One third of global enterprises have hired an employee they've never met in person

Research of global CIOs from Expereo reveals that large global enterprises’ ambitions for global growth are being constrained, as one third admit they struggle to hire high-value knowledge workers that will drive forward their global expansion plans. As a result, almost a third (32%) of global CIOs have had no choice but to hire someone they have never met in person.

The competition for talent is real

The research of over 650 CIOs in global enterprises across Europe, US and APAC reveals that skills and resource retention (35%) is currently amongst the top three barriers to their business delivering global growth, alongside challenging security environments (35%) and complicated physical and geo-political infrastructure (33%). More specifically, finding the right mix of business and technology skills was revealed to be the most challenging thing for 40% of CIOs to recruit for.

Almost a third (31%) of CIOs say that finding the right competencies for their team in governance and regulatory compliance is a challenge, while expertise in growth technologies such as cyber security (49%) AI/ML (41%), and data analytics (38%) tops the list as the most challenging skills to recruit for.

Fortunately, 43% of global CIOs say having a hybrid/remote policy has enabled them to hire from a wider geographical pool of talent; 38% say their team is now based in different countries/markets.

Hybrid working needs to stay, but it isn’t without challenges

The nature of work has changed, and almost half (48%) of CIOs believe flexible working is the key driver for retaining and recruiting the most skilled employees. Today’s IT leaders are empowered to tap into a global pool of workers and partners to find the best talent, explaining why a third of CIOs (32%) have admitted to hiring someone into their team that they have never met in person.

According to the research, working three days in the office or less is now the new normal for almost three-quarters (72%) of businesses, with almost half (44%) of global CIOs believing the increased demand for hybrid/remote working is being driven by cost of living pressures. Having said that, a third of global CIOs expect to see an increase in the number of days they expect people to work from the office. According to 32% of respondents, this is due to productivity concerns with employees working from home; 31% said home connectivity issues for their employees has a consistent impact on productivity.

The connectivity trade-off

However, the trade-off of access to more and better skilled employees is that, for many CIOs, ensuring application performance across multiple locations (41%), and providing 24/7 support across multiple time zones (37%), are putting pressure on their teams.

Ben Elms, Chief Revenue Officer at Expereo comments;

“As organisations focus on driving growth through global expansion, there are clearly complexities and challenges to overcome in supporting the evolving needs of a global workforce. With more people working from different locations, the ability to change the dynamics of the network to meet diverse connectivity needs at a moment’s notice is vital.

“The key is having the technology in place that enables connectivity and collaboration in a remote world. In the end, hybrid working is all about staying connected, and enabling interaction with colleagues and customers - wherever you are in the world.”