More than 85% of Hong Kong Businesses Are Reskilling IT Workers In Response To The Growing Tech Skills Gap

Hong Kong – November 10, 2022 – The latest survey by Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world’s digital infrastructure company™, revealed global IT leaders have serious concerns about staff retention and recruitment.

According to the Equinix 2022 Global Tech Trends Survey, 56% of IT decision-makers 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 a more diverse pool of candidates through alternative recruitment drives. The 2,900 survey respondents acknowledged the speed at which the tech industry is accelerating transformation has left companies struggling to find people with the right skill sets to meet present and future challenges.

Hong Kong has seen more than 140,000 people depart from the workforce in the past two years.¹ In response to skill shortages, many businesses are reskilling people from other industries and professions to fill tech roles. 59% of Hong Kong IT leaders said they reskill workers from similar industries, while 42% are trying to bolster their workforce with recruits from unrelated sectors. In view of the new talent initiatives and the enhancement of the existing technology talent scheme announced in the latest Policy Address, tech companies in Hong Kong that offer training and development opportunities could be better positioned to attract talent.

Larry Tam, Managing Director at Equinix Hong Kong states: “The latest Policy Address attempts to directly tackle the issue of attracting new tech talent and retaining top-notch performers in our city to increase Hong Kong’s competitiveness. As the need for technical skills will only grow over time, forward-looking initiatives like the Strategic Tech Fund will be paramount to building a stronger foundation for innovation in the years to come. With ongoing plans to digitize the government within a two-year span, Equinix will continue to collaborate with the government and partners to nurturing tech talent to support the digital economy.”

According to the survey results, the most common sources of reskilled workers are administration and business support (31%), finance and insurance (33%), manufacturing (24%) and those returning to work after a period of absence (22%). These reskilled workers tend to help businesses bridge the tech skills gaps by working as IT technicians (49%), AI/machine learning (35%) and security analyst (34%) roles.

In Hong Kong, there is a relatively prominent tech skill gap for professionals with AI/machine learning aptitude (32%) compared to other locations in Asia-Pacific, followed by IT technicians (29%) and data analysis skillsets (21%). Hong Kong IT decision-makers anticipate an increasing shortage of AI/machine learning skillsets (34%) where it will remain the biggest tech skill gap three years from now (in 2025), followed by cloud computing (23%) and security engineering (23%). Across Hong Kong, over half of IT leaders recognized the retention of current talent (55%) as the biggest challenge to their businesses, whereas providing favorable pay and compensation packages (39%) and adequate training (34%) are also regarded as top challenges for Hong Kong businesses.

Keri Gilder, CEO of Colt Technology Services, explained: “Finding the right skills is a real problem in the tech industry, especially on the software side. The reality is that with the softwarization of services, all industries are seeking the same skills. One of the challenges here is a lack of awareness among young talent of the opportunities available within the tech sector. Connectivity providers don’t appear in many use cases—even those at the university level—despite all the work being done in areas such as subsea, satellite and fibre. We have to think collaboratively around talent, and work as an industry to bring in more of the diverse skills base that is well equipped to seize these new opportunities.”

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 Hong Kong said their companies’ main ways of partnering with higher education institutions include taking part in college/university career fairs (43%), running collaborative training programs with higher education institutions (42%), offering student internships (40%), and partnering on degree apprenticeship programs (37%). An example of such collaboration is the CLAP-TECH Pathway—funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust—which sees multiple tech companies, including Equinix, collaborate with Hong Kong Baptist University and secondary schools in Hong Kong to equip students with the right skills for a career in tech. Equinix has also pledged $160,000 towards sustainability-focused scholarships for programs administered by the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Singapore Management University (SMU), to expand learning beyond traditional academic disciplines.

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.

Learn more about The Future of Digital Leadership.

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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