You’ve likely heard about and maybe even experienced the IT skills gap. It’s a serious problem, but one that isn’t as difficult to overcome as it may seem.

 

The first step is understanding what created the gap. Once you know that, it’s easier to make changes within your business to bring in the talent you need to continue growing your business.

 

Believe it or not, IT talent is out there, but it’s a highly competitive market. It’s time for new strategies to help Talent Acquisition teams tackle this growing problem.

 

The Story Behind The IT Skills Gap

 

The skills gap problem isn’t just in the IT sector, but in most skilled professions. In fact, HR Dive says the skills gap was called by “the perfect storm of problems.” From an aging workforce to technology advancing rapidly, it’s not just one issue that’s resulting in a lack of available IT talent.

 

According to the BLS, there will be over a million more jobs in the tech sector than there will be applicants ready to fill them. That was in 2020. With technology rapidly changing and advancing, especially with AI, that number will continue to rise. Sadly, two-thirds of businesses don’t know how to tackle the problem, so it just continues to get worse.

 

Even worse, only 60,000 computer science students will graduate into the workforce each year. As you can tell, that’s a problem. Since it’s a hot industry and it’s finally considered cool versus geeky, why aren’t there more graduates?

 

It’s a three-way problem. First, you have curriculums that are outdated by the time a student finishes a 2-4 year degree. Second, businesses want the latest skill sets, but no one has the amount of experience required. Third, it can be expensive for tech professionals to continue paying for an education as technology constantly evolves. All of this is discouraging and makes many people choose careers in other fields that are more stable.

 

So, how can HR solve the IT skills gap?

 

A Shift In Skills

 

Yes, it’s true that jobs are lost, but they’re replaced by others. If the majority of jobs were lost every time experts reported that a new technology was taking over, the last few generations would have never even had a job, let alone have one to lose.

 

Instead of AI killing jobs it’s creating a shift in the skills necessary to be qualified for a job. To go back to the farming example, to be successful, farmers had to learn how to use and maintain their new equipment versus doing things manually. That took time, but it also created jobs for farmers who were great mechanics. They could focus on fixing the equipment versus working on the farm. Those jobs didn’t exist until others were lost.

 

1. Look For Soft Skills Over Hard Skills

 

Extremely detailed job ads won’t attract many applicants. It’s impossible for most people to meet every requirement. However, IT professionals with the necessary soft skills are able to learn your business’s particular systems and needs quickly. This may require a few weeks or months of on-the-job training, but you’ll save money by not having an unfilled position for months or possibly years.

 

2. Widen Your Search

 

It’s easy to get caught up in looking for someone with a bachelor’s or master’s degree. After all, this means more experience, right? Not necessarily. Expand your search to those who have experience in the field, but not necessarily a degree. They’ve worked and trained at different businesses and know just as much about technology as those with advanced degrees. While that 23-year-old with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science sounds great, the 45-year-old with a few certificates might be more knowledgeable with more experience to handle changing technology.

 

3. Provide Skills Training

 

If you want to appear more attractive to applicants, create a system that offers skills training. Instead of constantly looking for someone new or requiring employees to pay to learn new skills, pay for the training yourself. By investing in training as technology evolves, you’ll not only attract better IT talent, but retain it. By doing this, you fill more jobs and prevent losing others.

 

4. Provide On-The-Job Training

 

Make it clear in your job descriptions that you’re willing to train the right applicant. You can’t expect hundreds or thousands of applicants when your job description requires knowledge of a specific system. There may only be a handful of businesses even using that system. However, hiring an applicant with a strong foundation in the IT area you require means they’ll be easy to train for specific needs.

 

5. Put Education First

 

If you want to bridge the IT skills gap, HR has to put education first. Start a movement to help people get the training they need quickly and cheaply. For instance, create a section on your business’s application page about free or low-cost training resources that your business would accept. You might list agencies that work to train the right talent to help find skilled IT professionals faster.

 

Some businesses even create ever-changing curriculums through local colleges to train job-ready applicants in less than a year. By doing this, HR gets more people interested in technology and helps them get the skills they need to continue learning and growing with the business.

 

Are You Having Difficulties Finding The Right IT Talent? Quintrix Has Access To Talent Other Staffing Agencies Don’t. Why? Because We Create The Talent.

 

Let Us Help You Eliminate The IT Skills Shortage For Your Business by Contacting Us To See How We Train Talent To Meet Your Needs.