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 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 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 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.
- 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.
- Peers
Another 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.
