Earlier this year we addressed the increasing concern that a “digital talent gap” existed between the digital expertise needed by companies and the digital talent available.
Findings in a US survey of 750 Fortune 500 and ad agency execs, The State of Digital Marketing Talent conducted by The Online Marketing Institute, revealed a wide discrepancy between the digital marketing expertise required by organisations and the talent actually available to them, at every level. When quizzed about their digital teams, company executives revealed that only 8% were strong across all digital areas.
These startling revelations got us thinking: the need for digital talent in Australia is widespread, but are Australian companies also finding it difficult to identify and develop talent because of subjectivity in hiring?
What if we could understand more about the way Australian companies deal with the development, training and hiring of digital talent? In the US, companies across the board were unhappy with their own level of training and assessment. Amongst brands and agencies alike, there appeared to be insufficient focus on grooming talent, training and formally assessing skills with 75% relying on referrals from their peers to meet their hiring needs. Just 10% of respondents used some form of testing to measure employee’s skills or knowledge.
With these considerations in mind, Slade Partners teamed up with NET:101 and Sweeney Research to conduct the Australian Digital Skills and Salary Survey about digital employees in Australian organisations. The survey, which launched last week, focuses on the current skill-levels of digital talent; the acquisition, development and retention of digital employees and the salary levels in line with responsibilities of digital talent in Australian organisations.
The results will allow us to see if Australians share similar sentiment to the US regarding the overall skill levels of those in their digital teams, and if Australian organisations have been impacted by a digital skills gap. Certainly as the digital recruitment lead at Slade Partners I have noticed an increased demand for digital talent in the area of analytics, content marketing, digital copywriting and communications, and digital design and development – yet very few in the industry currently use their own digital assessments as part of the recruitment process.
We’d really like you to have your say: Click on the image below to take part in the survey.
Participate or share the Australian Digital Skills and Salary Survey with those colleagues who would be interested in receiving the results. The survey will take about 10 minutes to complete and is completely confidential and anonymous. Results will be sent to all respondents who complete the survey and a Digital Talent Pack may be awarded to one respondent at the completion of the survey process.
So what’s your view on digital talent in Australian organisations?
