Manchester Digital Skills Audit

Transcription

1 Manchester Digital Skills Audit 2019 Sponsors 1

2 Which businesses filled in our survey? The profiles of companies filling in our survey has changed somewhat over the past months. More large and corporate businesses such as technology providers, ecommerce companies and software development houses are now taking part. This reflects the changing landscape of the Manchester Digital membership and the industry in Greater Manchester as a whole. 25 Technology provider 2 1 Corporate with a digital function 21% Digital agency 2 Software engineering 3 Other % Corporate business (251+ employees) Micro business (1-10 employees) Medium business (26-50 employees) Small business (11-25 employees) Large business ( employees) Freelancer/ sole trader Start up/ trading for less than 12 months Educational establish -ments Business Profile 2 3

3 Business Growth in last 12 months Business growth by turnover has declined for the last two years. This year only 5 of businesses reported growth in turnover, which is sluggish compared to previous years. Some of this is down to Brexit uncertainty, of which we ve provided further detail later in the report. Staffing levels more or less mirrored turnover increase. Turnover 5 39% Staffing Levels 5 3 Increased Stayed the same Decreased Workforce Diversity 4 5

4 Roles split by gender As expected, it will be several years until we see a seismic shift in gender diversity in the workforce. On a positive note, the 2019 results show a small increase in the number of women in technical roles. Age and ethnicity profile of people working in our businesses The age breakdown of the workforce is very similar to the 2018 Skills Audit findings, although we re now reporting that of the workforce are 51+ compared to in % Black, Asian & minority ethnic groups Mixed/multiple ethnic groups 8 White ethnic groups Work in tech business Work in tech roles 41:59 20: to % 25 to to 50 Woman Man 6 7

5 Disabilities and health conditions in the workforce In some ways, it is concerning that 9% of the workforce have reported a mental health condition. However, much work has been done in the industry to remove the stigma around mental health, so the fact that people are reporting it could be viewed as a positive. More insights into this need to be collected to understand the true impact of wellbeing at work. Long-term health condition 9% A mental health condition 1% A disability Neuro-divergent 8 No long-term health conditions or disability Graduates & Apprentices 8 9

6 Does your business recruit graduates or apprentices? The majority of respondents recruit graduates, although most still don t have a dedicated in-house team. In addition, businesses commented that many graduates weren t work ready, needed more time to adapt to work and lacked organisational and communication skills. Employers are becoming more positive about apprentices year-on-year with many commenting on their work ethic, enthusiasm and adaptability. Which local universities do businesses recruit from? As you would expect, proximity means that the local universities are the biggest supplier of graduate talent to Greater Manchester businesses. However, a significant number of respondents also looked beyond the North West for graduate talent. We will be undertaking a separate piece of work to delve further into this and understand why businesses are searching further afield and what is missing in the region. Graduates 29% 4 2 University of Manchester Manchester Metropolitan University 5 5 Apprentices University of Salford Other University outside of North West University of Liverpool Liverpool John Moores University % 21% Yes, in-house scheme Yes, but no in-house scheme No Other North West Universities Lancaster University 21% 21% UCLAN 1 University of Chester 1 University of Bolton 1 Liverpool Hope University

7 Barriers to recruiting apprentices The biggest barrier to businesses recruiting apprentices appears to be capacity and ability required to manage them. This is a continuing trend from both the 2017 and 2018 Skills Audit. 2 Capacity/ability to manage them Cost vs productivity level Understanding of what is available Bureaucratic burden There isn t a framework/course that fits your needs Quality of training provision Quality of applicants Skills 12 13

8 New hires in the last 12 months 81% of responding businesses have recruited for new positions over the last 12 months. Close to half of businesses were recruiting for developer positions. Other in-demand roles are account management, digital marketing and business development. Areas of growth It is apparent that data analysts and data scientists are now core components of teams in digital businesses, both large and small. Other emerging skillsets such as AI and Machine Learning are becoming more popular year on year. 19% None Most in-demand roles Account Management 3 Digital Marketing 31% Sales & Business Development 2 Dev Ops 81% Yes, we ve recruited 4 3 Digital Marketing 30% Dev Ops 2 User Experience 2 Sales & Business Development Account Management Digital Marketing Sales & Business Development Dev Ops Social Media User Experience Business Support Service Data Analyst Business Analyst Creative Design IT & Infrastructure Tester / QA Strategy Data Scientist Project Management Client Service/Liaison SEO System Architect PPC AI and Machine Learning Network Engineer Systems Engineer Growth Hacker SySadmin % % 20% 20% 19% 19% % 9% 1% 1% 14 15

