Maxwell Bond's Tech & Digital Recruitment Director, Manny, explains that in his 17 years in the tech and digital recruitment industry, he has always seen a talent gap, but right now it's worse than ever.
However, despite this talent shortage having persisted, we must ask the question: is there really a tech talent shortage or are businesses approaching recruitment in the wrong way?
Why are we experiencing the Tech Talent Shortage?
According to Korn Ferry’s recent report, by 2030, over 85 million jobs could go unfilled because of the acute global talent shortage.
Right now, COVID is a huge contributor to the talent shortage. With lockdowns being mandated across the world, consumer behaviour shifted rapidly towards online channels. For many businesses this meant a rapid digitisation project and the requirement for technical teams to support this. This is when the demand really started to exceed supply.
However this isn't the only reason. Other reasons include:
- The exit or retirement of Gen-X from their existing roles.
- Lack of skilled employees in new and innovative technologies.
- Lack of formal STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education.
Digitisation is only increasing in speed. So how do we tackle the ongoing issue?
Overcoming The Tech & Digital Talent Gap
In a recent podcast, hosted by Tech & Digital Recruitment Director Manny, and Nimble Approach's Senior Agile Delivery Lead Mhairi Davidson explores one of the easiest and potentially highly beneficial ways businesses can mitigate the challenges of the current market: hiring from outside your industry.
Mhairi is a huge success story in that department. After several years moving up the sales and recruitment career ladder, Mhairi made the jump into a role as Head of People, and then into Technical Project Management, where she has now moved up into her current role as Senior Agile Delivery Lead. Hiring from outside your traditional scopes is a great way to widen your talent pool and hire some fantastic talent with great potential, just like Mhairi.
Benefits of Hiring Outside Your Traditional Verticals
- Candidates from outside your industry may bring a completely fresh take and new ideas about how to drive progress and projects in an exiting and innovative way
- Focus on the transferrable soft skills you can gain from outside of the industry - these can include communication and leadership, analytical skills, prioritisation, and problem solving skills.
- Widen your talent pool and avoid direct competition with other businesses in your industry but looking outside of it.
- This also means that you don't have to compete on salary with other businesses in your industry, reducing payroll costs and mitigating the chances of overpaying for talent.
Listen to Mhairi's Tech Journey in our Latest Podcast: Addressing the Tech & Digital Talent Gap
Build your brand or learn more about the tech and digital industry. Get involved in future Trusted Tech Talks podcasts, events, and roundtables by emailing marketing@maxwellbond.co.uk.
