Gabriela Samela
07/24/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 07/24/2021 6:00 AM
Technological changes plus a pandemic resulted in
the highest talent shortage in 15 years anywhere
in the world, including Argentina.
According to a report by the consulting firm Manpower,
72% of local employers have difficulty filling positions
.
Globally, 69% reported being affected by the talent shortage.
The sample included 45,000 companies from 43 countries, including 400 Argentines.
The jump in the number of companies with this problem (from 50% in 2019 to 72% now) is explained, according to Gustavo Aguilera, director of Human Capital of ManpowerGroup Argentina, by "a change in terms of reallocation of skills that is not seen since World War II ".
This change implies finding profiles
with the technical skills required by the increasing digitization
of processes and ways of working, who also have the soft skills necessary for a critical context such as that of a pandemic.
"Finding trained people is not that difficult, but trained people who make knowledge available in crisis contexts, that is complex," says Aguilera.
Virtuality and isolation made certain skills such as
adaptability, flexibility and responsibility
central
.
According to the Manpower survey, the search for profiles that combine technical and human capacities is particularly difficult in five areas: operations and logistics;
computer technology and data;
manufacturing and production;
administration and office assistants and sales and marketing.
The most difficult positions to fill
The difficulty of finding information technology profiles, one of the areas most affected by the shortage of talent, is already known.
Argentine companies in the software industry have
between 5,000 and 10,000 unfilled IT positions
per year
, in a sector where the total number of workers is around 115,000.
But, in addition, the pandemic accelerated changes in behaviors that involve the use of technology, such as e-commerce, new tools for customer service and the home office.
"As it was expected to take several years to develop,
a very wide gap
was generated
between supply and demand,
" says Gustavo Guaragna, CEO of Snoop Consulting and head of the Permanent Observatory of the Software and Information Services Industry of Argentina (OPSSI) .
The ability to adapt and responsibility are highly sought after in times of teleworking.
Photo: AFP.
In this industry there are two large areas with shortages.
"On the one hand, that of the most modern technologies, in which there is a
lack of programmers
for testing automation, designers of mobile applications, specialists in machine learning and robotization in general, architects, senior developers, technical leaders and data scientists, among others. ", details Guaragna.
"On the other hand, the older tools, for which
there are fewer and fewer people with experience
and a lesser possibility of learning to use them, as opposed to the more modern technologies, which have a wide availability of courses and training plans", adds.
For his part, Luis Galeazzi, executive director of Argencon, the chamber that groups together companies in the "knowledge economy", observes that "traditionally
the IT segment is full employment
: every resource is occupied. All Argentine IT production has work , a trend that has been maintained for more than 20 years. The case of biotechnology is similar ".
The most difficult positions to fill in this sector "are those that have a greater added value because they are the product of longer training courses. That is to say, thematic specialists of the area because they are positions that require up to 12 years of experience for their training, "he says.
From Naranja they report that the most difficult profiles to obtain are those related to IT in areas such as
engineering, architecture, development and data analytics
.
The company is focused on generating initiatives and programs that enhance development both internally and throughout the information technology community.
New ways of working
According to the Manpower report, 3 in 4 employers will need at least 50% of their workforce to be in the workplace all or most of the time because of the type of tasks they perform.
But they are also looking for new kinds of flexibility in positions that were traditionally seen as inflexible.
Thus, 25% go towards a hybrid model between remote and face-to-face work, 24% consider flexible entry and exit schedules and 22%, flexible and condensed hours.
Only 13% do not offer any flexibility options.
One in four companies is moving towards a hybrid model between remote and face-to-face work.
Photo: AP
For their part, the biggest concern of workers is having to return to full presence and lose their recently acquired flexibility:
8 out of 10 want a better balance between work and personal life
.
43% of the workers surveyed in the global report believe that we are facing the end of the 9 am to 6 pm hours.
Free training and job offers
To bridge the gap between supply and demand for the most difficult to obtain profiles, since 2020 CESSI has been promoting
#YoProgramo
, a training plan in programming and computational thinking.
This program has three lines of development: scholarships granted by companies in the sector, provincial training programs and Argentina Program, an initiative in conjunction with the Ministry of Productive Development of the Nation.
For its part, IBM launched
SkillsBuild
, a free and open online learning platform to train job applicants with job readiness and technical skills.
There are interactive courses in several languages, including Spanish.
The courses cover areas such as cybersecurity, data analysis, customer service, professional skills, and essential elements of the job application, among others.
Academia IT
is an Naranja project for the development of technological skills for junior profiles.
It includes "Tech Talks" in which the company's technology teams share their main developments with the technical community.
Fundación Telefónica Movistar offers
online training for the development of skills compatible with the needs of the
current
labor market
.
On July 26, registration will begin for the online, free and synchronous course on programming methodologies, programming with JAVA Standard Edition and Android application development.
EducaciónIT offers
a 100% free job bank for companies looking for technology, marketing and new digital trades
.
About 3,000 companies from all over the country publish their job offers there and receive more than 50,000 applications per month.
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