IT Skills Gap: What it Means and What We Can Do to Address it in 2025

Do you know? An IDC forecast predicts that over 90% of global businesses are expected to experience adverse impacts of IT skill gaps. Project completion delays, difficulties in resolving technical issues, and slower adaptation to emerging technologies are some challenges that can cause around $5.5 trillion of overall losses to businesses if this gap is not addressed priorly. 

But how would you do it? The best practice is to identify the underlying causes and then implement solutions to them. This blog guides you on the same! 

Let’s get started! 

What Does IT Skill Gap Mean? 

IT Skill Gap refers to the mismatch between the skills that employers need or demand in the IT sector and the skills that are currently available in the market.

Put simply, it refers to the gap between the employer’s skill needs and what employees have to offer them. This creates a challenge for employers to fill key IT positions with the relevant skills in their workforce. 

Causes of IT Skill Gap

Continuous Advancements in the IT Industry 

New technologies and advancements are reshaping the IT industry. Businesses seeking competitive advantage by leveraging these latest innovations require an expert workforce to work across these technologies.

However, the available IT workforce needs to be upskilled to become proficient in these technologies. Therefore, businesses should offer optimal upskilling training. 

For instance, many IT professionals have struggled to keep pace with AI’s rapid evolution. The Randstad November 2024 report reveals that although 75% of companies are adopting AI, only 35% of employees have been trained in it. This left other professionals uncertain about which specific AI competencies to develop and how which is leaving a skill gap. 

Shortage of Specialized Talent 

You might demand expertise in a niche or highly specialized skills, such as data science or cybersecurity. However, a limited pool of talent is available in the market to fill those skill gaps. According to the Robert Half Survey, 95% of IT leaders report a huge challenge in locating specialized skilled candidates that could cater to their specific business needs.

In short, demand exceeds supply, and companies struggle to find the right talent, creating a talent and skill gap in the market.   

Outdated Curriculum Limits IT Talent 

Educational institutions often face transitional challenges, which cause delays in incorporating the latest IT skills and knowledge into the curriculum. They continue to teach legacy systems instead of modern tools that today’s businesses require, restricting graduates from adapting to the latest technologies. 

A Graduate Employability Report by Cengage Group shows that nearly half, i.e., 52% of new graduates, are working in jobs that do not make use of their degree or what they have learned. It highlights the disconnection between the workforce’s capabilities, the education system’s curriculum, and the demand of the job market. 

Graduates enter the workforce unprepared to meet the real-world demands of businesses, creating an IT skill gap.  

Effective Solutions to Close IT Skill Gaps in Your Workforce 

Conduct a Skill Gap Analysis

IT Skill gap analysis is a practice to identify the existing skills your workforce has and additional skills needed to meet your business needs. 

• State your business objectives clearly and the skills you require to accomplish them.
• Assess employee competency by conducting surveys, seeking manager reviews, and planning assessment tests, such as coding challenges, self-assessment tests, and situation-based judgment tests. 
• Analyze the result and compare the assessed skillset to the required skillset. 
• Identify critical gaps and plan strategies and targeted initiatives to bridge these gaps. 

It is advised to conduct an IT skill gap analysis every 6 to 12 months in your business when you have altered your strategy or when you notice a performance gap. This would help you identify the precise skills that your team lacks and plan out initiatives to upskill them, achieving optimal resource allocation and strengthening organizational performance.

Create Attractive Job Descriptions

IT talent is short in supply; therefore, you should plan your hiring activities accordingly to attract the talent with the specific skills you need. It requires you to create a well-defined job description that makes your offer unique from your competitors. 

The IT workforce today goes beyond prioritizing compensation benefits. They look for other factors such as brand reputation, flexible working arrangements, inclusive modern company culture, development opportunities, and job security benefits. 

A LinkedIn study reveals that 75% of employees would not take up a job if they sense a bad company reputation. Another survey by Indeed found that 71% of job seekers consider company culture details in job descriptions as “extremely important.”  

Mention critical details in your job description: 

• Mention a specific job title. 
• Clear and detailed roles & responsibilities.
• Outline the required skills with the expected level of experience.
• Mention technical and non-technical skills separately. 
• Include a salary range as it increases the candidate’s interest by 25% to apply for the job, as per the Indeed survey. 
• Emphasize the skill development opportunities that you will provide. 
• Link your company’s website and career page. 

Plan Upskilling and Re-Skilling Initiatives for Your Workforce 

Consider offering upskilling and retraining programs. These can include online training courses, modules, mentorship programs, certifications, and sessions with industry experts focusing on emerging technologies.

Support your initiatives by empowering your managers to coach employees. Create opportunities that allow employees to use their new skills on projects and job rotations. Make sure all training meets the current and future needs of the business.

Many top companies have taken initiatives to fill in skill gaps. These include:

• Amazon’s ‘Upskilling 2025’ initiative offers free training courses in areas like AWS, IT support, software engineering, and machine learning.
• Google’s apprenticeship and career choice programs offer free training access related to IT support, UX design, data analytics, and more, helping employees adapt to in-demand tech roles.
• Cisco’s Skills for All via Cisco Networking Academy offers digital and advanced skill training courses.

These initiatives are designed to help close the IT skills gap and support a future-fit workforce.

Connect With an IT Staff Augmentation Company

One of the cost-effective and easy methods to fill in the tech talent shortage in your business is by connecting to an IT Staffing Company. 

These companies have a pool of pre-vetted talents ready to work with you immediately on flexible pricing models. 

It eliminates your need to conduct a full-fledged hiring process and training, saving you time, effort, and cost. According to a survey by ISG, 63% of U.S. companies that utilized IT staff augmentation reported a reduction in their overall IT costs, primarily due to lower hiring and training expenses.

Top staff augmentation firms like Smart IT Staff, offer you the complete flexibility to scale your team up and down to meet your evolving project requirements. 

Conclusion 

The IT skill gap is maturing, making it harder for organizations to hire the people they need. So far, we have discussed a few of the best practices that might help you to overcome the skill gap and find the right employees. 

If you are considering IT staff augmentation, here at Smart IT Staff, we’re a team of more than 400+ tech professionals, offering you expert services around top trending technologies, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, AWS, Microsoft Azure, and more. Our pre-vetted experts work for you on an immediate basis, filling in the gap in your technical teams.