Dive Brief:
- Information technology skills are a scarcity in today’s job market, with 34% of hiring managers in a recent report by ManpowerGroup subsidiary Experis saying that they were having difficulty filling technology roles because candidates did not have the right technical skills. But employers may have more options than they realize, per the report.
- Sourcing potential exists in the startup space, where a number of businesses have focused on upskilling IT workers through in-house training, apprenticeships and other models. Employers also may be able to access talent through customer or vendor networks that specialize in selling their products, solutions and services, Addie van Rooij, Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s global people operations leader and HR VP for Europe, the Middle East and Africa said in the report.
- External partnerships also can help find talent that may be filtered out by more traditional approaches, Experis said. Organizations such as the Mom Project and AnitaB have helped Intuit recruit technology job candidates who took time out of their career to support their families, per the report.
Dive Insight:
Scarcity in the broader tech talent market may be exacerbated by a lack of training opportunities. A recent Coursera report found that technology and data science skills proficiency dropped “significantly” in the U.S. over the past year.
Still, research shows employers across industries are missing out on talent. Experis cited an Accenture report that detailed the presence of 27.4 million “hidden workers,” a group that includes employees who were inactive, on long-term unemployment or who missed hours due to economic reasons or child and family care reasons. Employers also frequently overlook other workers, such as those with disabilities, older workers and those with criminal records or who have been formerly incarcerated, according to speakers at a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission virtual event in May.
Meanwhile, employers may need to ensure they are making use of the skills existing employees already have. A 2022 LinkedIn report found that nearly a quarter of employees were not confident that their skills were being put to good use on the job, which could be a warning sign given that the company also found such employees were 10 times more likely to seek new opportunities.
Beyond compensation, technology employees have cited learning and development opportunities as among their highest priority benefits, a 2021 TalentLMS report found. Other firms have sought to attract skilled talent by appealing to workers’ values, as has been the case for environmentally friendly tech firms that previously spoke to HR Dive.
