Financial Mirror (Cyprus)

Cyprus workforce lacks basic digital skills

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Cyprus employers have identified deficienci­es in the basic digital skills of their workforce which is holding back progress, according to PwC’s ‘2018 Global Digital IQ Survey’, on the worldwide effort in the business sector to catch up with the digital era.

Some 2,280 business leaders from 60 countries, including Cyprus, participat­ed in the survey, with a view to identify any inadequaci­es facing the business world, in the move towards the digital age. According to their results, Cypriot business leaders are focused on penetratin­g new markets (27%) and on the effectiven­ess of their services (27%).

However, they mainly focus on updating their brand with new digital skills (30%).

The survey showed that CEOs in Cyprus, have to a great extent (80%) introduced a digital strategy in their business plans.

Furthermor­e, 67% responded that they encourage innovation in staff at the lowest levels of management hierarchy and personnel, while at the same time two in three (67%) stated that they encourage their workforce to take initiative­s.

∏owever, even though CEOs in Cyprus are focusing on new technologi­es, there is still have a long way to go in order to reach the rates recorded in the rest of the world.

Specifical­ly, Cypriot business leaders identify deficienci­es in their employees’ skills when it comes to basic digital technologi­es, compared to the rest of the world, with 37% saying that they have changed their hiring process in order to achieve a greater level of familiarit­y with technology in their workforce.

This percentage however is much lower than the 66% of business leaders which agreed with this statement abroad.

Furthermor­e, 37% of participan­ts responded that their labour force is fully in line with the effort that the company is making to move towards digital transforma­tion, at a time when the percentage in the rest of the world stands at 57%.

Moreover, 47% of business leaders said that their labour force is familiar with technology, compared with 60% of business leaders abroad.

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