9 Inability to recruit Nearly a third of respondents reported that they had been unable to recruit for their advertised positions. Businesses were asked to comment further with a general theme being that the recruitment process can be slow and laborious when it comes to finding the right people, with the right skills and who fit their businesses culturally. Some also commented that the talent pool is limited and many candidates have high salary expectations. 29% Unable to recruit 71% Had no issues recruiting Most difficult roles to fill Businesses that recruited in the last 12 months were also asked which roles were most difficult to fill. Similar to previous years, developer roles were far and away the most difficult to fill but client-facing roles continue to be a struggle to fill too. Dev Ops Sales & Business Development PPC Strategy Digital Marketing Creative Data Analylst Data Scientist Testers / QA Systems Architect Account Management IT & Infrastructure Product Management Project Management SEO User Experience System Engineer AI and Machine Learning Business Analyst Design Growth Hacker Network Engineer Social Media 30% 1 9% 1% 1% 16 17

10 Most in-demand programming languages The trend continues with PHP and Javascript once again being the most in demand languages. However, this year, HTML also made the list. Angular JS featured in 2018 s top 5. Which skill sets will grow in importance over the next 3 years? Looking ahead, respondents were most likely to indicate that they expect developer and AI / machine learning to grow in importance to their business. 29% AI & Machine Learning 2 2 Javascript 3 Java 4 C# User Experience Sales & Business Development Strategy Digital Marketing Business Analyst Account Management Data Analyst Creative Dev Ops Project Management 19% % 1 PHP 5 HTML Social Media Business Support Service IT & Infrastructure Testers / QA Client Service / Liaison Design Product Management SEO Growth Hacker Network Engineer Systems Architect 1% System Engineer 1% 18 19

11 The biggest challenges for talent retention Nearly half of respondents indicated that competitors offering significant incentives such as higher salaries and career progression were the biggest challenges to retaining talent. 4 Salary Demands 30% 29% Competition Personal Progression/ Development 19% No Challenge 1 Benefits/ Flexible Working Offer 60% of businesses have inflated salaries to remain competitive Three in five businesses report that they have had to increase salaries to remain competitive in the labour market. This is a rather dramatic rise from from 4 in Comments made by respondents suggest that the growing corporate landscape in the North West is affecting salaries with some suggesting that this isn t just with developers but across the board. Some businesses also highlighted that the younger generation are far more confident discussing pay and benefits and aren t shy about asking for more. 60% Yes 40% No Retention & Remuneration 20 21

12 Roles with the biggest pay rises roles have seen the biggest salary increase in the last 12 months. This has been the case since survey started six years ago. Digital marketing and sales and business development continue to feature in the top 5. Average developer salary This broadly falls in line with industry benchmarks. However, we have a more detailed Salary Benchmarking survey coming soon. Account Management Sales & Business Development Digital Marketing Tester/ QA User Experience Dev Ops System Architect Data Analyst Design Dev Ops IT & Infrastructure SEO Client Service/Liaison Project Management Strategy Systems Engineer Business Analyst Product Management Social Media AI & Machine Learning Data Scientist Network Engineer Business Support Service PPC 5 19% 1 10% 10% 19k Trainee/ Apprentice 27k Mid-level Junior 37k Senior The impact of the talent shortage on your business 50k 31% of respondents have turned work away because they were unable to recruit the breadth of skillsets needed to deliver the work. 31% No 69% Yes 22 23

13 Impact of Brexit 3 of businesses have reported a negative impact from the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. The current plans to end freedom of movement of people has made it harder to recruit from the EU and has exacerbated the skills issue for many companies. Several people have also reported cautiousness from clients in terms of investing in projects and enquiries slowing down. Those working internationally have commented on a drop off in overseas enquiries. 3 50% Positive No impact Negative Not sure Offshoring due to lack of available talent 7 No 2 Yes Offshoring & Brexit Around a quarter (2) of respondents indicated that they have had to offshore work due to a lack of talent, compared to 20% in the 2018 Skills Audit. It is unsurprising that this figure has increased; if companies are finding it harder to import talent from the EU & we have absorbed the UK talent pool then exporting work is the only option

14 Industry view Respondents were asked to what extent they agree with a range of statements about young people and careers in digital and technology. There is enough industry intervention at school and college level to ensure young people are equipped with the knowledge and skills to choose careers in digital and tech. Agree 1 Maybe 2 Disagree 6 The current curriculum is relevant to industry needs. Agree Maybe 3 Disagree 60% Careers advisers understand our industry and can accurately advise on what opportunities are available to young people. Agree Maybe 2 Disagree 6 Industry View These figures show that there is still a huge amount of work to be done to ensure that industry and education are aligned enough so that the skills coming out of school and college match industry demand. Manchester Digital are directly addressing the needs of the talent pipeline through their Digital Her and Digital Futures programmes along with providing careers advice and guidance to educators. We will continue to scale this work throughout 2019 and hope that the industry will work alongside us to deliver this

15 manchesterdigital.com Sponsors 28