How will the iGaming industry battle talent shortage?
Attracting skilled workforce has always been a challenging task, and similar efforts are required for keeping people. As much as 54% of companies globally report talent shortages, according to Forbes. In the U.S. it’s even higher, with 69% employers having a hard time finding the right people, a highest number in the last 10 years, when it was only 14%. With global dynamics shifting, how does the iGaming industry fare?
Relationship between employer and employee is shifting
One could argue relationship between employer and employee is strongly governed by demand and supply of workforce on the market. In this intricate dance of ups and downs, eras of workforce shortage come and go. Latest imbalance was greately influence by the current global situation. On top of that, countries that fail to attract foreign skilled workers get hit even harder, especially some European countries where ageing population is another major worrying factor. The problem is mostly evident in the Baltic countries and Eastern European countries, which are not seeing fast enough economical growth to compete for skilled workforce with Western economies. For online casinos in Latvia and other similar iGaming companies from the area, that means harder time finding skilled workforce to join their local offices. On top of that, retirement of older, skilled employees was futher accelerated by the pandemic, as many simply saw a great opportunity to go home, leaving a gap behind that was not being filled with younger talents.
iGaming sector not immune to global changes
Popular website with iGaming sector news, iGaming Business, did a survey in association with Pentasia, one of the world’s leading iGaming recruitment agencies, in order to find industry insights regarding this topic. As expected, the sector is not without its problems, and talent shortage is evident. Both recruitment cost and salaries are increasing in two-digit range. Starting this year, average salary went up by 12%, and some companies are seeing an increase of as much as 25%. Highest demand is for technically skilled workers and experts, but other departments such as compliance and legal are also seeing a salary increase. Unfortunately for this sector, most positions in the industry are skill-sensitive and require a degree of technical knowledge, so filling the gaps is not easy and fast.
Work culture as one of the answers
“We’re not a company, we’re a family” is one of business world clichés, and more often than not, companies using this phrase are the exact opposite of “families”. However, leaders have recognized that employees notice and care for these values (who would have guessed), so many employers now see their chance in keeping skilled workforce by building, developing and sustaining good work culture that people want to be part of. Yes, most people will tell you salary is the most important metric, but employers now can’t only rely on salary as a mean of bringing talents to the company. If everyone is offering higher salaries, need for other qualities become more apparent, and work culture is certainly something everyone enjoys, together with a good salary.
Employees are now in a good position to deman more without being ready for a compromise. We have witnessed people leaving desireable companies like Apple simply because they began requiring return to the offices. Working remote offered new insights. In most cases, productivity didn’t suffer, but actually increased. People have realized how great their job can be without additional stress that is brought by long commutes and claustrophobic offices. Flexible workplace with a good salary is now the best “currency” for attracting top talents.
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