Skills Audit Report 2015 MANCHESTER DIGITAL Manchester Digital is the independent trade association for digital businesses in the North West of England. It provides its members with unrivalled access to relevant information, knowledge and networks, giving them the chance to attend inspirational events, generate new business, set up collaborative projects and find new talent as well as the opportunity to shape the future of digital in the North West. A large part of Manchester Digital s activity is dedicated to the development of skills and talent to support the region s vibrant and growing sector. In February 2015, Manchester Digital held its fourth annual Skills Festival, consisting of 4 events: Conference, Talent Day, Experience Day and Open Studio Day. Talent Day is the largest event of its kind; a careers fair for students considering a career in digital, looking to find placements, full time work or apprenticeships. Over 1000 students attended Talent Day this year and over 70 digital businesses were offering career opportunities. Conference topics discussed included equality in tech; a devolved Manchester; redesigning the world around us and conflict in the curriculum. Businesses, policy makers and educational institutions attended the conference and by bringing these groups together, Manchester Digital is helping to shape the future policy and the provision of digital education. A short report on findings from the conference is also available.
Ahead of the event, Manchester Digital distributed a survey to its members to gain factual insights into the demand for digital talent in the region and to understand how businesses are dealing with ever increasing competition for talent. Chair of Manchester Digital, Tony Foggett presented and discussed the results at the Skills Festival Conference. This report is an in-depth analysis of the survey, which was completed by 86 members of the association. It is also supported by data collected during the Skills Festival. SUMMARY OF KEY THEMES AND INSIGHTS As in 2013 and 2014, employers report a large number of hard-to-fill vacancies with technical development being the hardest. PHP, Magento and Java Script were cited as the most difficult roles to fill. Developers, designers, sales and business development are the three roles that respondents cited as most likely to grow in importance 80% of respondents are experiencing growing pains in their businesses.
ANALYSIS FROM TALENT DAY ATTENDEES This chart shows where the students who attended the Skills Festival came from and is a reflection of which institutions understand the importance of industry engagement when it comes to placing students in jobs* 1. Manchester Metropolitan University 275 University of Salford 212 Eccles Sixth Form 144 Oldham College 62 University of Manchester 59 Trafford College 45 Liverpool John Moores University 44 University of Central Lancashire 33 University of Bolton 22 Edge Hill University 22 Chorlton High School 20 Other 17 Open University 13 Priestly College 12 Manchester College 10 Manchester Business School 6 Loreto college 5 Staffordshire University 4 Shillington College 4 1 These figures are taken from two days before we closed registration so will be a conservative estimate
ANALYSIS Q1: What type of business are you? The below chart provides a detailed breakdown of the types of digital businesses that are in the region and make up the Manchester Digital membership. From 2014, there has been a 1% decrease (from 36% to 35%) in the number of digital agencies. Design and build has grown by 1% and software developer has dropped by 4%. Design & Build Agency Software developer Recruiter or Training Provider Professional services Public Sector PR SEO agency Media planning & buying agency Consultancy Production (TV, Film or Video)
Q2: What is your main business function? Web Design 36.0% Content Marketing and Strategy 29.1% User Experience and Usability 29.1% Mobile 27.9% Strategy and Planning 26.7% Social Media 22.1% Other 22.1% Web Project Management 20.9% E-commerce 18.6% Search Marketing 18.6% Web Analytics 17.4% B2B Marketing 14.0% Customer Experience 12.8% Conversion Rate Optimisation 12.8% Online Advertising 11.6% Online PR 11.6% Online Copywriting 10.5% Email Marketing 9.3% Community Management 8.1% Multichannel Marketing 8.1% Video and Rich Media 5.8% Online Customer Service 4.7% Animation 3D 3.5% Games Development 3.5% ecrm 2.3% Animation 2D 2.3% Affiliate Marketing 2.3% Visual FX 1.2% Connected TV 0.0%
Q3: How many people do you currently employ? This chart accurately depicts the size of the businesses that make up the Manchester Digital membership. The majority of businesses are SMEs, with strong representation from digital and marketing agencies. However the profile of membership is changing with a marked increase in tech start-ups joining membership and larger businesses (51+) such as BBC, Virgin Media, Autotrader, Shop Direct, rentalcars.com and Boohoo recently joining. Start-ups are keen to join for the networking opportunities and to increase their chances of finding investment whilst for larger businesses the driver is access to talent. More than 100, 19.8% Less than 5, 34.9% 51-100, 4.7% 26-50, 14.0% 5-10, 9.3% 11-25, 17.4%
Q4: Of those employees, please tell us how many are full time and how many are part time. Full time: More than 100 20% 51-100 5% Less than 5 34% 26-50 14% 11-25 14% 5-10 13% Part time: 26-50 4% 51-100 11% More than 100 0% 11-25 15% Less than 5 66% 5-10 4%
Q5: Has your business grown in the last 12 months? The number of businesses that have grown in the last 12 months has decreased by around 3% compared to figures from 2014 although the trend of overall business growth across the sector continues. Nearly 75% of all respondents had taken on between 1 and 10 new staff members with a quarter taking on between 11 and 100. No, 19.4% Yes, 80.6% Q6: If yes, how many additional roles have you recruited? 26-50, 5.9% 51-100, 3.9% More than 100, 3.9% 11-25, 11.8% Less than 5, 45.1% 5-10, 29.4%
