Survival guide to the tech talent crisis

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses in all sectors have taken a hit and have been forced to adopt new measures to stay afloat.

It’s no longer viable to ignore digital transformation since it has become all but essential for businesses to continue to thrive in the current climate. This comes at a time when the demand for tech talent is at an all-time high, with IT-based skills coming at a premium.

This may seem like a direct result of the pandemic, but the reality is that the tech skills shortage has been an issue for several years now. The research backs this up, showing that as many as 73% of CEO’s back in 2015 had expressed concerns over the shortage of talent, and this figure has slowly grown over the years. As such, the pandemic didn’t cause the issue; it just made it more apparent. 

The tech talent shortage is a concern for many small to medium-sized businesses, especially when large corporations snap up top talent by flexing their financial muscles. 

The Tech Talent Crisis

As a result of customer demand for convenience through digitalization, and the lack of talent in related fields, we find ourselves in the midst of a tech talent crisis.

It makes sense: if customers are able to receive groceries directly to their door, pay for goods online with a single click, and do just about everything they need from the comfort of their own homes, why would they want to go back to how things used to be done?

The rise of remote work and a hybrid work schedule has the potential to wreak havoc on small tech startups and medium-sized businesses in the industry since it’s hard to keep up. With the pandemic looming for the foreseeable future, the only way forward is to adapt.

What does this mean for you?

Well, unfortunately, it means that employees from the largest tech firms now have all the power in their hands. Whereas before their skills were well compensated only at the very top of the pyramid, now they’re faced with a wealth of options as tech companies up and down the country vie for them.

The average tech employee these days can have his cake and eat it too. Not only can talented tech workers demand a competitive salary, but they can also find a job with a work schedule that perfectly matches their lifestyle and offers flexible remote work.

How to Find the Best Tech Talent

If you want to secure the best tech talent out there, you’re going to have to go back to the drawing board.

Sliding a piece of paper across the table with a large sum of money will no longer cut it.

You have to show that you can offer the employee a level of flexibility that they can’t find elsewhere.

Not everyone makes career decisions with dollar signs in their eyes, and if you can come up with a remote work schedule that allows employees complete control over how they work, then it’s an offer that’s hard for anyone to refuse.

There are other options, though, so don’t fret if the thought of offering your employees complete independence makes you nervous.

Here are some of the best strategies to adopt if you want to land the best IT talent:

Upskilling

One of the simplest ways to address the dearth of tech talent in the job market is to establish upskilling campaigns within your company.

With the right amount of investment, you can effectively retrain your current workforce which could eliminate the need to outsource or onboard more workers. Teaching subjects such as software engineering and machine learning can help produce more in-house tech talent, though of course this strategy will take a lot of time and resources.

Staff Augmentation

A term you may have heard from your time in the tech industry, staff augmentation is a strategy of external outsourcing which aims to fill positions in your company with the right candidates.

The primary benefit of the augmentation process is that it can relieve you of the burden of seeking out and onboarding top talent. Find the right partner and they will take control of the whole augmentation process from recruitment to interviewing, so that you’re free to focus your attention on other aspects of the business.

Nearshore Outsourcing

Nearshore outsourcing is all about expanding your operations to include a workforce in a nearby country.

If you’re struggling to hire local talent, outsourcing your search to a nearby country could be the perfect solution to bolster the workforce. This approach works well for a lot of companies because workflow shouldn’t be disrupted with faster integration, and similar time zones.

Contractors

Contractors, or freelance workers, represent an excellent resource for tech companies affected by the tech talent shortage.

With all the flexibility that remote work brings, it’s no surprise that some of the best IT workers have decided to go solo and set up their own businesses. As such, it’s a good idea to dip into the global freelance market from time to time to see if you can find solutions to your tech problems abroad.

The one caveat here is that hiring freelance workers is usually just a temporary solution, not a long-term one. Plus, North America isn’t the only part of the world to suffer from a tech talent crisis, so it may still be tricky to find the right talent for the job.

Find a Recruitment Partner

Sometimes, although the plan to acquire top tech talent is clear, the process can be complicated.

You might decide that a freelancer is the right solution, but don’t know how to find the best contractors. Or maybe you decide to go down the route of nearshore outsourcing, but again, you’re not sure how to go about it or where to set up your external team.

In cases such as these, your best bet might just be to find a recruitment partner who can assume control of the talent hunt to ensure you end up with the employee/s you need. Intersog offers digital recruitment solutions for your IT talent needs, with dedicated development teams and high-performing software that can assist your search for the best tech talent.