Are your staff really skilled in using technology?

Businesses are eager to get develop their business through technology - but they are struggling to hire talent who are able to utilise such technology well.

In fact, nearly 1/5 of those surveyed (19%) in a recent report said they currently do not have enough skilled or experienced staff.

The research, commissioned by Epicor and conducted by MORAR Consulting, questioned 1,824 business leaders across the globe in China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Singapore, Sweden, the UK, and the US.

The survey highlighted nearly a quarter (23%) of business executives said it is difficult to recruit skilled workers.

"Organisations must re-think their relationship with digitally-literate workers and retool their organisations to attract, connect and empower this next-generation workforce via cloud, mobile, analytics and other enabling technologies.” said Celia Fleischaker, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Epicor Software.

The survey stressed employees must be trained appropriately when it comes to technology especially because 79% of global business leaders have made, or are making, investments in integrated IT infrastructure.

Employers are also well-aware of the benefits of technology.

Nearly seven out of 10 surveyed (68%) considered freeing valuable staff from mundane tasks to be important.

In addition, 67% also see using technology to automate key processes, along with allowing key individuals to focus on more stimulating tasks as top goals.

ALSO READ: Millennials aren’t really that tech-savvy

"On-screen guided assistance, embedded training can ensure systems are easy to learn and use. Organisations need to be able to support access to information anytime, anywhere via mobile and social capabilities and streamline insights to action through analytics and dashboards," said Fleischaker.

The report added that without the right technology in place, organisations can, in fact, even run the risk of staff overload resulting in burn out and attrition.

Almost half (43%) of business execs are concerned that growth can increase workloads to a level that places too much pressure on staff, prompting key people to leave to work in a more strategic, knowledge-centered role at a larger competitor (40%), or at a company with better technology support (29%).

"Today we’re talking about workforce strategies concerning Millennials,  tomorrow we’ll be talking about key considerations in the next workplace evolution—when Millennials meet machines,” said Fleischaker.

In order to engage talent, companies need to develop intuitive systems and user interface design that can help employees get up and running quickly— especially beneficial for Millennials who want to have an immediate impact in the workplace.

Image: Shutterstock