Q7: Please could you tell us roughly how your workforce is split? Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of respondents have a fairly even split of functions across the business, although it is interesting to note that quite a number of businesses appear to have a top heavy structure with some reporting over 80% of their business is made up of management. 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Less than 10% 20% 40% 60% 80% More than 80%
Q10: Do you have dedicated roles with responsibility for the acquisition of talent in your organisation? Compared to 2014, more respondents have dedicated roles for the acquisition of talent. This may be due in part to the difficulties that many businesses have in recruiting and retaining talent with many agencies claiming they pay more in external recruiter fees than it costs to have a dedicated in-house recruiter. Yes, 37.9% No, 62.1% Q11: If no, who manages talent and recruitment? 70.0% 60.0% 50.0% 40.0% 30.0% 20.0% 10.0% 0.0% Managing Director Other senior staff Office Manager Responsibility of all staff
Q12: What are the 3 most difficult roles to fill? The 2015 results differ vastly to the 2013 and 2014 results. In 2014, Developers were the hardest roles to fill (61% of respondents cited this), but in 2014, PPC Exec and Project Manager also featured (11% and 17% respectively). The shift towards the requirement for designers offers an interesting insight into the current needs of our member businesses. Sales / Business Development demand has increased from 11% in 2014 to 38.5% as it currently stands. Developer, 48.1% Designer, 28.8% Sales / Business Development, 38.5%
Q13: If you chose "developer", please specify the language/platform. This year the top 3 most difficult languages to recruit for are PHP, Java Script and Magento. Last year, 77% of respondents cited PHP developers as being the most difficult to find. We do not believe that the market has eased and that it is any easier to find PHP Developers but instead that demand for the other languages has also grown. Magento is an ecommerce software which probably reflects the growth of this sector in the North West. Other (please specify), 14.1% Drupal, 7.7% C++, 6.5% Magento, 14.1% Ruby on Rails, 2.6% SQL, 12.8% PHP, 20.5% Java Script, 17.9% Python, 3.8%
Q14: Which skill sets will grow in importance to your business / output over the next 24 months? There has been a significant change in figures from 2014 with developer roles dropping in significance by around 20% and the importance of the designer role going up by 6.6%. Project Manager has remained quite static, only increasing by 1%. Digital Marketing Professional has dropped from 17% to 9% and SEO has increased by around 2%. PR, 3.2% Sales, 8.4% Developers, 15.5% Account Management, 7.1% Business Development, 8.4% Designers, 11.6% Mobile, 9.0% Project Managers, 11.0% SEO / Analytics, 9.7% Digital Marketing Professional, 9.0% Social Media, 7.1%
Q15: Have you had to inflate salaries to remain competitive in the labour market? The number of businesses having to inflate salaries has increased from 47% in 2014. Many of our members, especially smaller agencies say wage inflation is a real issue for them. There are a number of large businesses recruiting for the same roles who are able to offer significantly higher salaries and benefits that smaller businesses are unable to compete with. No, 48.9% Yes, 51.1%
Q16: For the below job types please give an indication of salary increases you have made over the last 12 months? As the chart below shows, development and user experience roles have seen the largest increases although most roles have seen only a 10% or less increase. 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Creative Development Project Client Service Management / Liaison Sales & Marketing Strategy User Experience IT & Infrastructure Less than 10% 20% 40% 60% 80% More than 80%
Q17: What other benefits do you offer to employees to aid attraction and retention? In 2014, nearly 20% of respondents said that they provided flexible hours as an employee benefit. This has reduced to 13.4% in 2015. However, social benefits, flexible location and cycle to work schemes have all increased. Health care, pensions and gym membership have all decreased year on year. 14.0% 12.0% 10.0% 8.0% 6.0% 4.0% 2.0% 0.0%
Q18: Which jobs do you most outsource or use freelance talent for? Compared to 2014, outsourcing for developer roles has decreased by around 10%. Less businesses also use contractors compared to 2014 (24%). Web design has increased by 13% and SEO by 2%. Design has decreased by just less than 5%. We don't outsource or use contractors, 13.7% Other (please specify), 1.4% Development, 23.3% Digital Marketing, 5.5% PPC, 8.2% SEO, 12.3% Social Media, 2.7% Design, 9.6% Web Design, 17.8% Game developer and illustrator, 5.5%
Q19: Have you had to turn away work as a result of being unable to find the right talent? This illustrates a worrying trend in the sector. In 2014, 73% of respondents said no whereas over half of respondents this year have said yes. Even more worryingly, over 25% of respondents estimated the monetary value of this to be over 50,000. No, 43.5% Yes, 56.5% Q20: If yes, can you estimate a monetary value for this over the last 3 years? More than 50,000, 26.1% Less than 5,000, 21.7% 5,000-10,000, 17.4% 25,000-50,000, 26.1% 10,000-25,000, 8.7%
Q21: Do you recruit graduates? This chart shows a slight increase in the number of respondents not recruiting graduates up from 15% in 2014. However, the number of companies running their own graduate schemes is exactly the same as in 2014. No, 23.9% Yes, 76.1% Q22: Do you run your own graduate scheme? Yes, 34.8% No, 65.2%
