Research by digital media recruitment website Chinwag Jobs reveals that business is finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain people with digital skills.
Chinwag’s ‘Digital Skills Survey 07’ canvassed employers, recruitment consultants and HR professionals. While digital opportunities increased, 97 per cent of respondents found it either difficult or impossible to attract suitably qualified digital staff for their businesses, with three quarters (76 per cent) reporting problems persuading staff to stick around once employed.
Over half (57 per cent) of respondents reported that the digital skills shortage had impeded the growth of their business in 2007, with 85 per cent of companies expressing concern that the shortage would continue to have a negative impact on their business’ growth this year.
Sam Michel, Chinwag’s managing director, said: “The digital sector desperately needs to improve career development opportunities and widen its net, with industry-wide initiatives to support internships and training programmes, and to encourage people with traditional skills to make the jump to digital.”
The results of the survey and ways of tackling the issues will be debated with industry experts at Chinwag Live: skills emergency on Tuesday 29 January. For a full summary of the survey results please visit: http://jobs.chinwag.com/blog/skills2007
