Article: Imbalance of skills drives talent migration

Strategic HR

Imbalance of skills drives talent migration

Dilip Chenoy, CEO & MD, NSDC shares what compels organizations to hunt for talent outside their countries
Imbalance of skills drives talent migration
 

While language, communication and leadership are the top soft skills deficit, finance and budget, IT-specific skills, R&D and healthcare are among the top hard skills where the companies are not finding the right talent

 

Talent and skill problems are specific to geographies and cultures and they are driving the demand for skills across the world. There is a clear shortage of professionals in several trades globally and these shortages are compelling organizations to hunt for talent outside their countries. Organizations across the globe are finding it difficult to find technicians, sales representatives, engineers, skill trade workers, production updaters, secretaries, drivers, accounting and finance staff. These skill shortages are as true for the Americas as they are for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Additionally, a big talent gap exists in the Asia-Pacific market for skilled researchers. The order of demand for these skills, however, varies in these geographies. For example, in America, technicians, sales representatives, and engineers are the top three skills for which organizations have to hunt harder to find the right talent. In Asia-Pacific, the order changes; sales representatives, technicians and engineers comprise the top three. In the Middle-East, skilled trade workers, engineers and sales representatives comprise the top three. The imbalance of skills, thus, will drive international talent migration in the coming times.

The recent NSDC 2014 Skills Report talks about the general perception that organizations face a deficit of soft skills like languages, communication, and leadership. However, companies are also struggling to find the right talent with hard skills like finance and budget, IT-specific skills, R&D and healthcare. The Australian administration has identified 17 specific trades for which they would like to recruit talent from global locations owing to shortage of talent internally. From among all industries, the healthcare industry will likely be among the most active for global talent movement in the coming times.

As the world ages, the ageing economies will increasingly look at replacing human interventions with technology. A great example is the introduction of voice technology in the BPO industry. Voice-enabled technology is rapidly replacing several entry-level jobs in this industry.

Automated welding and automated manufacturing processes are also replacing several manual-intensive jobs in the automotive industry. There are, however, several trades for which there are no immediate indications of manual jobs getting replaced with technology. Construction, healthcare and the whole service economy will continue to be among the most human-intensive industries that are likely to witness a lot of global talent migration.

One of the key areas where India will produce a lot of the talent, which will be in short supply globally, will be in the field of vocational skills. Repair skills, in particular, such as computer and mobile repair will likely to remain in demand for a long time until the time the cost of repair becomes prohibitive, making it is cheaper to buy rather than repair.

The outflow of vocational talent from India into the developed economies may greatly increase in the coming times.

In the Indian infrastructure sector, there is a requirement of 347 million people, especially in construction, real estate, textiles and clothing, auto and auto components, healthcare, and transport and logistics. About 20 high-growth sectors in India will continue to require skilled manpower, which existing supply of talent within the country may not be able to meet immediately. It is becoming increasingly difficult for companies in India to find the right kind of people, especially in manufacturing, BPO, banking and insurance.

Some sectors in India will become hot employers of expatriate talent. Among them will be auto, hotel, hospitality and airlines, which already employ a lot of expatriates and the trend will likely continue. A lot of companies outside the country are getting construction contracts in India and these companies are some of the biggest employers of talent in India from their home countries.

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Topics: Strategic HR, #GlobalPerspective

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