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Nov 17, 2022
Dubai, United Arab Emirates. – November 09, 2022 – The latest survey by Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world's digital infrastructure company™, revealed that the race for skilled digital talent remains as a prominent challenge for the IT industry.
According to the Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey, 77% of IT decision-makers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) view a shortage of personnel with IT skills as one of the main threats to their business. Companies—including Equinix—are looking to widen the talent pool, bringing in more diverse candidates through alternative recruitment drives. 57% of the UAE survey respondents acknowledged the speed at which the tech industry is transforming has left companies struggling to find people with the right skill sets to meet present and future challenges.
IT decision-makers in the UAE have identified that the biggest skills challenges for business were the changing workforce expectation around ways of working, i.e. hybrid/flexible working (50%), and candidates with the wrong skill sets applying for jobs (40%). Across the UAE, the most in-demand tech employees are IT technicians (28%), cloud computing specialists (28%), mobile development skills (27%) and those with an AI/machine learning aptitude (26%). Other skills shortages include data protection (25%), security engineer (23%), security analyst (20%) and security software development (19%)). IT leaders anticipate the gaps in tech skills will remain similar in the future, with AI/machine learning becoming even more prominent.
Kamel Al-Tawil, Managing Director, Middle East and North Africa, Equinix stated: “The rapid pace of digital transformation in the increasingly digital world, has hiked demand for skilled digital talent. As the environment continues to evolve, getting the right people for the right jobs and engaging the interest of future talent in career opportunities in the IT industry - one of the fastest growing and most dynamic landscapes there is - must be an absolute business priority. An investment in tech talent is an investment in one’s business goals. It is almost impossible to imagine a business today succeeding without a strong base of tech talent.”
In response to skills shortages, many businesses in the UAE are working hard to reskill people from other areas. 75% said they reskill workers from similar industries, while 46% are trying to bolster their workforce with recruits from unrelated sectors. Indeed, tech companies that offer training and development opportunities could be better positioned to attract talent.
The most common sources of reskilled workers are administration and business support (44%), manufacturing (31%), and those returning to work after a period of absence (34%). These reskilled workers tend to help businesses bridge the tech skills gaps by working in IT technician (49%), cloud computing (39%) and data analysis roles (38%).
Equinix has a collection of career transition programs under its Career Pathways portfolio. These programs are designed to expand and diversify talent pools by drawing from careers with transferable skills, such as military veterans transitioning to civilian life, and retired Olympians and Paralympians, through a partnership with Athlete Career Transition (ACT). The career transition reskilling program constitutes 40% of field operations hiring globally, sourcing workers from adjacent industries, such as airline, oil and gas, and hospitality, and reskilling them to fill data center roles. Additional programs include the soon-to-launch Invictus, which will focus on hiring SkillBridge veterans disabled due to military service, New To Career, attracting new graduates, and refugee-targeted talent schemes. Collectively, these initiatives are targeted to bring the company more than 750 hires in 2022.
Meanwhile, businesses are also seeking to recruit through higher education and apprenticeship programs. IT leaders in UAE said their companies’ main ways of partnering with higher education institutions include offering student internships (48%), running collaborative training programs with higher education institutions (48%), offer grants to students who will join after graduation (46%) and outsourcing training programs to a higher education institution (44%). Equinix is further exploring partnerships with community colleges and vocational training institutions.
According to Brandi Galvin Morandi, Chief Legal and HR Officer at Equinix, “The survey reveals unmatched skill sets are hampering talent acquisition across tech-focused teams globally. There is an overall lack of understanding about the specific skills needed for certain roles, and potential candidates need better guidance around training, preparation, and job opportunities.
“This challenge hands our industry the opportunity to recruit and develop talent in different ways, and this is something we’ve been working to get ahead of in the past few years. We believe companies should foster a progressive talent development roadmap for tech roles that caters for both inexperienced and trained candidates. Another opportunity is mentorship programs—helping potential candidates gain access to an established network for career guidance, while connecting companies with suitable candidates for a robust talent pool. We also encourage higher education and vocational training institutions to work with tech teams within companies to ensure their curriculum imparts the right skills to students and prepares them for their desired careers,” Galvin Morandi added.
To further progress in this area, Equinix recently launched the Equinix Foundation, partnering with organizations to advance digital inclusion, from providing access to technology and connectivity, to developing the skills required for technology careers. The Foundation aims to support nonprofits working to prepare individuals of all ages and backgrounds to succeed in today's digital world.
To read more about the Global Tech Trends Survey or download a copy, please visit: Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey
About the Survey
The independent study, commissioned by Equinix, surveyed 2,900 IT decision-makers in diverse enterprises across the Americas (Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, U.S.), Asia-Pacific (Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea), and EMEA (Bulgaria, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UAE, UK). Respondents were selected for participation from Dynata’s online panel. The survey was conducted online between March 1, 2022, and March 29, 2022.
Learn more about the Equinix Foundation.
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About Equinix
Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) is the world’s digital infrastructure company. Digital leaders harness Equinix’s trusted platform to bring together and interconnect foundational infrastructure at software speed. Equinix enables organizations to access all the right places, partners and possibilities to scale with agility, speed the launch of digital services, deliver world-class experiences and multiply their value, while supporting their sustainability goals.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks to our business and operating results related to the COVID-19 pandemic; the current inflationary environment; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; increased costs to procure power and the general volatility in the global energy market; the challenges of acquiring, operating and constructing IBX® and xScale® data centers and developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent and upcoming Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.
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