Are You Prepared to Win the IT Battle?
Posted March 2nd, 2016
If you’re struggling to find the IT talent you need, take comfort in this fact. So is everyone else. Major players like Adobe and Facebook are experiencing many of the same woes that you are. Managing to source, recruit, and retain IT professionals with the skills relevant to today is a challenge industry wide. So how do overcome the problem and go on to win the IT battle, especially when you’re up against heavyweights? Focus on the following strategies.
1. Embrace New Recruiting Methods
The traditional method for finding talent is based on a close evaluation of the resume, cover letter, and interview performance. Unfortunately, that long and arduous process tells you nothing about what you really need to know – does candidate X have the skills I need?
Instead, embrace new methods for finding and attracting talent like hosting hackathons and coding challenges. These non-traditional methods show what a candidate can actually do. When you need to make a hire, you pick from a much smaller candidate pool of already-proven talent.
2. Leverage New Sources of Talent
With the battle for talent being so fierce, no source of promising recruits can go unconsidered. Many companies are now looking internationally to find promising developers and engineers. Overcoming immigration and language barriers is easier than ever, along with recruiting on a global level.
Another strategy is to focus on finding promising entry-level talent and then developing them internally. With a combination of professional development and in-house training, it’s possible to create exactly the talent you haven’t been able to find outside your company.
3. Create a New Culture
In today’s IT employment paradigm, talent often auditions you rather than the other way around. If you’re not a place that talented and ambitious professionals want to work, they’ll pass over your job offers – no matter how much money you’re prepared to offer.
You can appeal to the current generation by offering the opportunity to work on innovative projects and leverage broad sets of skills. You can prioritize innovation and collaboration, and offer a more manageable work-life balance. Finally, you can turn your culture into a primary part of your recruiting, showing anyone who is interested why you’re an employer of choice in IT.
The good news is that all of the strategies above really do work. The bad new is that the IT battle is just getting started, and the toughest fights have yet to begin. Give yourself the best opportunity to find, attract, and retain the talent you require by contacting Bayside Solutions.
