In the face of talent shortages within the tech sector, 15 industry leaders, from founders to HR managers, have shared their most effective strategies. From launching early-career skill programs to innovating hiring with code challenges, this article spells out 15 diverse approaches that have proven successful. Dive into the insights of COOs and partners alike to discover how top organizations are overcoming this critical challenge.
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- Launch Early-Career Skill Programs
- Retain Talent Through Positive Culture
- Invest in a Strategic Skill Resurgence Initiative
- Partner With Colleges for Diverse Talent
- Offer Team Skill Enhancement Opportunities
- Attract Candidates with Recruitment Campaigns
- Utilize Project-Based Freelancers
- Double Candidate Pool with FreeUp.net
- Expand Talent Pool with Remote Hiring
- Embrace Diversity-Driven Recruitment
- Hire Motivated Career Switchers
- Streamline the Hiring Process
- Promote Talent from Within
- Explore Passive Recruitment Methods
- Innovate Hiring with Code Challenges
Launch Early-Career Skill Programs
To tackle the talent shortage in my company, I decided to introduce an early-career program into our company’s policy. I realized we can’t rely solely on hiring candidates, as there is a lack of qualified ones in the tech sector. Even if we get new workers, we have to provide them with training.
Thus, I felt I could offer skill development courses to young people who finished school but can’t afford higher education immediately. These young people have high potential and tend to work early to save funds for their education later. I discovered such people and offered them learning opportunities to further their skills.
Once they completed the courses, I gave them direct offer letters. This approach gave me surprising and satisfying results.
Brad Russell, SEO Expert and Founder, Digital Hitmen
Retain Talent Through Positive Culture
For organizations, particularly in this day and age, losing a skilled and knowledgeable employee whom you have spent a lot of time and resources developing and upskilling is very difficult. Therefore, keeping talent in-house is one of the greatest strategies to deal with the IT skills shortage.
It’s stated that workers quit supervisors, not companies. Therefore, make sure your company has the best culture of management and a positive, stimulating work environment. This will prevent your company’s best employees from leaving. The industry is facing a talent shortage in technology, and if it is not addressed, the commercial world will become even more unstable.
Luke Jordon, Co-Founder, Jewelry Lab
Invest in a Strategic Skill Resurgence Initiative
The Strategic Skill Resurgence initiative was promoted to address the deficit of skilled labor in the IT industry. We made an investment in upskilling the current workforce, understanding the changing demands of technology. Internal training sessions were organized, and partnerships with trustworthy online learning platforms were established to increase the team’s proficiency in the latest technologies, such as cloud computing and cybersecurity.
This proactive strategy promoted a culture of lifelong learning and filled current skill gaps. By strategically resurrecting skills internally, it was possible to meet industry demands and establish the team’s loyalty and adaptability. This approach helped establish a position as a center of excellence for modern talent in the highly competitive technology sector.
Scott Lard, General Manager and Partner, IS&T
Partner With Colleges for Diverse Talent
We’ve recently been focusing on developing a talent pipeline for the technology industry, which is an area of growth for us. We’ve been working with local colleges to develop programs that train and hire students from underrepresented groups.
Our strategy has been successful because it’s aligned with our company’s mission: We want to be a part of changing the world for the better, so we wanted to make sure we were doing our part in that.
Eli Cohen, Co-Founder, The ADU Guide
Offer Team Skill Enhancement Opportunities
One effective approach is to provide opportunities for current team members to enhance their skills and acquire in-demand skills. By offering various avenues for professional development, you demonstrate your willingness to invest in your team members’ careers and support their growth.
Providing these opportunities not only equips your team members with the necessary skills but also shows your commitment to their professional development. Fostering a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing is crucial in addressing talent shortages.
Encouraging experienced team members to mentor emerging colleagues creates a collaborative environment, and promoting cross-functional collaboration and internal mobility is another effective strategy.
Heidi Hauver, Chief People Officer
Attract Candidates with Recruitment Campaigns
We utilized robust, marketing-like recruitment campaigns to attract qualified candidates to tackle our talent shortage. Videos always work in a marketing campaign and attract numerous customers; we thought we should leverage this for our recruitment strategy.
We made a video highlighting the details of our workplace and what employees can expect from working at our company. We included some employees who have been integral members of the company for years. They shared their work experience in the video and emphasized the benefits they received.
We promoted the video on various social media platforms, which drew many interested candidates who contacted us for jobs on social media and through emails. We found many new employees among those candidates.
