Innovation in technology, changing customer behaviour and demands, along with other unpredictable external factors, have engendered the need for businesses to constantly transform.

Any business that does not undergo digital transformation risks falling behind while their competitors evolve to meet the new reality, but this change requires extra stimulus or human capital in order to be successful.

With an ever-increasing specialist IT skills shortage, both globally and within South Africa, resourcing operates as this extra input and is the catalyst that will enable this change. However, to understand the impact resourcing has on businesses, we need to understand how the face of resourcing has changed significantly over the last decade. The industry has evolved as the needs of business has changed, and in the last few years, this move has been towards increased agility and flexibility.

Time to market

Organisations, especially larger ones, are complex and made up of a number of verticals. This makes transformation a demanding task to undertake. It’s really like a big tanker. When it’s moving in a straight line to its destination, it moves surely and with speed, but to change the tanker’s course becomes more difficult, taking over three kilometres to come to a complete stop and another 2 kilometres to change direction.

The same can be said for affecting change in an organisation, not only does it take a lot of effort but also takes a significant amount of time. However, more and more there has been an increased demand from organisations for this directional change, or transformation, to be enabled more quickly, which has impacted the resourcing market. Resourcing contracts have moved from two years to as short as six, or even three, months.

Perception changes

Around two generations ago, there was a strongly held belief that job safety and stability could be found in working permanently for a large corporation. We used to start our careers at an organisation and retire at that same company more than half a century later.  Having said that, the large changes constantly occurring throughout the business landscape as a result of technological advances and innovations have disrupted this concept.

The days of finding complete job safety as a permanent employee of a large company are long gone, and thus, becoming a resource is becoming more appealing to those in the industry with specialised skills. The resourcing industry has also evolved as an epicentre of professional growth, offering those who wish to join it the opportunity to continually improve their skills and expertise and making sure they remain at the cutting edge of their respective fields.

Expansion

Recently, there has been a lot of growth in the resourcing market. This is largely due to a rise in the demand of specialised skills, skills that resources possess. Currently, resources can make up around just less than half of large organisations, but with the rapid pace of expansion this is expected to rise in future.

The more agencies continue to move towards increased agility, the more they will need to rely on these many specialised skillsets. While there are many changes occurring within the resourcing industry, these changes are nothing out of the ordinary. Resourcing is always in a constant state of flux. In fact, the resource market will continue to change over the course of the coming years as skills that are currently specialised become the norm.

Nonetheless, even as these skills become commonplace, resulting in a lull in the demand for resources, new technological advancements will lead to newer specialised skills. This means that no matter where the business landscape is within the ebb and flow of resource demand, there will always be a demand for resources who have the expertise needed for effective transformation to take place.