Contract to Expand
Covid-19 – a catalyst for radical and lasting change
There is no doubt that the Covid crisis has dramatically accelerated the adoption of digitisation. According to a recent McKinsey Global Survey1 the digitisation of customer interactions and internal operations has seen an acceleration of three to four years, with the share of digital or digitally enabled products in portfolios seeing a quantum leap of seven years – all achieved in just a few months. The survey found that investment in digital technologies has not only played a key role in helping companies navigate through the crisis but also that those “executives are twice as likely to report outsize revenue growth than those at other companies”.
The relentless pace of transformation
To quote Wotif founder, Graeme Wood: “Change has never happened this fast before, and it will never be this slow again.” An article published in Computer Weekly on October 20 , ‘Pace of digital transformation accelerates’ , highlights two recent research reports which bring the sheer velocity of recent change into focus. A global survey of 700 CIOs in large enterprises, conducted by Vanson Bourne, found that over the past 12 months 89% of CIOs say their digital transformation has accelerated. The article also signposts Dell’s latest Digital Transformation study with 4,300 business leaders, which concluded that the vast majority of respondents recognise that as a result of disruption this year, they need a “more agile and scalable IT infrastructure”.
The data dilemma – putting business viability at stake
B2B software company, Splunk, has partnered with researchers at TRUE Global Intelligence to conduct new research3 into how organisations are preparing for a new age of data. Two-thirds of business and IT leaders expect their data to grow five-fold by 2025 and 57% of companies stated that the volume of data is now growing faster than their organisation’s ability to keep up. This study underlines the critical role of digital transformation in addressing, managing and analysing increasingly vast amounts of information, placing even greater pressure on already stretched IT resource – and ultimately threatening business viability itself.
If you’re standing still, you’re going backwards
Recent research from the Global Data Centers, adivision of NTT , has revealed that more than half of digital transformation projects have been delayed due to ‘the hesitancy gap’, where the groundwork has been undertaken but not executed. One thing is certain, this is not the time to delay digital transformation. Transformational change involves a radical shift to reshape the entire business strategy. Typically, this has far-reaching operational, technological and cultural implications, whether the business is seeking to disrupt the market, drive efficiencies and productivity, lower the cost to serve or ‘pivot’ in reaction to market disruption (including the pandemic).
‘Interim is the new permanent’ in business transformation
Market dynamics have changed significantly as a result of the pandemic and a convergence of market forces has resulted in a steep rise in contract and interim recruitment activity.
The dark cloud of a potential second lockdown together with the Brexit deadline are making employers increasingly nervous about committing budgets towards permanent hires. Higher candidate numbers, widely linked to ongoing redundancies, are exerting downward pressure on salaries awarded to permanent workers.
IT contractor hiring activity rises sharply in September
As a consequence, demand for IT contractors has increased in September for the seventh consecutive month, according to the latest KPMG and Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) UK Report on Jobs survey. In Fact, billings for temporary workers were reported to have expanded at their fastest rate since the end of 2018.
It’’s time to ‘contract to expand’
As organisations look to re-ignite strategically important projects as well as explore data-rich technologies, including artificial intelligence, blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, edge computing and 5G, businesses need to power ahead or they will simply be left wondering, “What happened?”.
Harvard Business Review’s article ‘Now Is an Unprecedented Opportunity to Hire Great Talent’6 has a clear and confident call to arms: “The pool of available talent is suddenly both changing and expanding, and visionary leaders can make the most of it, preparing the ground for post-crisis recovery and growth.”
The paradigm shift created by working from home has resulted in the next wave of workforce transformation. This, in turn, has opened up huge scope in terms of hiring the best contractor talent, wherever they are based, with delivery focused on clear business outcomes.
Let’s start a conversation
Let us put our IT recruitment experience to your advantage as a genuine strategic partner, so we can help you navigate this post- pandemic digital world and find the top talent you need to meet today’s challenges and opportunities. We’ll help you find and hire even smarter, enabling your business to remain agile and gain a powerful competitive edge.
Call our specialist support team on +44 (0) 1932 856333 or email us at support@proximesearch.com.
About Proxime (https://www.proximesearch.com/)
Since 2003, Proxime has been trusted by some of the world’s leading organisations to supply IT professionals, either on a permanent or contract basis. We have built our reputation on providing safe IT recruitment solutions for employers and candidates when navigating uncertain times, enabling them to make more efficient, effective and informed decisions.
Recent assignments have included resourcing agile teams for digital transformation and change management, cybersecurity, e-commerce migration and enterprise blockchain projects. The roles we have placed range from the entire spectrum of IT such as CIOs, program directors, program managers and technical teams. Our mission, ‘Improving Lives’, is underpinned by a culture of being curious (we want to understand you better), generous (we go the extra mile) and tenacious (we don’t give up). If this resonates with you, we’d love to talk.
Citations
1 Mckinsey. How COVID-19 has pushed companies over the technology tipping point–and transformed business forever. (2020, October 06). https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/strategy-and-corporate-finance/our-insights/how- covid-19-has-pushed-companies-over-the-technology-tipping-point-and-transformed-business-forever
2 Computer Weekly. Pace Of Digital Transformation Accelerates. (2020, October20). https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252490791/Pace-of-digital-transformation-accelerates
3 Splunk.com. Are You Ready for the Data Age? (2020, September 01) https://www.splunk.com/en_us/blog/leadership/are-you-ready-for-the-data-age.html
4 itproportal.com. Lestrange, G. (2020, August 27) In times of unprecedented change, delaying digital transformation cannot be an option anymore. https://www.itproportal.com/features/in-times-of-unprecedented-change-delaying- digital-transformation-cannot-be-an-option-anymore/
5 KMPG REC Report on Jobs. (2020, October 08). https://www.rec.uk.com/our-view/reports-jobs
6 Harvard Business Review. (2020 May 01). Now Is An Unprecedented Opportunity To Hire Great Talent.