The future of technology services innovation hinges on re-imagining talent strategy

In challenging times, the approach to talent development has to pivot dramatically for survival. Massive tech layoffs, back-to-office mandates, a volatile economic and political climate, and an epidemic of banks almost collapsing create a highly uncertain environment, and are creating what can be best described as a workplace freakout. For the technology services industry, a perfect storm has brewed, challenging leaders to attract and retain the best talent while meeting client demands for lower costs and innovation in tandem.

At our recent London Summit, HFS CEO Phil Fersht moderated a Fireside Chat with featured guest Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar. During the chat, titled Remotivating our people to succeed in challenging times, industry luminary Kumar shared his vision for how services industry leaders can help shape the workforce of the future while driving innovation with clients.

A desire for innovation demands developing new talent

A dichotomy in the technology services industry separates client relationships focused on cost savings from those based on co-creation. In the latter relationship, a services client needs partners for co-innovation rather than a third party to help with outsourcing work. Smart companies leverage both models, using the cost savings engagements to fund innovation. The innovation imperative drives a need for different types of talent—problem solvers and problem finders. But getting innovative people excited to work in technology services means paving sexier career paths and providing the right training to enable success.

The services industry can become a catalyst for a diverse and equitable workforce

Kumar asserts that the tech services industry has the largest learning infrastructure in the world, meaning it can become a resource for people looking to reskill and upskill in an uncertain time for their careers. As the workforce redistributes, it will become more diverse and inclusive, and talent can cross-pollinate between industries. In the future workforce, people will be able to spend periods of their careers in a variety of companies, enabling services firms like Cognizant to recruit for skills leveraging expertise from both digital natives and industries where people lack upward mobility.

To make the services industry sexy again, we must enable people to build a career akin to one they could in a digital native or startup company. It’s not just about technical talent; Cognizant focuses on hiring heuristic and creative skills along with technical ones, and Kumar advises that non-STEM skills will be even more important in the future workforce.

An array of skills is required for employee success, but the services industry currently falls short on training needs

HFS’ recent study with Cognizant found that global enterprise employers are much more keenly aware of the importance of both technical and non-technical skills, while India-based IT services employers currently underserve their employees’ non-technical training needs (see Exhibit 1). This indicates that a massive re-focus is required if technology services employers are to heed Kumar’s advice and invest in non-technical training to meet client expectations. While the need for technical talent is strong (somewhere in the range of 50 to 60 million developers, but the current pool is about 30 million, according to Kumar), these employees also require creative skills, which will help assemble the pieces of the innovation puzzle.

Exhibit 1: Non-technical skills represent the biggest misalignment between demand and supply

Sample: 300 Global 2000 enterprises and 600 India-based IT services employees
Source: HFS Research in partnership with Cognizant, 2023

The Bottom Line: Pivoting talent strategies is the only way to survive these challenging times and innovate for the future.

Kumar’s big message: Clients will come to you if your employees stay with you. It’s a virtuous cycle. It is clear that diversity is the foundation of a comprehensive talent strategy; diversity of skills, backgrounds, and thinking is the only way for services firms to drive innovation with clients. Kumar advises leaders to stay vulnerable and paranoid to unearth the gaps, listen to dissenters, and shine a light on the very different needs of today’s workforce to re-strategize for success.

Watch the session video here: