I have been reading various reports on the concerns the IT and telecom (ICT) industry has related to shortage of skills for the short and long term.
“A prominent group of Canadian organizations has joined in a national effort to address a growing and increasingly serious shortage of IT professionals. Initiated by Bell Canada, the Canadian Coalition for Tomorrow’s IT Skills will work collaboratively to develop insights for securing the future of Canada’s IT workforce.”
I applaud companies like BCE taking this initiative, but wonder what the real root cause is, and what are the effects these trends will have on ICT customers, short and long term.
From our research, over the last eight to ten years, there have been over 45,000 people who have been laid off, early retired or optioned out within the telecom carrier, manufacturer and IT integrator space within Canada. They worked within all levels and diverse cross section of jobs within their organizations; ranging from field installation professionals through to senior executives.
These people have migrated to other companies within the industry such as start-up competitors in new and emerging technologies such as hosted VoIP, messaging and ring tone development. Others moved to direct competitors, started their own firms in consulting and professionals services, or lastly, left the industry totally moving to other jobs within different sectors and sometimes even out of the labour market totally.
We have not seen information that provides quantified numbers by category of migration and hope that this will be part of what the Skills Coalition will provide.
Current Skills & Values
The current mature employees within ICT are well trained, and in many cases, well educated with a well rounded combination of technical, business and management skills. They were trained throughout their careers at a time when companies used to heavily invest in their human capital. They were also provided a career roadmap and evolution which helped them develop the broad range of skills and experience they have.
Their personal values were tied, and in most cases aligned, to those of the very corporation they worked with a lifelong, and in most cases, it was a two-way career long commitment.
Corporate Canada has evolved and is this is longer the case. Many corporations do not consider human capital to be the valuable asset that it is. This has resulted in a shift, not only of their experienced workers, but in the next generation that are coming into the corporation and moving up the ranks.
Future Skills & Values
One of the benefits and opportunities of being management and technology consultants is the opportunity to work with a wide variety of corporations across Canada and the US. We are exposed to a broad range of companies and can observe the trends that are occurring.
The next generation (Ngen’s) of ICT professionals coming into the organization and up the ranks (25-35 year olds) have very different values and priorities than us baby boomers. They are more ‘self oriented’, with a focus on their own lives, families and goals, rather than a piece of a corporate machine and seeing their success and identity tied to the corporation.
This does not mean that they are not committed to doing a good job, but rather, many of them see their corporate job as a means to provide income to support their personal and family goals. Also, their personal identify and measure of success is not tied to the corporation, but rather to their personal and family life.
During discussions with many young professionals, they have observed and commented about the effect of long-term corporate commitments and burnout has had on their parents. They also observed the negative financial effect that many had on their personal lives when their parents were ‘cast aside’ in downsizing after giving their lives to one corporation.
We have heard many times comments like “My career is one job contract after another, on my terms, whether I am an employee or contract….same thing to me”, or “I am never going to let a corporation own my soul”. These comments are very different than the previous generation.
This demographic values oriented shift will have an unknown effect on the industry and we believe will affect the ICT industry’s ability to provide consistent, reliable products and services to both consumers and business customers.
Corporations will need to learn to manage ‘Corporate knowledge’ and supporting processes more effectively. What do we mean by this comment? So much of how companies operate is still within the minds and hearts of its employees.
Corporations will need to learn to manage ‘Corporate knowledge’ and supporting processes more effectively. What do we mean by this comment? So much of how companies operate is still within the minds and hearts of its employees.
If you would like to know more about FOX Groups’ research and studies on telework, network investments and environmental impacts, contact Roberta Fox at 905.473.3369 x 1001 or [email protected].
