Infosys aims to boost UK digital talent through three-year hiring plan

This week, Infosys announced plans to significantly boost its onshore digital talent in the UK over the next three years, with the hope of creating 1000 new jobs in the country.

The firm is keen to bulk out its digital delivery capabilities in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has seen firms across the globe accelerate digital transformation projects, leaving depleted talent pools in critical business areas such as cloud, cybersecurity, AI, and analytics. The move comes at a time when businesses in the UK are finding it increasingly difficult to access the right skills and talent to help drive important technology projects. When asked about challenges impacting their data and analytics strategy in a recent PAC survey, 38% advised that challenges hiring talent and training people were holding them back.

The impact of the pandemic aside, one of the fastest-growing trends in the IT Services industry was the demand for more onshore and nearshore delivery – with business leaders keen to play more of a role in solution development and many eager to keep business-critical capabilities such as cybersecurity close to home. To this end, Infosys has focused on building out a stronger footprint in growing markets, such as opening innovation centers in Finland to deliver into the attractive Nordics market. And boosting nearshore cybersecurity capabilities in Europe through the launch of a new cyber defence center in Bucharest. The firm combines these significant regional investments with the firm’s growing pockets of onshore talent across Europe.

In the case of the firm’s UK plans, Infosys aims to recruit directly from UK universities, with new talent trained extensively in high-demand digital technology services such as cloud and analytics. A move that sets the firm up to compete in a highly dynamic market, buoyed by ongoing demand for services and solutions that enable businesses to reach their digital ambitions under accelerated timelines.

For the UK government, the announcement is a reassuring one after two years of challenging economic conditions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and many unresolved questions around the impact of Brexit on the sector.