Salary leads technological talent retention factors in Portugal – Business

Remuneration and work-life balance are the main drivers of technological talent in Portugalfollowed by opportunities for career progression and ongoing training.

On the part of companies, among The main strategies for retaining talent include flexibility policies and improving benefits offered to employees.

The study was developed by the Back-to-Market program team at the Center for Applied Studies at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, commissioned by Fujitsu Portugal’s corporate start-up, CHRLY.

From a talent point of view, in terms of retention factors in the company, in addition to salary and growth opportunities and flexibility, Teamwork is also valued in innovation processes. Out-of-the-box innovation is relevant to 90% of respondents aged 18-25.

Globally, This study demonstrates that positive integration, hierarchical or technical career progression and training can be differentiating retention strategies. To promote a culture of innovation, talent indicates that leadership focused on innovation, a culture of transparency, teamwork with co-creation and participation in innovation processes are organizational changes to be implemented.

In a context of scarcity and global competition, the team interviewed more than 200 tech professionals and almost four dozen employers, between December 2023 and January this year.

The authors recall that the area of ​​Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) represents 3.8% of jobs in Portugal (187 thousand professionals), around 1% above Europe. There is a positive ecosystem for attracting international talent, as evidenced by the classification of Portugal in 27th place in INSEAD’s 2023 Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI), with a positive trend in the last decade. Aspects such as geographic location (nearshoring), technical and linguistic skills, quality of life, safety or cost of living contribute to these results.

After the pandemic, half of the universe covered in this study still works in the hybrid format, with a tendency to increase. Only 6% of professionals admit to working in the traditional face-to-face format.

At the level of the most requested functions is the AI (design, development of machine learning algorithms, testing and validation), cybersecurity (defense of information systems), software and app development, cloud and data science. The areas where there is the greatest shortage of resources in companies are AI and machine learning (44%) and cybersecurity (43%).

Technology professionals are thirsty for constant learning (71%) and motivated to take on new challenges and projects (68%). When asked about promoting a culture of innovation in the company, the majority of respondents mentioned leadership focused on innovation (62%) and transparency (60%) as the most necessary changes.

Perspective of employers

To verify the point of view of employers, 39 interviews with members of the Academy, business associations, the public sector and consultants. Organizations point to reasons for talent shortages the imbalance between supply (insufficient resource pipeline) and demand, boosted by digital transformation and, more recently, the pandemic. The difficulty in hiring is the effect of global competition for Portuguese technological talent and the non-competitive salary of Portuguese companies.

68% of companies mostly use resources outside the company (Academia and Outsourcing). And when they turn inward, companies look for internal mobility, interns and internalization.

Companies are looking for Cybersecurity and Data Analysis professionals. Regarding non-tech skills, companies are looking for resources with basic STEM training, curiosity, creativity and critical thinking.

Retaining technological talent is a challenge felt by 72% of respondents and results, on a large scale, from uncompetitive salaries when compared to global competition. Additionally, companies themselves report a lack of growth opportunities for talent. You can consult more data from the published study.