India is the biggest source for digital talent, as digital talent gap widens globally

BANGALORE, INDIA: Globally, 54% of the organizations agreed that the digital talent gap is hampering their digital transformation programs and that their organization has lost competitive advantage because of a shortage of digital talent. The scenario in India is no different. Sixty-four per cent (64%) organizations in India cite a widening talent gap over the past few years, reveals a joint survey by LinkedIn and Capgemini.

The research, however, reveals that India ranks highest in proportion of digital talent at 76%, followed by Italy at 66% and Spain at 65%.

In fact, India, the United Kingdom, and Germany have the largest supply of digital talent per 10,000 total members in the country. But, for every 4 digital talent moving into India, 10 move out of the country. US (47%), UK (14%), UAE (6%) are the top countries from which digital talent is migrating to India. Moreover, US (50%), Australia (8%) and UK (8%) are the top three countries to which talent from India is moving to.

The global research was conducted across nine countries—France, Germany, India, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States and seven industries— Automotive, Banking, Consumer Products, Insurance, Retail, Telecom, and Utilities.

Among industries, Automotive (64%) and Consumer Products (63%) have the highest proportion of digital talent globally.

Globally, employees worry that their skills are either already redundant or soon to become so. In India, 49% believe that their current skill set will be redundant in the next 4–5 years and 34% believe that this will happen as early as the next 1-2 years. Among the employees surveyed globally, 47% stated digital skill development to be a key reason to switch to a new organization.

In 52% of organizations, training budgets for digital talent have remained flat or decreased. 45% employees also say the training programs are not helping them gain new digital skills, and 42% say the trainings they attend are “useless and boring”.

The research also urges organizations to formulate a digital talent strategy to address the talent gap.