“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients,” said Richard Branson – founder of The Virgin Group.
IT companies’ top priority is hiring talented specialists, and it’s been quite challenging in the past few years. The companies compete for the best candidates offering them higher compensation, growth opportunities, and various perks like unlimited paid time off, reimbursement of mental health maintenance, or onsite daycare center for employees’ children.
It creates challenges for employers regardless of the company size. Moreover, along with hiring new specialists, companies should care about retaining the current team, as high-level developers are always in great demand. What should we expect in 2023?
Challenges in IT Recruitment in 2023
There are plenty of challenges in recruitment in 2023. But let’s focus on the most critical ones this year:
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Talent Shortage
The talent shortage in IT is growing year by year, forming the following tendency: 2018 – 45%, 2019 – 54%, 2021 – 69%, and 2022 – 75%. Last year the global talent shortage reached a 16-year-high, as 3 in 4 employers report difficulty finding the talent they need.
The study from Korn Ferry found that by 2030 there will be a talent shortage of more than 85 million people – that is like the population of Germany. It is equal to $8.5 trillion in unrealized annual revenues for companies.
It is happening because of enormous demographic and economic changes. The workforce (baby boomers) is getting older, and the next generation still needs to improve their skills. Specialists from other countries could make the situation better, but the migration barriers are still the point here.
According to Gartner, IT executives place the highest importance, 64%, on staffing shortages as a barrier to new technology adoption. The talent shortage is mentioned as a leading factor, further exacerbated by the continuing push for remote work and the acceleration of hiring plans.
There are ways to cope with talent shortage like upskilling existing employees (organizing continuing education courses or even retraining), attracting remote talent (using talent regardless of their locations), hiring freelancers to fill specific skills gaps, and building partnerships with universities to represent your company to students, so they know where to work after graduation.
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High Competition among Employers
This challenge is a result of a previous one. Companies should pay attention if they make enough effort to hire and retain the best IT specialists. They should assess if they have all the necessary conditions for developers to feel valued.
A StackOverflow study showed that 30% of working developers are unhappy at work. Developers identified five factors influencing their happiness at work: salary – 60%, work/life balance – 58%, flexibility – 52%, productivity – 52%, and growth opportunities – 49%.
Unhappy employees are not just likely to look for a new job but are unproductive in the current workplace. That is why each company should do its best for the employees and have its image stand out to successfully attract specialists with shared values.
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Inefficient and Slow Recruitment
The average time for the search for IT specialists is 40 days. Executives complain that recruitment slows down the working processes. The two most problematic stages in IT recruitment are sourcing and onboarding (in general, the sequence is as follows: preparing, sourcing, screening, selecting, hiring, and onboarding).
Two points can speed sourcing up: search tools for identifying the most appropriate candidates and an attractive first letter that hooks the developers in a passive search for a new job.
Low-quality onboarding causes another problem – employees quit in one month or sometimes even one week. Usually, they explain it like, “It’s not what I expected.” It tells about misunderstandings between the candidate and the employer’s representatives that should have been noticed and spoken about. And it’s quite a challenge because it means you should start your search from the beginning.
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Biases in Recruitment
Even though many people think that we live in a world of equal opportunity, people still face bias based on their gender, race, age, and so on. Even in the most prosperous countries, women get paid less than men in the same positions. At the same time, people after 50 are not likely to find a good job, as they are “over-qualified.”
In fact, there are many reasons for team diversity, as recent research shows that diversity and inclusion can be beneficial for both sides: the employers get more talent while minorities get trust and belief in their professionalism. According to Gartner research, inclusive teams perform 30% better in high-diversity environments. And the whole company’s performance is 12% better in companies with diversity and inclusivity.
To enhance your team with minority representatives, ensure all of your brand communications include reminders to embrace and encourage diversity: your job postings, work policies, and the images you use.
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Providing a Good Candidate Experience
Here are some of the problems that can emerge in the candidate’s journey:
- Absence of feedback. According to a LinkedIn collection of hiring statistics, only 41% of job seekers receive feedback from their interviews.
- Unclear rejection from the employer. Potential candidates would appreciate detailed feedback on why they did not pass the selection, their growth areas, and recommendations for improving their skills.
- Weak onboarding. According to statistics, employees with inefficient onboarding are twice as likely to look for a new job, and almost a third quit the job during the first six months of work in such a company. It can happen because the mentor or colleagues in the department don’t have enough time to onboard a newcomer properly.
It is even more essential to keep in touch with candidates you are not ready to cooperate with at the moment. They can get sufficient qualifications for your vacancy with time or be an ideal fit for another vacancy in your company. It’s especially important for niche companies dealing with a limited candidate market.
Conclusion
The good news is that you can overcome most of these challenges. It would help if you took care of the following things: employer brand, diversity politics, speed, and quality of the hiring process. Companies should regularly evaluate the hiring process at each stage to identify weaknesses and correct them.
If you understand that, at this stage, you can’t cope with these problems on your own, you can turn to a professional IT staffing partner who will do it for you. IT recruitment agencies can not only close your vacancies but also audit the recruitment process in your company, find weak spots, and help you deal with them.
