Demand for talent is converging sharply on critical roles in the US and UK, according to Gartner TalentNeuron data on millions of job postings.
Gartner TalentNeuron data shows that 49% of all job postings by S&P 100 companies in 2018 were for just 39 roles. The remaining 51% were for 872 other roles.
Forty-one percent of all job postings by FTSE 100 companies in 2018 were for just 20 roles, while the remaining 59% were for 641 other roles. The most competitive roles in the US and UK are in critical functions across IT, research and development, marketing, sales and customer service.
“In the US and UK, we’re seeing many of the same in-demand skills, including data analysis, advanced coding and solution selling,” says Lauren Smith, vice-president of Gartner’s HR practice. “The 39 critical roles in the US include software developers, marketing managers and computer system engineers/architects, whereas in the UK, the most critical roles include customer service representatives and financial managers.”
The convergence of demand reflects fundamental changes in the workforce, including an increasing focus on digitalisation. Gartner research found that 67% of business leaders agree their company must become significantly digitalised by 2020 to remain competitive. As new technologies emerge and corporate business models evolve, many organizations across most industries are pursuing the same talent.
In addition, skills and roles are themselves evolving with technology, meaning business leaders may not even know what their own talent needs will be. Gartner said most organisations expect more than 40% of leadership roles to be significantly different within five years.
Recruitment costs are surging as recruiters must handle a more complex mix of requisitions, with more specialized and unfamiliar requirements. Time to fill for open positions is increasing, especially when recruiters are hiring for talent in areas outside of their core competence.
Data on external labor markets offers important future-focused, data-driven insights into emerging technologies, the associated demand for new technical skills and the geographic locations that provide rich sourcing opportunities for sought-after talent.
“Those insights not only uncover potentially new sources of talent, they also provide a more sophisticated way to view and define your talent sourcing strategy in order to drive business results,” says Lauren Smith, vice-president of Gartner’s HR practice. “Understanding the increased competition in the external labor markets also enables organizations to be more strategic about which roles to fill externally, and whether they must look to their internal talent pool to fill certain positions.”
Additional information is available to Gartner for HR Leaders clients in the “Most Competitive Roles for 2019 Report.” Gartner TalentNeuron conducted an in-depth annual analysis of all job postings in the U.S. for the S&P 100 between January 1 and December 31, 2018, and identified the roles for which at least 90% of S&P organizations were recruiting. The same analysis was conducted for all job postings in the UK for the FTSE 100 between 1 January and 31 December 2018, to identify the roles for which at least 67% of the FTSE 100 were recruiting. The threshold for competitive roles is lower in the UK because many of the employers in the FTSE 100 do not have operations in the UK.