The ‘Great Resignation’ has not just created a talent shortage but also increased the skills gap. A recent study conducted by  Salesforce MuleSoft states that this has  created a skills gap for 98% of IT leaders in their departments with 73% of senior IT leaders agreeing that acquiring IT talent has never been harder.

A clear majority (86%) of senior IT leaders now say employee and customer experience is as important as its products and services, and four out of five respondents agree that improved customer-facing and employee technologies are critical for their organisation to remain competitive.

In a similar vein, 87% of senior IT leaders agree investing in people is hugely important and the majority plan to invest in improving IT employees' wellbeing (82%) and upskilling (78%) - ahead of increasing IT headcount (68%) - over the next 12 months. In addition, 53% of the organisations across different industries are equipping non-technical employees with automation tools to meet their own needs. 

“Shifting economic headwinds are making technology even more fundamental to success across every part of the business, including sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT,” said Matt McLarty, Global Field CTO, MuleSoft. “As IT leaders struggle to fill roles to support this additional demand, the traditional playbook is in question. Today's IT leaders must look instead to broader, company-wide process improvements, through automation, that foster innovation, enhance user experiences, and drive efficient growth.” 

In the face of immense skills shortages, IT leaders should channel efforts into automating as many processes as possible in order to free up their talent for value-added tasks.