IT Talent Shortage Risks And Solutions

Do You Really Have a Talent Shortage?

How To Handle The Emerging Risk Of Our IT Talent Shortage

According to Gartner, talent shortage is the top emerging risk facing organizations today. This situation is particularly painful when seeking IT workers as revealed by Harvey Nash and KPMG. In their annual CIO Survey, 65 percent of CIOs said hiring challenges are damaging the industry.  

Why is this happening? Here are some main reasons:

  • Almost every company needs tech talent, not just IT centric organizations.
  • Training can’t keep up with growth.
  • Cyber security needs have exploded.
  • Privacy regulations have expanded.
  • Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning experts are few and far between.

The IT worker shortage can lead to many other problems downstream. In the digital age, technology affects nearly every area of an organization’s function including marketing, sales, service and finances.

Rethinking Company Culture

A competitive salary and benefits are only part of recruitment and retention strategies. For instance, many millennials are willing to trade higher pay for working with a company that has strong social commitments.

Additionally, perks like flexible work hours and the ability to work remotely resound with the modern workforce. Plus, in our world of likes and instant gratification, it pays to provide frequent positive feedback, instead of a cold yearly performance report.

Some estimates reveal that replacing job hoppers can cost a company up to 6-9 months salary. So be proactive about employee retention. For instance, have you ever considered what sense of personal purpose your brand generates? If not, figure it out, since workers increasingly seek this from their place of employment.

Don’t Underestimate The Cost

When it comes to budgeting your tech salaries, do your research and understand the market value for all skill sets you are hiring for. The IT talent shortage has ramped up salaries. If you don’t anticipate this, you may get left holding an empty bag and even worse, lose a great resource to a competitor that’s offering a better compensation package.

IT Talent Shortage Solutions

Here are some more strategy thumbnails:

Train in-house staff

Improve your current talent pool by getting them up to speed. IT training courses are abundant, so take advantage of them. Don’t be afraid to ask around. You might have someone hiding in sales who’s a closet techie and would love to shift to a new IT career.

Outsource key roles

Even CIO or CTO positions can be outsourced permanently or semi-permanently. In the short term, you may need to hire out IT tasks with temporary extensions of your team. Some organizations use this as their go-to solution even in the long term and can be a great strategy to secure the needed expertise without necessarily having the approved FTE headcount.

Think bigger

Look for qualified help everywhere. Remote work has increasingly become the norm, not the exception. Expand your search to find talent across the country – they might even be willing to relocate.

Get Help Looking

Even though you might have a solid HR department, seeking talent in the IT sector requires specific knowledge. Instead of retraining your HR staff, you should highly consider outsourcing the job to an IT human capital management (HCM) organization. This can reduce hiring cycles to get key tech FTE or temporary positions filled faster.

Need help securing key IT resources with top notch talent? Check out our vetting process.

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