Talent Acquisition News

IT Talent Gap

Wondering if there is a shortage of IT Talent? The quick answer is YES for sure! But the tech talent gap is larger than any one role. It’s an overall shortage of people who know how to code, work with cybersecurity, infrastructure, cloud solutions, analytics and other areas. That means that tech job seekers are uniquely in demand - it is a buyers market out there when it comes to IT job searches. IT leaders see the shortage of talent as the biggest barrier to adoption for more than half of emerging technologies. It’s getting in the way of organizations' digital transformation.

• Gartner, Inc. finds that IT talent shortages are significantly limiting the ability for organizations to rollout new technologies.
• An extensive new Korn Ferry report finds that by 2030, more than 85 million IT jobs could go unfilled because there aren’t enough skilled people to take them.
• The world will have 3.5 million unfilled cybersecurity jobs in 2022.

What Should IT Leaders Do?

We have posted on LinkedIn several times over the past few months about the talent shortage in IT. The common theme is organizations demand candidates meet EXACT requirements in the job description. It's time that organizations think creatively about what they are looking for and take calculated risks when hiring. There are so many talented people out there who bring unique experience and new ways of looking at the business. We talk to these talented people all the time. IT Hiring Managers - consider broadening your horizons with your search for candidates.  Here are some suggestions:

• Reevaluate your Degree requirements – There are great candidates out there with 2-year degrees in IT
• Consider candidates with less experience  than you require and in turn invest in training and development to ramp them up quickly
• Allow remote work
• Establish a clear career path to demonstrate your willingness to invest in new employees
• Research compensation plans – don’t rely on compensation data you collected 10 years ago – times have changed

Another step to take is partnering with an experienced recruiting company to help expand your search.  Recruiting companies have connections with thousands of candidates including those with unique skillsets and experience.  The recruiting fee may be minimal compared to the investment your organization will make when conducting your own search.