The research of over 650 CIOs in global enterprises across Europe, US and APAC found that skills and resource retention (35 per cent) is amongst the top three barriers to their business delivering global growth, alongside challenging security environments (35 per cent) and complicated physical and geo-political infrastructure (33 per cent).

Finding the right mix of business and technology skills was the most challenging thing for 40 per cent of CIOs.

Almost a third of CIOs said finding the right competencies for their team in governance and regulatory compliance is challenging. At the same time, expertise in growth technologies such as cyber security (49 per cent) AI/ML (41 per cent), and data analytics (38 per cent) tops the list as the most challenging skills to find.

More than 43 per cent of global CIOs say having a hybrid/remote policy has enabled them to hire from a wider geographical pool of talent; 38 per cent say their team is now based in different countries/markets.

The nature of work has changed, and almost half of CIOs believe flexible working is the critical driver for retaining and recruiting the most skilled employees. Today’s IT leaders are empowered to tap into a global pool of workers and partners to find the best talent, explaining why a third of CIOs (32 per cent) have admitted to hiring someone into their team that they have never met in person.

According to the research, working three days in the office or less is now the new normal for almost three-quarters (72 per cent) of businesses, with almost half (44 per cent) of global CIOs believing the increased demand for hybrid/remote working is being driven by cost-of-living pressures.

A third of global CIOs expect an increase in the days they expect people to work from the office. According to 32 per cent of respondents, this is due to productivity concerns with employees working from home; 31 per cent said home connectivity issues for their employees has a consistent impact on productivity.

However, the trade-off of access to more and better skilled employees is that, for many CIOs, ensuring application performance across multiple locations (41 per cent), and providing 24/7 support across multiple time zones (37 per cent), are putting pressure on their teams.

Ben Elms, Chief Revenue Officer at Expereo said: “As organisations focus on driving growth through global expansion, there are complexities and challenges to overcome in supporting the evolving needs of a global workforce. With more people working from different locations, the ability to change the dynamics of the network to meet diverse connectivity needs at a moment’s notice is vital.

“The key is technology enabling connectivity and collaboration in a remote world. In the end, hybrid working is all about staying connected and enabling interaction with colleagues and customers - wherever you are.”