If you’ve seen one IT job… you’ve seen one IT job
Reading a story elsewhere on this site, I was struck by the notion that while two things can be true at the same time, that does not mean their truths are conditional upon each other. The story, concerning a recent survey by Expleo, noted that 94% of businesses on the island of Ireland were “struggling to find IT staff, despite recent layoff announcements from many of the world’s largest tech companies”.
The implied link was taken from a quote by Paul O’Malley, chief operating officer at Expleo, when he stated that “despite some very high-profile layoff announcements in recent months, businesses are continuing to struggle to find and retain the IT talent that will be pivotal to their – and the economy’s – future”.
But the causation suggested in that quote is not necessarily correct. Yes, there have been layoff announcements in recent months and yes, there are shortages of IT staff elsewhere but no, the former is not necessarily the solution to the latter.
Not all IT jobs are the same. If they were, there probably wouldn’t be any shortages because anyone could do someone else’s job. They can’t. It follows, then, that not everybody being laid off is a natural fit for the jobs that are in short supply. In fact, it’s quite likely that they aren’t.
Think about it. Those tech giants aren’t likely to be getting rid of employees with the most valuable and sought after IT skills. They’re going to be cutting people who do jobs that either they can automate, do without or replace with external contractors. Also, the people they’re getting rid of are probably used to higher salaries and better perks than smaller indigenous companies can offer so, even if they are a good fit, they could well end up asking for more than the business could afford and go to another company prepared to take the risk.
And it’s already competitive enough for many out there. According to the survey, 38% of businesses reported that candidates for jobs were receiving salary offers from other companies that were 20% higher or more.
But perhaps one answer to the problem of finding IT talent lies in another statistic in the survey: namely that 86% of business leaders “believe their organisations have under-invested in the skills base of their employees”. It’s worth pointing out that figure is the highest for any of the survey’s findings. In other words, rather than adopting a do-it-yourself approach where they devote the time and resources to develop and train the talent they need in-house, companies have opted to ‘take-someone-else’s’ by poaching staff from elsewhere.
That’s a short-sighted and increasingly unsustainable way to deal with IT staff shortages because it doesn’t help to make the pool of talent any bigger. To some degree, it’s understandable that companies should adopt this approach because no one wants to spend a lot of time and money training someone up on valuable and in-demand skills only for them to be poached by another company that can’t be bothered to do any of that but is prepared to offer more money at the end.
That’s where another factor could come into play. According to the research, the top challenges in attracting and retaining IT talent were “offering a better work/life balance and reduced workload (47%), offering competitive promotion and career advancement opportunities (36%), and meeting expectations relating to flexible or remote working arrangements (35%)”.
DIY
Looking at those replies, you have to think there’s a balance that can be struck between salary, work/life balance and career advancement that makes it easier to hold on to people and recruit others into the organisation. The issue is whether business leaders are prepared to make it.
In that context, it was interesting to see so many (74%) believed automation needs to be part of the solution. I’m not saying automation won’t help but I don’t think it will solve the problem of a shortage of enough skilled people to get the necessary work done. Automation is typically focused at low-level and repetitive tasks where, for the most part, there is no real shortage of people able to do the job. So unless the introduction of automation is accompanied by a programme to train existing staff to take on higher level and more skilled work, I’m not sure if it will fix the problem.
But O’Malley put his finger on what possibly could fix it when he said: “With such an overwhelming majority of business leaders admitting that their company has under-invested in the skills base of their employees, now is the time to pave the way to a successful, sustainable future by investing in employees, their potential and their wellbeing.”
And if you can’t do that, get someone else to do it. That’s why 38% of those surveyed said they had outsourced more functions to third parties or consultants. That includes channel partners who have the skilled staff to do the work. For those that can, there’s a decent living to be made out of YDI: you-do-it.
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