The digital exodus won’t be happening
The rise in digital technology and the need for companies to go through a digital transformation has raised questions on the flexibility and adaptability of our work methods. There are no longer any boundaries, and presenteeism has no place in a digital world. Work methods such as collaborative tools, teleworking, and agility are setting the stage for a new set of rules.
To meet these new needs, and in order to make it easier for companies and freelancers to understand the French IT market and its geography, Malt, the leading platform for connecting digital freelancers with companies, is introducing a tool called Malt Tech Trends, which will be updated every 6 months. This tool will enable IT skills to be mapped by city and region.
According to this report, Paris, which is still home to a large concentration of IT talents (18.85%), is quickly being caught up by new regional hubs (Lyon — Bordeaux — Marseille — and Toulouse in particular). Brittany, for example, referred to as a cyber valley, or the Auvergne-Rhône Alpes region, considered to be the most dynamic region in the IT sector in 2018, show an impressive growth and a strong territorial foundation in terms of IT skills (Lyon accounts for 7.52% of IT freelance talent).
Some of France’s leading tech companies have not been shy to take the plunge, such as ManoMano, which, in response to a high level of market tension towards the end of 2018 and the growing scarcity of tech talent, they have decided to open a new office in Bordeaux — where just over 7% of the freelance IT population is concentrated — in order to take advantage of the pool of local tech/developer profiles vital to the company’s growth
This is a great opportunity for Tech talents to have their choice of pick with interesting projects, increase their turnover, but above all, keep a lifestyle that is in line with their aspirations, especially to return or stay in rural parts of France without missing out on professional opportunities. A recent study by Malt states that 96% of Tech freelancers are freelancers by choice and that this choice is mainly motivated by the autonomy they acquire (88%), the choice of clients to work with (57%) and the possibility of organizing their schedule between home and the client’s company (53%).
We can now see the new shape of a more agile society of workers and companies with the arrival of co-working spaces, venues such as Darwin in Bordeaux, Station F in Paris, and networking platforms to facilitate communication and find talents all over France.
This profound transformation of the job market which can be observed on a national scale, and the ability of tech companies and talents to find new ways to adapt to each other, opens up the prospect of a new way of working, agile of course, but above all decentralized/regionalized, which will give a completely different vision of the workforce and France’s future talents.
This is why Vincent Huguet, co-founder of Malt, the leading platform for connecting digital freelancers with companies, is firmly convinced that the situation is shifting. Because of company’s need to transform themselves digitally, they are looking for talent and are ready to offer them the possibility to work from wherever they please! That’s the whole idea behind Malt Tech Trends, to know how to locate both resources and projects while bringing companies and talents closer together, regardless of their geographical location.
