by Jim Lein | Sr. Principal Product Marketing Director | Oracle Midsize Programs | @JimLein
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5 Things I Learned About the IT Labor
Shortage
A gentle
autumn breeze is nudging the last golden leaves off the aspen trees. It’s time
to wrap up the series that I started back in April, “The Growing IT Labor
Shortage: Are You Feeling It?”
Even in a
time of relatively high unemployment,
labor shortages exist depending on many factors, including location,
industry, IT requirements, and company size. According to Manpower Groups 2013
Talent Shortage Survey, 35% of hiring managers globally are having
difficulty filling jobs. Their top three
challenges in filling jobs are:
1. lack of technical competencies (hard skills)
2. Lack of available applicants
3. Lack of experience
The same
report listed Technicians
as the most difficult position to fill in the United States
For most
companies, Human Capital and Talent Management have never been more strategic
and they are striving for ways streamline processes, reduce turnover, and lower
costs (see this Oracle whitepaper, “ Simplify
Workforce Management and Increase Global Agility”).
Everyone I
spoke to—partner, customer, and Oracle experts—agreed that it can be extremely
challenging to hire and retain IT talent in today’s labor market. And they
generally agreed on the causes:
a. IT is so pervasive that there are myriad moving parts requiring
support and expertise,
b. thus, it’s hard for university graduates to step
in and contribute immediately without experience and specialization,
c. big IT companies generally aren’t the talent incubators
that they were in the freewheeling 90’s due to bottom line pressures that
require hiring talent that can hit the ground running, and
d. it’s often too expensive for resource-strapped midsize
companies to invest the time and money required to get graduates up to
speed.
Here are my
top lessons learned from my conversations with the experts.
1. A Better Title
Would Have Been, “The Challenges of
Finding and Retaining IT Talent That Matches Your Requirements”
There are
more applicants than jobs but it’s getting tougher and tougher to find
individuals that perfectly fit each and every role. Top performing companies are increasingly
looking to hire the “almost ready”, striving to keep their existing talent more
engaged, and leveraging their employee’s social and professional networks to
quickly narrow down candidate searches (here’s another whitepaper, “A
Strategic Approach to Talent Management”).
2. Size Matters—But
So Does Location
Midsize
companies must strive to build cultures that compete favorably with what large
enterprises can offer, especially when they aren’t within commuting distance of
IT talent strongholds. They can’t always
match the compensation and benefits offered by large enterprises so it's paramount to
offer candidates high quality of life and opportunities to build their resumes in
alignment with their long term career aspirations.
3. Get By With
a Little Help From Your Friends
It doesn’t
always make sense to invest time and money in training an employee on a task
they will not perform frequently. Or get in a bidding war for talent with
skills that are rare and in high demand. Many midsize companies are finding
that it makes good economic sense to contract with partners for remote support rather
than trying to divvy up each and every role amongst their lean staff. Internal
staff can be assigned to roles that will have the highest positive impact on
achieving organizational goals.
4. It’s Actually
Both “What You Know” AND “Who You Know”
If I was
hiring someone today I would absolutely leverage the social and professional
networks of my co-workers. Period. Most
research shows that hiring in this manner is less expensive and time
consuming AND produces better results. There is also some evidence that
suggests new hires from employees’ networks have higher job performance and
retention rates.
5. I Have New Respect for Recruiters and
Hiring Managers
My hats off
to them—it’s not easy hiring and retaining top talent with today’s challenges. Check
out the infographic, “A New Day: Taking HR from Chaos to Control”, on Oracle’s
Human Capital Management solutions home
page. You can also explore all of Oracle’s HCM solutions from that page
based on your role.
You can read all the posts in this series by clicking on the links in the right sidebar.
Stay
tuned…we’ll continue to post thought leadership on HCM and Talent Management
topics.
