It’s clear that organizations, no matter the size, must go beyond the obvious and embrace new strategies to access the IT talents they need to thrive and get an edge over their competitors.
“HR should be every company’s killer app”. The idea comes from Jack Welch and makes sense anywhere, anytime. Finding the best-fitted talent, both in culture and in skills set, is the only way to get your business plans on the right way to success. And there is no other area where there is such a gap between “supply” and “demand” than when we talk about IT talents. Tech abilities scarcity is a concern that spans all the industries, and companies everywhere feel the effects. How to deliver the digital products you need at the speed the market requires without the best professionals?
A Korn Ferry study that includes a sweeping country-by-country analysis finds that by 2030 there will be a global human talent shortage of more than 85 million people, or roughly equivalent to the population of Germany. Left unchecked, in 2030 this could result in about $8.5 trillion in unrealized annual revenues. Tech persons are, without surprise, one of the biggest challenges.
The lack of IT talents has 4 main dramatic consequences that need urgent action: slow innovation, failure to develop projects on time, overburden employees and struggle to grow further.
Data analytics, IT, mobile and/or web development industries are the most impacted according to a McKinsey Global Survey. Some of the common difficulties that managers encounter are:
- Hiring professionals with multidimensional skills and knowledge;
- Wages changing at different speeds for individuals with the same education (technologists x people administrators x IT and management hybrids);
- Uncertain career plans and incentive policies that no longer work;
- Lack of highly specialized tech resources available.
It’s clear that organizations, no matter the size, must go beyond the obvious and embrace new strategies to access who they need to thrive and get an edge over their competitors – but how to win this “war”?
Here are 5 tips to address the IT talents shortage and tech team-building problems:
#1 Understand which abilities are necessary
A diagnostic can show which skills you currently have, and which ones will be necessary for the future. Understanding it requires a rigorous, empirical approach to compare them with the business’s strategic goals. What’s planned in terms of products launch, improvements, business models, tech stack, investments? This is the starting point to anticipate and prevent serious issues.
#2 Create an ideal employee profile for each function
Figure out exactly what each type of profile should look like (including hard and soft skills), use it to build the questions you ask potential candidates, and craft highly targeted scenarios to see how they respond. Choose a humanized and creative process and run away from pre-established standards.
#3 Be strategic in how you close gaps
Companies must decide what actions they should take to address each gap. Filling most gaps will require a mix of approaches, such as hiring, outsourcing and training. For each approach, it is necessary to decide which specific initiatives to implement to gain the right skills in the workforce.
#4 Build a great value proposition
IT talents are essentially looking for great challenges and an environment where they can be the best version of themselves. While feeling connected and recognized, always evolving as a person and a professional, having a good work-life-family balancing and making part of a common purpose.
#5 Consider a tech partner to drastically increase your delivery capacity at each moment
Either through a remote IT factory or people provision, a tech partner ensures the IT talents needed for your projects and business growth. A Center of Excellence operating under a flexible model combines the best of face-to-face and remote work to deliver tailored services in record time. The benefits of Nearshore are clear: you overcome the tech shortage problem, gain efficiencies and cost savings, and benefit from a cultural similarity and no (or fewer) time-zone differences. Multi-disciplinary teams and highly specific skills become at your fingertips and you can finally innovate without limits. From Developers to DevOps, Scrum Masters, Functional Analysts, Testers, Data Analysts, Product Owners, Project Managers, Support Engineers, QA Technicians and Architects, partially or fully allocated. From Artificial Intelligence to CyberTech, Cloud Computing, Mobile and Web Development, and Quality Assurance. From Java to .Net, OutSystems, Python, PHP, Salesforce, SAP, Microsoft. Just tell us what you want, and we make it happen.
InnoTech is this kind of partner. Our mission is to deliver innovative technology driven by brilliant minds. Matching your requirements and expectations with the best and scalable resources. From our headquarters in Portugal, we bring ideas to life all across the world. Let’s talk and surpass together your struggle to find the right IT talents. We’ll be there, in a committed relationship, every step of the way.
