Information Technology consists of data, software, hardware, technical professionals and several other factors. All of these combined and working optimally provide a basis for a company’s success, however, it’s the brainpower of the IT professional that is ultimately responsible for accomplishing the company’s goals. Many companies are lagging behind their goals due to a deficiency of knowledgeable, experienced technical talent. Organizations seek to make competitive strides by leveraging technologies such as big data, mobile and AI, but a shortage of IT candidates with these skills exist. How do you deal with an IT skill shortage? An ideal way to handle the IT skill gap issue is revamping hiring strategies and talent retention procedures to drive business growth.
Select candidates as per IT roles – Instead of advertising a job with a list of desired skills and waiting for the right candidate to apply, focus on recruiting someone experienced with the specific role. When creating your job posting think about what’s essential to build a competent team and the type of specific talent that can recognize the organizational goals. Once you have selected the top three to five candidates that are “qualified on paper,” schedule a technical interview to be conducted via eTeki’s on-demand technical interviewing platform.
Quarterly performance review – Evaluate technical skills of your team quarterly and find out where they need to improve their skills and where the team excels. By reviewing skills periodically, you can show executives your technical team is up-to-date on new technological advancements to meet the coming business objectives. Undertaking this approach can aid in detecting skill shortfall in your IT team early, so you can make plans for professional development for your existing staff and identify the most critical roles and skills to screen for when hiring in the future.
Provide training to employees – Once you have identified gaps in each employee’s skill set, you can collectively review the technical gaps of the team. Arrange training for the individual, or the entire team when appropriate, in the specific area of need to increase overall understanding and competency. Keep in mind, it’s your talented team whose efforts are the foundation for business growth in your company. Empowering your team with professional development opportunities to increase their skills will move your company to the next level of success.
Build a progressive career path – It seems that retaining quality employees is sometimes harder than recruiting them. In order to keep your top IT talent, plan a progressive career path for them. Set standards for specific technical skills that will allow your talent to move ahead to the next level of their IT career. Be sure to consider how compensation, benefits, and incentive packages are structured to reward current employees who accept the challenge to grow as professional. This type of an environment creates positive team morale and increases retention rates.
Brainstorm methods for retention – Put yourself in the shoes of IT professionals at your organization and come up with ideas to keep your technical talent from considering a lucrative job offer elsewhere. Consider the obstacles they face on a daily basis and take steps to establish solutions to remove areas of frustration from their work lives. This can be a challenging process, but it’s absolutely essential when dealing with retention during a widespread deficit of IT talent and a demand for businesses to technologically advanced business practices.
These 5 strategies will help you to handle technical talent and close the IT skill gap. Rethink how you currently hire IT professionals and step out of your conventional recruitment strategies. There are times you may only have to change a few facets of your current practice, but at times you may need to overhaul the entire staffing procedure. Don’t be afraid to make changes for the benefit of your company. Embrace change and make the most of your business returns by hiring and retaining top notch technical talent.
eTeki can help you pre-qualify the technical skills of your prospective new hires by pairing a hands-on experienced IT professional with your potential employees to conduct a technical interview. eTeki certified interviewers make sure that the skills outlined in the candidates’ resumes are skills that the candidate has experience applying to technical projects.
Top 5 Ways of Handling Talent to Cope with IT Skill Gap
