The Tech Talent Shortage: Its Impact on Businesses and the Solution

Introduction

Did you know that according to the Kon Ferry report, by 2030, more than 85 million jobs will go unfulfilled due to a lack of skilled people who can fit into those positions?

Tech skills are indispensable and imperative for an organization’s growth and success. With tech advancements making their way into the workplace, a report states that 36% of global companies are struggling to identify and recruit skilled tech workers for existing job positions and are unable to deliver projects on time and achieve business targets.

For instance, imagine you are the HR recruiter of a database management company that organizes and manages valuable business data of customers. Now over the recent years, your client base has doubled, creating the urgency to move your database into the cloud. After you successfully migrate your business operations to the cloud, the next thing you must ensure is data security. Although you already had a team of data security engineers, they were not skilled enough to prevent data breaches or thefts in the cloud.

The immediate step you took is to search for suitable candidates offering a modest salary and lots of growth potential accompanied with other benefits. You might have received many applications, but your search didn’t end. Obviously, you don’t want to take any chances by recruiting any available talent; you want to ensure that you have a highly skilled team member to look after the cloud security challenges for your business.

With every passing day, you are encountering new security issues that your existing team is unable to address, your customers are starting to question your service, and now your company is on the verge of losing out new as well as old clients.

This hypothetical situation is all too real for many companies like you out there in the world. According to the latest stats, 84% of companies are missing out on big cloud projects because of skilled tech talent to support their project goals.

Let us look into what’s causing this tech talent shortage and what companies can do to overcome it:

Why are Businesses Experiencing a Tech Talent Shortage?

In today’s world, where innovation is the key to business agility and growth, the software is crucial as it holds all the different aspects of a business together. Almost 90% of organizational operations are supported by software which is why we are experiencing an exponential increase in demand for skilled tech talent in recent years. Supporting this fact, even Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was quoted saying, “All businesses are software businesses.” And this is exactly what we are currently witnessing.

From customer management, coordinating workflows, inventory management, and supply chain management to marketing automation and lead nurturing, businesses of all sizes and specializations use software, adding to the growing tech expert requirement who can fit onto the evolving tech job roles.

But the real concern here isn’t the rising demand graph but the alarming truth that demand is exceeding supply, leading to global tech talent shortage across industries.

Apart from this, other factors contributing to the present talent shortage include:

• Lack of quality STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education.
• The increasing rate of retirement or exit of Gen-X workers.
• Lack of skilled staff to leverage new and innovative technologies.
• Companies are finding it increasingly difficult to attract qualified tech workers as most are interested in working for leading brands like Facebook, Google, IBM, and more.
• The reluctance of employees to upskill is another challenge restricting employers from finding the right tech talent. As a result, HR managers and L&D heads cannot fill the future job roles in emerging technologies like machine learning, Artificial intelligence, cyber security, data science, and more.

Steps to Overcome Tech Talent Shortage

Here are the steps companies can take to respond to the widening talent gap and immediate tech talent requirements:

Upskill Your Existing Workforce

With discoveries and innovations made every day, technology is constantly being updated. The skills that are relevant today may become obsolete tomorrow. Therefore, you need to ensure that your employees are up to date with the latest technologies and are equipped with the right skill set to match future job expectations.

Upskilling your employees is one of the most effective solutions to combat the growing tech talent shortage. Helping your existing workers upgrade their tech skills not only boosts their productivity and performance but also helps your company build a project-ready workforce who can meet deadlines and add to the value proposition for your business.

Make sure that equal upskilling opportunities are available for employees at all levels and aligned to their unique skill requirements and business objectives. You can seek professional help to train your staff. There are plenty of cloud training providers available who offer live classroom training, hands-on lab sessions, and access to authorized course curricula on the latest technology certification courses.

Hire Tech Talent

The easiest and perhaps the most sorted option for any company is to hire talent to close the tech skill gap. But make sure you employ relevant talent that can address your company’s needs. However, before you go crazy about hiring, first, be confident about the candidate profile and the skills you are looking for. First, understand your talent needs and accordingly recruit the right talent for your organization.

Moreover, if you mention that you provide learning and training opportunities in your job postings, you are likely to attract motivated and quality talent who are willing to associate with companies that can help them grow.

Reduce the Time-to-Hire

A long and tedious hiring process may result in losing quality talent. This is because candidates may simultaneously apply to multiple companies for a particular tech job. And if your hiring process is lengthy, another business with a shorter time-to-hire may end up hiring him/her before you do. Moreover, hiring a remote workforce can also help meet tech talent shortage as you can hire from anywhere across the globe and have access to the qualified talent you otherwise would have missed.

Retain Current Talent

Would you like to lose a trained and experienced employee? The answer is definitely a big ‘No,’ especially when you have already invested in employee training and development. Hence, one of the best ways to meet the talent crunch is by retaining existing talent.

Besides offering high salaries, you can provide additional benefits like extra incentives, remote work facilities, or flexible work schedules to keep employees hooked to your company. And trust us, it won’t break your bank to be considerate about providing what employees expect from you in return for their top-notch capabilities. It would be best if you went that extra mile to ensure that your recruitment and retention efforts are done correctly to keep top talent

How CloudThat can Help Fill the Tech Skill Gaps?

Is the global tech talent shortage becoming your concern? Are you finding it hard to close the skill gap and identify the right people to fill your open tech positions? Well! You are certainly not alone in this. It’s a global concern that’s been haunting companies for quite some time now. That’s why we suggest you get your tech staff upskilled on cloud and other emerging technologies to prepare them for changing market dynamics.

About CloudThat

CloudThat can help you nurture your existing talent pool through highly customized and engaging Employment-Based-Skills training delivered by experienced and certified trainers for most in-demand technologies such as the Cloud, AI/ML, DevOps, IoT, Virtualization, and much more. Sign up to assess your employee’s capability for FREE, leveraging this framework, we empower companies to transform their employees into billable resources through proper skill assessment to bridge the tech skill gaps.