Put yourself in the shoes of a HR or IT manager. Your goal is to not only hire the best talent
but also to retain it. You are up against an acute talent shortfall prevalent in cybersecurity
and IT industry and great resignation. Throw in understaffed teams, overworked employees
and shrinking IT budgets into the mix and you hac humble can easily see why companies are struggling
to retain existing IT talents and attract new talent.
According to Cybersecurity Ventures, the number of unfilled cybersecurity positions have
jumped from 1 million in 2014 to 3.5 million in 2021. Great resignation has added insult
to the injury as 3.95 million has quited their jobs every month last year. Most IT leaders
either change their careers to retire earlier than leaders in other disciplines due to hectic
daily routines. IT workers constantly complain gulfintms about working long hours. How can you
retain your existing IT staff and also attract new talent in such a scenario?
Thankfully, there are ways to get over this problem. If you are interested in learning how
you can retain your IT talents and attract new IT talent then, this article is for you. In this
article, you will learn about five effective elements you can use to retain adn attract IT
talent.
Assess Your Skills Needs and Requirements
Before you do anything to attract and retain your IT workers, the first thing you need to do
is to identify your skill needs and requirements. Create a list of skills you need in your IT
workforce. This will also give you a clear picture about which skills you already have and
which ones you don’t. Let’s say, if you are looking for a professional who can manage
servers in spain or top cloud hosting providers, you should look for those skills..
In addition to this, it will also put you in a much better position to upskill, and reskill your
existing employees. Conducting this exercise can make you realize that your workforce
already has some skills that you are hiring for or tanzohub needs little training to grow their skillset.
If that is the case then, you should focus on learning and development of your existing
employees instead of hiring new employees.Here are five effective elements you can use to retain
and attract IT talent.
1. Pay
As mentioned before, there is an acute shortage of talented individuals in IT and the
graduates universities are producing could not match the standards of companies. As a
result, talented and highly skilled IT professionals tend to charge a premium for their
services. The same goes for experienced professionals and experts.
This means that the monetary compensation you are offering to attract new IT talent can be
a deciding factor. It can also play a crucial role in maing your existing employees stick with
your company. This is clearly evident from countless examples of IT workers who have
switched their jobs just because the other company is offering better pay and benefits.
Yes, it could work but you should also remember that it is not the only lever so you should
not solely rely on it to attract and retain IT talent. Some employees might value it more than
others while others might give preference to other things such as career growth
opportunities or work life balance. This means that there is no one size fits all formula here.
Piurpose
Gone are the days when employees didn’t care about the mission and vision of a company
before applyuing there. Today, they are more interested in the purpose and goals your
company wants to achieve. Employees want to make their contribution and want to make an
impact. They will choose a company whoes goals align with their values.
Let’s say, your company is embarking on a journey or starting an ambitious project or using
cutting edge technology, it will help you attract more employees especially if their career
goals align with your company’s mission. The ability to use the latest technology such as
cheapest dedicated server hosting and try new things can be your competitive advantage
when it comes to attracting IT talent in a highly competitive job market.
PeersAnother factor that most businesses tend to ignore when hiring IT talent is peers. The sense
of community and bond at the workplace can also play a pivotal role. IT workers love to
work with people that they can learn from especially when they are early in their careers. If
you include them in a team that has people that don’t push them to their limits, they can
quickly get bored of it. They prefer to work in teams that can collectively grow by pushing
each other to give it their best shot. If you can establish that type of culture then your
organziation can easily attract great talent.
Pathways
No employee wants to join a company that doesn’t offer them career growth opportunities.
If your company doesn’t have a career ladder that allows employees to slowly climb it then,
you will be hard pressed to attract IT talent.
They want to see career progression and growth instead of stagnation. If you can make
them visualize how they can climb up the career ladder and reach the top, they will be more
willing to join your organization. Research has also shown that it can also have a postive
impact on your employee turnover rate.
Place
The traditional office space is no longer as important as it used to be in the past but that
does not mean that you should completely ignore it. Yes, employee expectations are rapidly
evolving and they demand more flexibility these days but nothing can beat an office that
provides a perfect environment that allows them to showcase their talents.. Provide them
new opportunities such as managing buying best dedicated server. Companies need to focus
on a full spectrum that covers everything from traditional offices to hybrid or remote
workspaces or even virtual workspaces in order to stay relevant in the future.
How do you retain your existing IT talent and attract new talent? Share it with us in the
comments section below.
