Finding IT Talent: Top 5 Challenges

With increased competition for talent within the industry, how do you hire the best talent?

Hiring is rebounding after the initial fall due to the pandemic-induced freeze on business plans. Organizations look to continue their digital transformation activities. A significant portion of the industry is currently struggling with talent shortages or skill gaps in key IT positions. 

This has caused the human resources (HR) department to face one of the biggest challenges in IT recruitment: nurturing, recruiting, and retaining talents. HR departments would be wise to pay more attention to retaining valued employees at risk of leaving for greener (or more flexible) pastures. 
 

Covid-19 has fundamentally changed the way the world works in many ways. While the bigger IT companies have started to look at returning to the workplace, the change in working style, which ushered in the remote work concept due to the pandemic, has compounded the IT talent scarcity, especially for sourcing niche skills since the employees now prefer to work remotely than from offices.

A recent Ziff Davis reports that among IT professionals seeking a new job in 2022, 86% will consider remote roles. The same report emphasizes that while remote work opens new opportunities in the IT labor market, companies should be aware that the new work-from-anywhere environment could lead to increased competition for talent within the industry. 

Once it’s eventually safe for workers to go back to the office, 25% of the workforce will be remote. In other words, a quarter of the workforce working partially or completely from home means this is far from a passing trend: It’s here to stay in a meaningful way. This could be the new normal.

The main challenges that we see in the hiring industry are:

1. Finding Qualified Talent

As opposed to this enormous requirement for IT job openings to be filled, the sluggish market of IT talent cannot meet the requirements of IT firms, both in quantity and quality. The biggest challenge in IT hiring is how to find qualified candidates. The goal has to be not to settle for an unqualified worker just because finding top talent is difficult. Organizations now need to suit the work-from-home culture to their advantage. 

Wherever possible, employers can give employees the opportunity to work remotely, thus bringing world-class talent into the fold from afar. There are certain advantages that this model brings in, such as saving money on office space as well as bringing downtime to commute and thus a healthy work-life balance. 

2. Managing Workforce Expectations

Compared to other industries, the IT sector comprises a young workforce, with the non-managerial segment comprising mostly Gen Z and millennials. This generation has a very different work expectation vis-à-vis Generation X. Most of them have a casual attitude towards life and work, as they have less work experience. Hence these are the people who are more likely to make much more frequent career moves. 

The work cut out for us as an organization is developing maturity into a young workforce to build a sense of ownership and purpose in them. Increasing teamwork and collaboration will aid this endeavor, while developing coaching abilities in managers, nurturing a successor pipeline, and developing high potential employees will strengthen the foundation of the organization. However, in times of remote work, this is also a challenge. 

3. Building Employer Brand for a Deeper Impression

It’s all about the employer brand. A brand still holds a commanding role in hiring and retaining talent. When comparing one organization with another, while the size of the paycheck does play an important role for today’s young workforce, they often judge based on the reviews and the images of these companies on online platforms. 

Suppose an organization, like ours, is not in a position to woo the best employees with higher salaries offered by the big tech companies, in that case, we must win their attention by offering the best place to work by promoting a vibrant company culture, offering creative perks and benefits, and having fun at work. 

Having an active social media presence will help us stand out from the crowd. However, branding is not a one-size-fits-all formula for all organizations and needs to be specifically targeted for IT talent acquisition. 

4. Recruiting with Tight Time Frames

If an organization is not hiring the top talent quickly, your competitors surely are. The longer it takes for the applicant to complete the recruitment process, the more their chances of coming onboard are diminishing. Longer time to hire also results in a poor candidate experience, and in today’s age of social media this is detrimental to the corporate brand image in the long run. 

According to a survey by Careerarc, 60 percent of job seekers have had a poor experience during the recruitment process, and 72 percent of them talk to their peers about it. Candidate experience is important not only from the branding point of view but also when the top candidates you shortlist are evaluating your job offer. 

5. Maintaining a Low Turnover Rate

Turnover is the act of replacing an employee with a new employee. The high turnover rate is not uncommon, especially in the ever-changing market of information technology with the startup boom and the gig economy taking over. 

This high turnover rate can be a major contributing factor in the failure of business operations in smaller organizations such as ours.
 
Here, I would like to say that the drivers of attraction are mainly compensation, work-life balance, and location, while the drivers of attrition are mainly compensation, managing quality, and work-life balance
 
A few tips to help control turnover:

●  Recruit the right candidate
●  Paying competitive salaries and perks
●  Increase employee engagement to include motivation and appreciation
●  Offer flexibility (remote working options, flexible timing, ability to choose day-offs)
●  Positive workplace environment
●  Delve into the reason for the high attrition

Dhananjay Nagarkatti is the Co-founder & Chief Operating Officer at Innovsol Systems and Technologies Private Limited. He is a decisive ICT professional with experience of over 20 years of delivering success through a variety of roles across manufacturing, telecom and telecom VAS industries.   Visit Innovsol Systems and Technologies Private Limited Connect Dhananjay Nagarkatti