Why is there a shortage of IT specialists in Russia and how to solve this problem

Why there was a shortage of IT professionals

The shortage of IT professionals is natural. Now anyone

In order for a business to grow and develop, it mustgo online - develop Internet platforms, mobile applications, websites and other digital services. All this assumes the presence of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, automated accounting, a customer relationship model (CRM) and marketing using digital technologies. Therefore, many companies are beginning to need good IT specialists to develop and support systems and services. In addition, it is important to understand that any automation removes some tasks from workers, but always gives others in return that require certain skills, mainly digital ones.

ERP system(Enterprise Resource Planning, from English.“enterprise resource planning”) is a class of systems for managing production, labor resources, finances and assets, focused on optimizing enterprise resources.

CRM system(Customer Relationship Management, from English."customer relationship management system") is application software for organizations designed to automate customer interaction strategies, in particular to increase sales, optimize marketing and improve customer service.

Shortage of IT specialists at various levelsfound in all developed and developing countries. The most telling example is the USA. New offices, for example, Amazon, lack 20-30 thousand specialists per division. Among European countries, the greatest demand for IT specialists is from Germany, France and Spain.

During the quarantine period, most companies switchedto remote work, and IT specialists have become even more in demand. According to the managing partner of the HR agency “Personal-Yantar” Natalya Vorontsova, a large number of new vacancies for IT specialists have opened up during quarantine. Companies are looking for employees who can set up various IT systems, manage electronic document management, and build an electronic business architecture.

Need for Software and Digital Developersproducts will only increase. Thus, digital transformation of business entails interest in software development - this allows companies to go online without losing productivity or risking security. In addition, the trend towards the use of mobile applications and services is actively developing, which will replace many offline services.

Another area where there is clearly a shortageIT specialists - VR/AR. It is expected that many companies will turn their attention to augmented reality technologies as they recover from the crisis. The reason is that such services allow workers to make any place on the planet part of a shared office: gather in virtual meetings and “go” to lunch together. Interaction is assumed in a familiar human form, not in the form of avatars.

How the shortage of IT professionals affects the work of companies

The shortage of IT staff leads to serious problems:

  • the company receives less revenue if it cannot quickly deploy and optimize new directions;
  • the need to retrain internal employees increases the costs of the enterprise;
  • the threshold for entering the IT business is growing, as large companies take all the good staff, and it is difficult for small, medium and even more start-up businesses to find qualified specialists.

When hiring employees working resourcetriangle: money, speed, quality. Companies that have sufficient resources will close vacancies much faster than their competitors who are not ready to invest in recruiting. But at the same time, all employers are forced to sacrifice quality - when there are no free professionals left, they accept employees “for growth”. Many experts believe that the loss of the company due to the lack of an employee can be greater than the benefit of a long search for the ideal candidate. In addition, candidates for the Quartet are more often motivated - more interested in learning and gaining new experience.

Thus, we can say that manycompanies are beginning to “grow” their professionals. For example, DNS organizes educational courses for programmers of various levels. Students pay only 20% of the price for training, and after successful completion, if desired, they can continue their development within the company’s staff. To avoid the turnover of specialists, a system of long-term employee involvement also works: an employee is interested in working in the company for as long as possible, because length of service not only provides opportunities for career growth, but is also assessed financially.

What does this mean for IT professionals

The shortage of personnel in the industry allows beginnersspecialists can quickly get jobs and climb the career ladder. The main thing is to get a starting position in a large company and begin to improve yourself as much as possible. If you work hard and constantly learn new things, you can double your income every year for two or three years in a row. The next stage is moving to a higher position, maybe even to another company.

Material reward for IT professionalsthe whole world is constantly growing. In Russia, this process is not so noticeable, because the country has a lot of inflation. But even Russian IT salaries in 2019 increased by 5-10%. In addition, employers are trying to retain valuable personnel and are ready to increase the salary of employees if they think about leaving. In the most popular areas (development, big data, e-commerce), the growth of compensation reaches 10-15%. This is evidenced by the results of a study of the labor market in Russia, which was conducted by the international recruiting company Hays. According to experts, companies have a particularly high demand for developers for mobile platforms iOS and Android. Depending on the industry, such specialists can apply for a salary of about 190–250 thousand rubles in Moscow and the Moscow Region.

In the USA, Germany and other European countriesThey try to offer even more attractive conditions to valuable employees - a motivated specialist more calmly perceives problems in his company and difficulties at work and is less exposed to the influence of HR employees of competitive enterprises. For example, in the Cummings American Research Park (CRP), which includes high-tech enterprises, business incubators and educational institutions, the annual salaries of specialists range from $ 69 thousand to $ 103 thousand.

Great demand allows experiencedto make high demands on employers for specialists: in this case, the employee chooses the company, and not vice versa. So, the choice of IT people often falls on those organizations whose values ​​are close to them, an important component of future work for many is the ability to solve interesting and non-trivial tasks, develop within the company and learn from colleagues. In this case, salary does not always become a decisive factor. Even if an IT specialist chooses a job only on a material basis, he can safely ask for the highest possible wage possible, corresponding to his level of position in the company.

Employers may start cutting budgets byhiring employees if the crisis leads to serious problems in the economy. Then, experienced professionals, on the contrary, can begin to raise their salary expectations. However, in the field of IT, it is unlikely that they will reduce the staff who are already difficult to find. At the same time, junior and middle programmers should continue to develop hard skills and develop a portfolio of created projects.

The geography of the search for candidates will expand, asmore and more companies are moving online, which means that IT specialists will be searched throughout Russia. This process in the IT industry was launched a long time ago, and the coronavirus only pushed its development. This approach is especially beneficial for specialists from the regions: they will be able to receive a Moscow salary, at the same time, their costs will be less than for employees who live in large cities. For example, some IT people buy houses in a village or move to Belarus, where living expenses are lower and you can afford a higher standard of living with the money you earned. According to dev.by, IT specialists in Minsk earn about $ 1,700, which is comparable to salaries in Moscow. Employees with more than seven years of experience can count on $ 3,000, which is five times the average salary in the capital of Belarus.

How IT will change after quarantine

According to experts, the demand for IT skillswill grow and persist even after the crisis ends. “We are talking not only about highly qualified software developers, but also about less qualified workers. For example, about testers or those who provide the technical component of the company’s work: from connecting computers and working with the network to filling websites. If until now they said that the shortage of IT specialists in Russia will reach 1 million people by 2025, then the pandemic has accelerated this process, since companies are forced to move to an online format,” says HeadHunter expert Alena Manokhina.

Workers understand which waythe labor market is unfolding, and they are beginning to actively learn the demanded skills. In the period of self-isolation, the popularity of online schools has grown several times. The most popular classes were related to IT and other digital skills. For example, from the beginning of April about 100 thousand new users came to the courses at the Skillbox online university, and 2–2.5 times more viewers began to watch live training courses.

The demand for IT professionals will growthe next 7-10 years. For longer periods it is more difficult to predict, because the development tools themselves are evolving, which means that the requirements for specialists will change several times. One thing is certain for sure: specialists from traditional industries who gain additional skills in the digital sphere will be more in demand in the labor market.

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