Expert profiles in strategic digital domains such as Cloud services, Artificial Intelligence (AI) or even Cybersecurity are very important, both in the short and long term, for a country's digital resilience and capacity for innovation. However, the talent shortage is now global, and countries are engaged in a fierce battle to attract the best profiles.
In our "Digital Resilience" thematic dossierwe propose 6 articles to define the framework of our Digital Resilience as well as its stakes and components. 3rd article on the challenges of training and retaining digital talent.
France goes head to head with its competitors to retain its digital talent
While the USA, Canada, the UK and Switzerland are the non-EU countries most likely to attract French talent(see BCG's Decoding Digital Talents 2019 study), this competition is also present within the European Union (EU) itself, where France today faces strong competition from Germany, the Benelux countries and the Nordic countries (see the results of the Global Talent Competitiveness Index 2022 or those of the EU Innovation Scoreboard).
While its initial training around digital subjects (AI and Machine Learning, Applied Mathematics, Computer Engineering, Digital Marketing, etc.) is considered high-performing, several factors limit France's chances in its ability to retain its talent, attract international talent (according to BCG's 2021 Decoding Digital Talents Challenge report, France is in 10th place in terms of attractiveness, three places down on 2019) and match its labor market to the needs of companies and its economy.
Why is France losing out in terms of attracting digital talent?
First and foremost in the corporate world
- the salaries offered are significantly lower than those found in Northern European countries(see Big Cloud's 2022 survey, for example) and even lower in the USA(Open Data Science 2022 Report).
- French companies' R&D spending in the digital sector is lower (see the EU 2021 report or the Georgetown University report on GAFAM ), and research is less valued, leading to a less stimulating and attractive environment for Data profiles, particularly those with a PhD.
- Access to finance for start-ups, although significant progress has been made, is still more difficult in France, particularly compared to the USA, UK and Germany(Crunchbase 2021).
Concerning public and/or publicly-funded research:
- resources and investments are below those of other countries in North America and Northern Europe (OECD report 2021). In particular, salaries for researchers are lower and the number of permanent positions created each year is insufficient, which hampers both the retention of talent trained in France and the attraction of foreign talent. Yet public research is a very important factor in a country's digital resilience, since it is at the origin of many of the innovations that will subsequently fuel businesses and the economy.
- In this respect, the lack of bridges between companies and universities, where the majority of research takes place, is still an obstacle to innovation and competitiveness in France.
Finally, the level of acculturation and/or expertise of the working population in digital technologies, particularly AI and cybersecurity, is a very important factor in resilience. It determines not only the match between the workforce and companies, but also the ability of employees to adapt to a fast-changing environment requiring ever more advanced digital skills.
What's more, in a context of talent shortages, digital-literate employees can help companies meet their needs.
5 levers that France and French companies must activate
We believe that France and French companies must activate the following levers in order to face global competition, including intra-European competition, in the quest for talent and thus ensure its digital resilience:
- Increase the salaries offered, both in companies and in public research
- Investing more in R&D and public research
- Building and sustaining bridges between the worlds of business and academia
- Continue to improve financing conditions for start-ups
- Invest in the ongoing training of its workforce, both to enable them to adapt to their professional environment and to evolve towards digital professions. In this respect, initiatives such as École 42 and the Albert School should be supported and their model extended.
All articles in the "Digital resilience" section
Digital resilience: France's connectivity and the resilience of our digital networks
Internet service providers, clouds, operating systems and online platforms are all digital services that have become indispensable. The vast majority are offered by
Digital resilience: Cloud, data and AI
End-to-end control and management of the data collection, storage, processing, analysis and exploitation chain for data collected on
Digital resilience: Web3, the future of the Internet
Web3 is presented as a Web of trust, based on key principles (decentralization, community sovereignty, new ownership models, etc.). In our
Digital resilience: cybersecurity and supply
Building French and European digital resilience is a fundamental issue of sovereignty that goes far beyond digital issues alone. In our dossier
Digital resilience: definition, key components and challenges
Building French and European digital resilience is a fundamental issue of sovereignty that goes far beyond digital issues alone. It also concerns
