Top Tech Stats: Government, entrepreneurship, tech talent and more

Welcome to your roundup of some of the past week’s most interesting surveys, statistics and reports relevant to those involved in the UK tech industry.

This week, we have statistics relating to entrepreneurs’ perceived lack of support from the government, the digital skills shortage and tech talent acquisition.

Govt failing to support SMEs

Some 65% of business leaders say the lack government support.

That’s according to the latest Enterprise Index research by Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group.

Additionally, nearly three-quarters (74%) of respondents stated that political uncertainty was negatively impacting their business.

“Businesses are suffering. There was a belief that the government was getting to grips with the scaleup business agenda, and the benefits this offers the economy, but progress appears to have stalled in an uncertain political environment,” said Guy Rigby, head of entrepreneurial services at Smith & Williamson.

“The party conferences have been a mainstay of the newspapers over the past few weeks, but there has been little mention of any plans or support in this core area.”

Additionally, 59% of participants said they believed the impact of Brexit was real. Nearly two thirds did not expect the economy to improve over the next year.

Despite their lack of confidence in the government and ongoing Brexit concerns, many entrepreneurs remained hopefull about their own companies.

More than three-fifths (62%) said they were optimistic about their own prospects in the next 12 months with 58% saying they were still planning to increase headcount in the next quarter.

Digital skills shortage

“The Digital Talent Gap—Are Companies Doing Enough?” report produced by Capgemini in conjunction with LinkedIn, has analysed the concerns felt by employees when assessing their own digital skills and the lack of training resources currently available to them within their workplace.

Every other organisation surveyed acknowledged that the digital gap was widening. Over half (54%) of the organisations said the digital talent gap was hampering their digital transformation programs and that their organisation had lost competitive advantage because of a shortage of digital talent.

Even though the talent gap has widened, budgets for training digital talent have remained flat or decreased in more than half (52%) of the organisations, and 50% said they keep talking about the digital talent gap but not doing much to bridge it.

Overall, 29% of employees believed their skill set was redundant or would be in the next one to two years, while more than a third (38%) saying they thought their skill set would be redundant in the next four to five years.

From an industry perspective, 48% of employees in the automotive sector thought their skill set would be redundant in the next four to five years, followed by the banking sector (44%), utilities (42%), telecom and insurance (both 39%).

The ‘must-have’ digital roles

The top 10 digital roles that are set to gain the most prominence in the next two to three years, in order of position, were:

•        Information Security/Privacy Consultant
•        Chief Digital Officer/Chief Digital Information Officer
•        Data Architect
•        Digital Project Manager
•        Data Engineer
•        Chief Customer Officer
•        Personal Web Manager
•        Chief Internet of Things Officer
•        Data Scientist
•        Chief Analytics Officer/Chief Data Officer

Tech talent acquisition

Research has shown that 45% of HR directors believe their biggest problem within their talent acquisition strategy is the skills shortage.

Additionally, some 31% of HR directors in technology surveyed by Cielo, said they believed they were extremely effective at consistently delivering quality hires – more than in any other sector.

The data also shows that 35% of HR directors in technology believe they are extremely effective at using insight that compares workforce needs with market supply. Financial services came in second with 30%.

Companies in technology have the most complex recruitment process. Only 16% believe they have a simple process.