In our technology driven world, a whopping 74% of businesses utilize technology as a primary ingredient to accomplish their goals. The pace at which businesses are adopting the latest technologies has increased drastically in order to remain relevant in the market. Companies worldwide are encountering a colossal hurdle nowadays – the IT skill gap.
87% of organizations are either facing or predicting a talent shortage, as reported by McKinsey. This issue is best described as a gap between the skills needed and the talent available. To make the matter worse, the financial repercussions are jaw dropping. An IDC report shows, 90% of organizations are expected to be negatively impacted by 2026, which could cost $5.5 trillion due to delays, poor quality, and loss of revenue.
It goes without saying that this skills gap affects businesses profoundly – especially in the technology sector. With this blog, we will elaborate on the ongoing IT skilled labor shortage, its impact, and how businesses can effectively manage their technical staffing issues by employing effective modern hiring practices.
Understanding the IT Skills Gap: What is the Cause?
There is a growing gap between the required skills of job provided and the skills offered by job applicants. The growth of specialist has outpaced the growth of unskilled professionals in the field of AI, Cybersecurity, Cloud Computing, and Data Analytics. Skilled professionals are on a high demand but a firm’s approach toward recruiting them needs a makeover.
One reason we still have a gap between technology and education is due to its fast-paced growth, where university curriculums are consistently struggling to catch up along the way. According to the World Economic Forum, in the next 5 years, 44% of workers will change their skills and 60% of the workforce will require new training by 2027. Not too surprising around half of the companies (46%) do not have a strategic plan to close this skill gap.
Aside from that, the high demand and low supply problem exists. Emerging technologies are creating roles at a pace that far outstrips the rate at which talent can be trained. The Bureau of Labour Statistics predicts IT jobs will grow by 356,000 unit per annum between 2023 – 2033. However, 83% of HR leaders agree that the demand is outpacing the skill set of the employees. This is why Kornferry, an industrial consulting firm, estimates that if we continue on this path, we might have a skill gap of 85 million tech jobs, leading to $8.5 trillion of loss in revenue by 2030.
Geographical constraints only make the problem worse by further increasing the skill deficit. When organizations limit their talent search to specific regions, they miss out on qualified candidates located elsewhere. In order to solve these problems, we need to rethink hiring and talent management in a more flexible, tactical manner.
What steps can a company take to mitigate the widening gap between the skills of IT employees and what companies need? The solution is found in Smart Hiring.
The Smart Hiring Solution: Strategies to Bridge the IT Skill Gap
The phrase “smart hiring” denotes the proactive employment of artificial intelligence, data analytics, and creative recruiting approaches to identify, engage, and enroll the best available talent in record time. The “fasten-your-seatbelt” approach always relies on top-tier technology and insight-oriented data to make recruitment smarter, faster, and more productive—and at the end of the day, successful.
Here are some principles of smart hiring:
1. Adopt AI Hiring Software
One of the more important aspects of smart hiring is the use of AI recruitment tools that analyze candidates and match them according to skills, cultural fit, and growth potential. Unlike traditional staffing methods, AI tools can analyze resumes, conduct interviews, and forecast success like no other. In addition, these platforms decrease bias and inefficiency while ensuring that proper skills are aligned to appropriate roles.
2. Integrate Skills-First Hiring Practices
Smart hiring, or the hiring done by skill-based practices, refers to the employment techniques that assess actual performance through job-based challenges rather than through the resume alone.
Incorporating assessments and coding tests into the recruitment process ensures that candidates can handle practical challenges.
In other words, the smart hiring approach sets skills as the centrepiece of focus overriding credentials and potential against experience. To put this in simpler terms, rather than just looking through resumes, it centres one’s eyes on skills and not on formal qualifications and looks at a candidate’s potential more than their level of experience.
3. Use The Advantage from Remote Work
The pandemic has also evidenced that none of us work talent limited. Did you know that remote workers clock in a 47% higher productivity rate than in-house employees and 91% of them believe striking a balance between their work and personal life is easily achievable? By accepting remote work, the smart hiring strategy motivates recruiters to shift the focus from traditional talent pools by employing freelancers, remote employees, and even international workers to strengthen the talent pool.
4. Encourage Development Through Other Methods
As the World Economic Forum suggests, 44% of existing workers’ skills will change in five years and 6 out of 10 will need some degree of retraining by 2027. Meanwhile, only 34% of
employees feel they have been offered adequate support by their organization’s skill development policies. Smart hiring is about nurturing the organization through the existing workforce by adopting measures for systematic upskilling and reskilling, which prepares both the employees and the company for future challenges.
One way to achieve this is to collaborate with educational platforms and provide employees with additional training materials. Forging partnerships with universities and training programs guarantees a constant supply of appropriately skilled candidates who are prepared to take on challenges within the industry. Some corporations, such as Microsoft and Google, have begun leading the way in helping close achievement gaps within their certification programs. This is why it is easier and more effective than ever to address the talent gap and build more skilled, competent teams.
5. Use Tech Staffing Agencies for Assistance
These specialized agencies are bound to have a myriad of quality tech candidates. The best part is that they specialize in streamlining the recruitment process which will ultimately save the companies both time and money.
Stride Digital helps businesses close the IT skill gap by providing strategic hiring solutions tailored to the employer’s most pressing business issues. Using innovative staffing frameworks such as team extension and offshore development centres, Stride increases productivity and efficiency by integrating highly skilled professionals into your teams. Also, our comprehensive professional tech skill evaluation filters guarantee precise certain staff members will be skilled with required technologies and our talent search services fill with non-generic company demands. With the use of our extensive experience in the area and the sophisticated screening techniques, Stride Digital assists companies in constructing flexible, high-performance teams that enhance the speed of digital transformation and improvement of technology in the organization.
The Road Ahead
Closing the IT skill gap is not a single activity. This is an ongoing undertaking that looks ahead and champions learning and possibilities. The future of Smart Hiring is bright with the advent of AI-powered solutions.
Is your company prepared to undertake this change? Allow Stride Digital to facilitate the process for you and do it effortlessly!
