Securing Tech Talent For Your Organization’s Future

Bankim Chandra is Director & CEO of Dotsquares. Always committed to innovative solutions and mentoring the next generation in the industry.

As the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, IT job seekers face a landscape they have probably never encountered before. In the “Great Resignation,” tech talent has now realized their value and are leaving their current companies to pursue better opportunities.

In this environment, it is more important than ever for organizations to remain competitive in retaining and finding tech talent. It appears that business leaders are already recognizing the portents of the upcoming storm. Even before the pandemic and the Great Resignation, senior executives were not adequately prepared to address the skills gap.

With these challenges in mind, this article will look at four aspects of managing organizational talent.

Recruiting

In the recruiting process, organizations should think beyond ticking boxes and focus on the candidate experience.

Technology-based industries are learning to involve their best people in the interview process and to demonstrate to candidates that the culture and environment create a desirable place to work each day. By using your best technical people in the interview process, you can also employ online ways to assess candidates. For example, a coder might have a presence within technology message boards or be heavily involved in hackathon events—all factors that should be taken into account.

In that interview process, think about whether you are the interviewer or the interviewee. Top hires are looking to work with the latest technologies, build up their skills and develop technology solutions to big issues. The employee value proposition (EVP) is a critical element in recruiting, and companies sometimes must refocus their entire values to attract talent by, for example, implementing and maintaining a superior corporate social responsibility presence that delivers on its promises.

Developing Organizational Structure

Some organizations—and arguably most startups—will consider going the outsourcing route. The obvious advantage is that outsourcing completely circumvents the need to worry about locating talent. But an outsourced approach can only be effective with an excellent partner who understands the priorities of effective communication. While core capabilities should always remain in-house, an effective outsource partner can supplement your in-house talent, allowing your in-house team to concentrate on core tasks.

Once the balance between outsourced and in-house talent has been found, the organizational structure must be established. As we all know, an expert developer should be ten times more productive than a novice. But how the expert developer is parachuted into the organization—and how they work within the organizational matrix—is of equal importance.

In some organizations, the ratio of development resources to management can sit at an incredible 30:70 split. This leads to a culture of excessive bureaucracy and will prohibit working at a certain pace. An agile or DevOps project methodology can only go so far to offset this challenge. Because of this, the organizational matrix should be refocused on small teams that can effectively self-manage and focus on clearing the roadblocks.

Helping Employees Succeed

The key to retaining tech talent is to ensure employees are happy in their roles.

McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index has shown that IT teams often score well below average in terms of health or ability to execute strategic goals. The survey scores a number of different factors such as leadership, continuous improvement capabilities, talent attraction and retention and customer insight. To address these concerns, review process improvements and potential new technologies that can support IT in their roles.

Along those same lines, do you really understand the level of talent available in your organization, or are you simply creating a headcount of roles? An individual’s talent may not lie in their current role, and senior executives might be well advised to identify and utilize latent talent outside of employees’ current job descriptions.

However, do not expect technology specialists and developers to aspire to be great people managers. Some members of your current team will prefer to hone their technology skills and pursue technical challenges rather than manage. A lateral move can be preferable, and some people can find value from moving to different projects and supplementing their experience. In this instance, the career progression needs to be more around a specific technical track as opposed to the more traditional approach of moving up the ladder.

Conclusion

The world today almost seems to be a 180-degree flip from the pre-pandemic world. A few years ago, employers could simply sift through résumés and interview whomever the HR team felt was the most promising candidate. Now, the process must be a lot more inclusive: Candidates are now often the interviewer in the hiring process, and they take culture into account as much as remuneration and future prospects.

Organizations need to set up the whole process to attract candidates who are the best fit for the role—from both perspectives—while also securing and demonstrating career progression that reflects a technical pathway. The new hire should be put front and center. They should feel supported by the organization on their journey through the organization. They should be shown they are highly valued.

In short, the world has changed, and, as techies, we need to lead the charge.


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