Technology has established its place as a central engine for business growth and companies in all sectors are looking to drive digital transformation to unlock innovation, productivity, and progress. However, many are finding that the main challenges they face aren’t strictly technology-related but rather about finding and retaining the right IT talent to consistently deliver on project demands.
IT talent pipelines have emerged as a key strategic concern for IT leaders like CIOs, CTOs and technical architects, as well as L&D and HR directors. As competition for the limited number of candidates with high-demand skills increases, many IT leaders are finding it harder than ever before to fill critical roles with high-calibre candidates. Securing executive buy in and establishing the strategic importance of IT within an organisation can often be just as challenging.
To solve this problem, companies need to think about the internal and external factors that are impacting their ability to build the right teams. A critically important starting point is shifting organisational thinking to seeing IT as a strategic driver rather than a support function.
Here are some steps IT leaders can start taking today.
Making the strategic case for your IT talent pipeline
The ongoing drive for digital transformation means that IT has started to be seen as an agent for change and a value generator. But amongst the board and within HR and development teams, their approach may still centre on plugging capability gaps as they appear rather than investing in a talent pipeline that develops skillsets over the longer term.
Technology roles often don’t involve the same career paths as non-technology hires. While sales or administrative workers may aim to reach management level, tech talent is often focused on advancing their skills and remaining as a practitioner. Careers spent working in agile environments and cross-functional teams also make more traditional development pathways increasingly irrelevant for tech talent.
Many companies are realising that they need to start with people and then build architecture around them. This requires the right leadership and investment; it also means changing the way IT operates within businesses.
There is no single template for success but the following three steps can help build the strategic case for your IT talent pipeline and make it easier to build a high performing tech team through both recruitment as well as upskilling and retraining existing staff:
1. Resource on driving revenue
Reducing the size of commodity IT operations and adopting automation and outsourcing of infrastructure to the cloud, could provide IT leaders the space and extra resources needed to build a DevOps platform, for example.
The focus would be on upskilling team members to boost DevOps and cloud skillsets, as well as adapting operations to support product teams and more agile ways of working. This would allow the IT function to harness automation and scalability.
2. Transform system and application architectures
This approach creates clear entry-level positions, as existing developers and architects are tasked with new technologies aimed at increasing the delivery and reliability of business systems. Entry-level individuals can be brought in or reskilled from redundant business areas to boost capabilities for key projects, using training and ‘on-the-job’ experience to boost their skills.
3. Move from project teams to product teams
The aim of this approach is to adopt a culture of continuous improvement and skillset expansion to match the evolving features of products, as well as adapting to changes in the commercial environment. This may require more mid-level team member roles to be created, such as scrum masters and platform engineers, as well as ongoing technology and job training for existing teams.
All three of these routes require an approach that goes beyond training technical skills. They involve aligning the IT talent pipeline closely with the larger strategy and using upskilling, reskilling and hiring to plug skills gaps and enable new capabilities. As competition for technical skills increases, companies that can foster their in-house talent create value, differentiate themselves and ensure a healthy and productive IT talent pipeline.
Attracting and retaining top tech talent
To find, hire and retain the best and brightest, IT leaders need to expand beyond standard recruitment processes and promote their digital maturity, culture, and purpose to bring in top tech talent.
Embracing diversity
Creating and nurturing an innovative working environment that supports transformation means bringing in diversity of experience, perspectives and ‘soft skills’.
