enterprises, looked at how some companies were tackling the problem.

Outsourcing IT

More than half of companies said they were dealing with the issue by outsourcing some IT workloads, and 22 per cent were completely outsourcing IT.

Other companies said they were hiring on a project by project basis and almost a third said they were searching for suitable candidates from outside Ireland.

Companies are also looking to future talent, with one in five decision-makers recruiting more graduates and almost 20 per cent increasing their investment in IT training.

“As our findings show, many enterprises are actively tackling the skills shortage by outsourcing certain IT functions to third parties – something that we in Expleo are seeing more and more of,” Mr Codd said. “In doing so, they can continue to drive innovation, attract new customers, and ultimately facilitate long-term business growth.”