The specialist business and technology recruiter has found that organisations can no longer rely on recruiting IT talent from the Indian subcontinent to plug talent gaps. According to its research, increasing numbers of Indian professionals are choosing to stay in their home country as a result of both rapid improvements in the economy and fewer visas being granted to nationals. The issue is compounded further as the UK is currently going through a digital skills shortage, meaning identifying niche specialist talent is harder than ever.
Michael Bennett, managing director of ReThink Recruitment commented on the analysis: “This is becoming a pressing issue for many UK businesses which have historically recruited talent from the Indian subcontinent. However, rapid growth in the number of opportunities in countries like India as a result of the growing economy have meant fewer professionals are moving to the UK and if they are, it’s often for just a few years before returning to their home country. Companies here will need to identify new markets where there is a healthy stream of technical talent into the workforce and this won’t be an easy task. Emerging economies in the APAC region like Malaysia and Indonesia are two potential areas that UK businesses could look to from which talent could potentially be sourced.”
“That’s certainly the shorter term solution, but in the long term, organisations will need to “grow their own” and look to source domestic IT talent. At the moment there are nowhere near enough junior professionals moving into the digital disciplines and this situation needs to be drastically improved. Companies should be looking to tap into talented individuals in higher education, that way they can develop talent pipelines and prevent a digital skills shortage from rearing its head again. If they fail to do so, the problem is only going to worsen. Businesses will be left to source professionals from a range of markets from around the world, when it could be much more effective to develop domestic talent.”