Tom Vota, Marketing Director, Gotomyerp
Utilize Project-Based Freelancers
In the tech industry, a shortage of talent is a common occurrence. Our company faced the same issue. However, we needed workers for some critical projects immediately. After much discussion with the entire team, we opted for project-based freelancers. These freelancers worked on specific projects, and their contracts were over only after the completion. It helped us complete our projects before the deadlines.
All our clients and stakeholders of the projects were happy with the results. Thus, this decision aided us in maintaining the satisfaction of our clients. We didn’t lose them, and our business growth remained steady. We also worked with the same freelancers for other projects by attracting them with more perks.
Jonathan Palley, Partner, QR Code Generator Hub
Double Candidate Pool with FreeUp.net
A huge win for us has been the use of FreeUp.net to help us source and double to triple our efforts in finding talent. We have been historically great with LinkedIn outreach, but using their network meant we were able to double the number of candidates.
The best part is that they also pre-vetted and interviewed folks for us, so when we reviewed their applications, they were on the whole better than those we sourced on our own. The real win was their help in streamlining our statements of work.
Matt Harrison, Vice President of Global Operations, Authority Builders
Expand Talent Pool with Remote Hiring
To tackle talent shortages in the tech industry, we’ve turned to remote hiring. This approach lets us reach skilled professionals worldwide, breaking free from local limitations.
With more and more people preferring to work from home for its flexibility and better work-life balance, our strategy aligns with this growing desire. By embracing remote work, we’ve successfully widened our talent pool and welcomed diverse, global perspectives into our organization.
Tobias Liebsch, Co-Founder, Fintalent.io
Embrace Diversity-Driven Recruitment
The talent shortage isn’t always an issue of there not being enough great talent to go around, but rather that employers are looking through a narrow lens that’s built on biased standards.
That’s why we built our business on fair-chance hiring and other diversity-driven recruitment strategies, because so many great people have been unfairly kept out of the running for opportunities that could be the perfect fit. Not only have we made some great hires by broadening the talent pool, but we’ve also built a team on transparency that looks at diverse experiences and values them highly!
Robert Kaskel, Chief People Officer, Checkr
Hire Motivated Career Switchers
Being willing to train and hire people who have made career switches into technology has been a very useful tactic in hiring. Because they have some work experience, they tend not to struggle with standard issues like professionalism, communication, and scheduling.
Making a career change is hard, so it tends to self-select for motivated individuals. I was hiring career-switching software developers at a time when many other firms had not caught on to this strategy. It was a very successful approach, and I continue to utilize it.
Trevor Ewen, COO, QBench
Streamline the Hiring Process
Reducing time to hire effectively by adjusting hiring criteria, expanding our scope of platforms, and simplifying our job descriptions and requirements is how we tackled talent shortages here at GoodHire.
Our hiring process used to take months at some points, but we now find ourselves finding and hiring people within a short 2-3 weeks. This approach works for various reasons: it encourages more people to apply, it clarifies roles and responsibilities, and it attracts people who understand what they’re looking for.
Max Wesman, Chief Operating Officer, GoodHire
Promote Talent from Within
As a recruiter working in the executive sphere, I know how difficult it is to find upper-level management with experience in the technology sector.
It’s baffling to me that some companies still stubbornly eschew internal advancement for these senior positions. If you’re looking for someone who knows your software and processes well, you should begin with those already at the company, and yet, I often have to talk hiring managers into sourcing from within.
Recently, I dealt with a mid-sized company hell-bent on landing a big-name executive, certain it would put them on the map. They’d been disappointed with the offerings available, which largely consisted of candidates from adjacent industries.
It took some convincing, but eventually, we moved a department head up to the C-suite, and it’s been a resounding success. If they hadn’t agreed to look internally, they’d likely still be struggling.
Travis Hann, Partner, Pender & Howe
Explore Passive Recruitment Methods
Something we often do is look into passive recruitment. It’s ultimately a way of finding potential team members that you otherwise wouldn’t find via traditional recruitment methods, and it can really help to expand your team at a time where you may need expansion the most.
Wendy Makinson, HR Manager, Joloda Hydraroll
Innovate Hiring with Code Challenges
In order to address technology talent shortages, we launched the “CodeCrafting” initiative. We organized hackathons and coding challenges specifically designed to mimic our real-world projects, instead of using traditional hiring channels.
Participants who demonstrated problem-solving abilities and creativity were invited to attend an immersive, week-long “Innovation Forge.” Here, they collaborated with our team on innovative projects, providing a hands-on preview of our work environment. This hiring process not only identified individuals with technical expertise but also evaluated their cultural fit and adaptability.
By transforming the hiring process into a shared creative experience, we attracted passionate and collaborative individuals who have since become invaluable contributors to our tech team.
Ozzi Jarvinen, Founder, Iglu
