Addressing IT talent scarcity without compromising quality

Article by Mark Weaser, Vice President APAC, OutSystems

Technology has become the backbone of businesses striving to maintain a competitive edge and despite the tech field growing at an astonishing pace, business leaders still face challenges in keeping up with the evolving business landscape.

One of the most pressing obstacles is the significant shortage of skilled tech professionals and the struggle for business leaders in acquiring and retaining top talent in areas like software engineering and data science. Today, the demand for IT talent in Singapore has outpaced supply, with 84% of IT organizations struggling to find the talent they need. Among the current skill gaps, IT and data (44%) top the list of in-demand technical skills, surpassing engineering in second place (29%).

Several factors contribute to this talent drought.

• The accelerating pace of innovation: As the market undergoes constant change, businesses are compelled to evolve from consumers of software to software producers. Furthermore, the software they create must be unique, differentiated, and capable of delivering exceptional experiences for both customers and employees.
• Lack of training and education opportunities: This shortage of accessible resources and training options becomes a major hurdle for individuals who aspire to work in technology but lack the necessary skills or qualifications. Addressing this gap in education and training is vital to nurture a diverse pool of tech talent.
• Talent retention challenges: The intense competition in the market makes it increasingly challenging for organizations to retain their skilled workforce, necessitating a strategic approach to talent retention and employee satisfaction.

In the current era of digital urgency, narrowing the technology skills gap is essential for addressing the demands of agility and adaptability. Already, 43% of organizations in Singapore report investing in more technology to augment processes as part of their strategy to address the skill gap.

With the shortage of tech talent expected to persist, low-code development can be instrumental in ensuring developers feel productive and motivated. A high-performing low-code platform can help to close that gap while maximizing resources and empowering organizations with the agility and power needed to cope with the modern business landscape.

Increase developer productivity with low-code

Today, there is an insatiable demand for software developers, but there are not nearly enough developers to keep pace with demand.

Retaining talent poses a significant challenge. Our recent survey highlights that while most developers love their jobs (64%), only 48% have definite plans to stay with their current employer in one year — and that percentage falls to 29% when looking two years out. Additionally, 42% of respondents were confident they could easily find a better job based on the sheer number of job opportunities. Some factors that would keep developers motivated and engaged with a company include better work-life balance (50%), better salary (28%), and better team staffing (29%). Companies must consider meeting these employee needs to prevent talent loss.

To tackle this, organizations have already been embracing low-code solutions in order to enhance developer productivity. Developers do not only enjoy the numerous benefits it brings but more significantly, using low-code correlates with what they identified to be critical for motivation.

Low-code developers demonstrate a significantly higher level of satisfaction with their tools compared to traditional developers, with 57% reporting high satisfaction compared to 36% of their counterparts. Despite working with smaller development teams, low-code developers express greater satisfaction with the team size. Furthermore, they have, on average, been promoted 3.5 times within their company, whereas traditional developers have experienced an average of two promotions.

Futureproofing businesses with low-code

In addition to retaining top developers by keeping them engaged, low code’s true potential lies in futureproofing businesses to better meet market demands.

In the face of rising inflation and the ongoing talent crunch, organizations are confronted with the financial and staffing challenges of establishing a cloud-native development infrastructure from scratch. The traditional approach to cloud-native development can entail a significant total cost of ownership (TCO) averaging around US$5.6 million, along with a lengthy timeline of 18 months. However, low-code platforms offer a compelling solution by reducing development expenses and eliminating the need for expensive coding resources to create custom applications.

Tapping into low code accelerates time-to-market by rapidly creating and launching bespoke applications with minimal coding, enabling businesses to bring products and services to market faster than their competitors. On top of shorter app development time, 50% of developers surveyed also said low code improves the quality of apps. Moreover, low code can be used to tackle the industry-wide talent crunch. Earlier this year, we played a part to equip people in Singapore with low-code skills through the Step IT Up program, where public sector agencies and private companies jointly place and train people for tech roles in under five months.

Low code brings added flexibility and agility to organizations, by enabling them to modify or personalize applications as needed. It empowers businesses to refactor or replace outdated legacy solutions, eliminating redundant processes and unlocking efficiency gains. By embracing low code, organizations can gain a competitive advantage in the swiftly evolving business landscape, where adaptation and innovation are paramount.

The views in this article are of the author and may not represent this publication. 

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