Q23: Which University are you most likely to recruit talent from? The vast majority of respondents would recruit graduates from a university in the Greater Manchester area a trend which shows great support for the local area and for the student community. However, given the shortage of talent there is work to do with other Northern universities to encourage their students to see Manchester as a place to live and work after they graduate. Other North West Universities, 11.2% Other (please specify), 4.1% Liverpool Universities, 7.1% University of Manchester, 29.6% University of Salford, 18.4% Manchester Metropolitan University, 29.6%
Q24: Which university course are you most likely to recruit from? Unsurprisingly, the majority of respondents recruited from computer science and digital marketing courses. This is not only reflective of the sector but perhaps also the strong relationships that those course leaders build with the digital community through such initiatives as Manchester Metropolitan University s Agency Life and Manchester Digital s Talent Day. Some institutions are better than others when it comes down to employer engagement but much of this success depends on the individual lecturers commitment to engaging with industry and encouraging students to be work ready. Marketing, 11.2% Other (please specify), 3.7% Advertising & Marketing, 13.8% Business Management, 6.3% Information and Communications, 16.2% Computer Science, 27.5% Digital Marketing, 21.3%
Q25: Which roles do you find hardest to fill from local universities or colleges? Compared to the 2014 audit results, developer roles now appear easier to fill with a decrease of 30%. Every other type of role has increased in difficulty though, particularly designers, creative and project managers. Marketing, 9.0% Other (please specify), 3.8% Systems Administrators, 6.4% Business Development, 9.0% Developers, 24.4% Account Executives, 11.5% Project Managers, 11.5% Creative, 10.3% Designers, 14.1%
Q25: Have you taken on apprentices in the last 3 years? This year we can see an increase of around 10% in the number of business who have taken on apprentices although this still isn t as high as the figures we saw in 2013 (48% of business had taken on an apprentice). Whilst encouraging to see this number rising again, the number of businesses who haven t taken on an apprentice is still high; perhaps reflecting a continued reticence to take on young people with little or no experience. It is important that employers understand the apprenticeship landscape and how it could work for their business. The infrastructure behind digital apprenticeships still needs to be developed. The supply of good talent from schools into apprenticeships is still poor and funding streams are still viewed as complex by employers. In addition training provision is still patchy and good technical training in apprenticeships is hard to come by. Yes, 39.1% No, 60.9%
Q26: If yes, did the apprenticeship meet your expectations? These figures show a slight increase in the number of businesses who felt the apprenticeship met their expectations (up from 83% in 2014). These figures are extremely encouraging. No, 11.1% Yes, 88.9%
Q27: If no, what stopped you? Per our findings from 2013 and 2014, capacity / ability to manage an apprentice is the most common reason for not taking on an apprentice. Once again though, the quality of applicants is a close second place meaning that there is still a lot of work to be done to secure the right type of talent and improve the training that is given. Whilst there appears to be more apprentices coming through the pipeline, it is important that there are jobs at the end for them. 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
The results of the 2015 Skills Audit show a slightly more optimistic picture compared to 2014. The increase in take up of apprenticeships is encouraging but needs to accelerate far more quickly to provide a medium term, valuable solution to the talent shortage. There is still a huge amount of work to be done to make sure that we meet the current talent demand for Manchester s digital sector and a significant amount of planning if we are to have enough people with digital skills to resource the 14,000 jobs that according to Oxford Economics will be required by 2025. It is essential that we, with the support of local and regional partners continue to promote the opportunities that exist for young people in digital and that we work closely with the businesses themselves to help them understand the landscape and how to find and retain the right talent. Our Skills Festival goes a long way towards supporting this activity and we work closely with schools, colleges, universities and businesses to offer the best opportunities to young people, thus increasing the flow of talent into the pipeline. However, in order to upscale our activity and grow our talent and skills programme to meet demand we will have to attract additional resource. We have created several initiatives that we think will ease the current talent problem and hope to discuss these with public sector partners in the coming months. We will update members as these conversations progress. We will continue with our programme of CPD courses, which have been a great success. These courses, many of which are free or heavily subsidised for Manchester Digital members are extremely important in ensuring that the existing talent within digital businesses are continuing to gain relevant skills and knowledge, upskilling and in some cases, learning whole new skillsets in order to better service the business that they work in. If you want to get in touch to learn more about our skills work or you have particular training needs that you think we can help with, please contact Katie Gallagher, Managing Director of Manchester Digital: katie@manchesterdigital.com.