Putting together a complete staff for your company, one of the most difficult roles to hire for will be information technology. This difficulty is found across sectors. While the demand for IT skills on the team including cloud engineering, data science, AI, and cybersecurity are all increasing exponentially, the number of people who can expertly fulfill these roles has not been. Every business needs software development, network monitoring, and security upkeep. Every business needs a web dev, app builder, and internal tool expert. But even including the self-taught admins, there is an IT talent shortage.
What next? Fortunately, this is not the end of the story. The tech talent shortage is upon us, but it doesn’t have to stay that way. As employers and organizations, there are more than a few options to cultivate the information and technology talent needed by almost every company.
1. Upskilling Your Current Workforce to Handle the IT Talent Shortage
Train the team you have. Upskilling is an excellent way to develop the talent you need for unfilling roles and to provide professional development opportunities to your team members. Any who want to hone their technical skills will immediately increase their value and you may quickly begin to internally generate qualified junior technicians.
The workforce today from 16-41 are all Millennials and Gen Z, which means there are likely more than a few “digital natives” on your team thriving by learning the software and tools needed for their current roles. Identify and train the technical talents in your workforce.
2. Offering Competitive Work Environments
In order to attract the small number of IT professionals available in the hiring pool, you will need a competitive offer. What does your business have to offer that others do not? Competitive pay, benefits, and useful perks all facto in. Today, many professionals are seeking remote or hybrid roles and flexible scheduling. Being able to offer that can put your offer above other more restrictive roles on the market.
3. Tapping Into Retired and Transitional Experts to Handle the IT Talent Shortage
One of the reasons for the IT talent shortage is that many of the most senior techs are now retiring. However, hiring retired technicians for a second, more relaxed career keeping up your systems or facilitating the part-time work of a half-retired and transitioning old pro can both result in truly expert support for your business systems.
4. Automating Routine Tasks
Take the tedium off of your staff and free your talent to focus on more structural or creative tasks. Automation is a great way to turn routine into less overall work and greater productivity. This is especially important for companies looking to optimize the labor of their existing IT team. Automation gives hours back to your admins so they can focus on things like upgrades, restructuring, security testing, tool-building, and improving automation.
5. Tapping Into Staff Enhancement Partners
Outsourcing to enhance your IT team is also a great way to make forward progress and then maintain a good product. A staff enhancement partner might build your workforce new tools or network structure that your on-staff IT team can then maintain. Splitting the work through an occasional infusion of IT experts addresses the natural ebb and flow of production and maintenance.
You only need a database specialist when rebuilding your database, and a skilled network admin can maintain your database, network, and endpoints altogether between upgrades. The same is true of your website design or software tools. These partners can also apply their experience to help you train new technical talent in your upskilling program.
Handle the IT Talent Shortage
Here at BrightR Limited, we are dedicated to connecting businesses like your business to the IT talent you need, when you need them. Outsourcing provides a great deal of flexibility to your budget, routine, and upgrade cycle without needing to acquire all your talent as permanent hires.
Contact us today to consult on how we can help you address your business needs in the IT talent shortage.
