CIO Perspectives Atlanta: Creatively confronting the IT talent shortage
The IT labor market is complex. It’s no longer just a simple matter of meeting supply and demand numbers for a particular skill set. Often IT leaders must quickly staff projects that require highly specialized skills that the average job seeker doesn’t have. When coupled with the IT talent shortage, the labor market becomes all the more difficult to tackle. And when job openings sit empty for too long, business results and overall team morale are hindered, making it even more difficult to attract IT workers. But why is there a shortage of talent?
The pace of the industry is a huge factor. Today’s technology moves and evolves so rapidly, it’s difficult for IT leaders to anticipate the industry need when it comes to the talent pool. The delivery window for projects is shrinking even as project leaders look for highly specialized talent in niche areas, such as cloud security and mobile app development. An ideal IT candidate has deep expertise in a particular skill set. As a result, many companies often turn to offshore talent to quickly fill IT roles.
However, IT talent can be found in some unlikely places. While there are still business cases to be made for offshoring talent, the cost of offshoring continues to rise, and unforeseen issues including language barriers and low customer satisfaction have prompted many firms to creatively source onshore IT talent through “off-metro sourcing.” By looking for IT talent in rural and suburban markets instead of high-priced markets such as Silicon Valley and New York City, companies can cut costs while still securing the same caliber of IT talent as top metro markets.
Randstad Technologies operates development centers in off-metro markets like Frisco, TX, and Alpharetta, GA, giving companies’ access to top-tier IT talent without having to open up an entirely new location. This is a highly attractive option for IT talent, who can put their expertise to work for leading tech companies in areas close to home without paying the high cost of living associated with a major IT hub area like San Francisco or New York. This model also enables greater collaboration between all levels of the development team. All of these factors combine to increase loyalty and retention among IT talent.
Commoditized talent required for other phases and cycles of IT development can be found offshore, but in many cases, the highly specialized skill sets many IT leaders need can be found only onshore. The United States provides the kind of emerging technology talent that can be found nowhere else, like knowledge of the latest technologies such as Angular and Node when it comes to app development.
Not surprisingly, many off-metro development centers are close to colleges and universities with robust computer science programs, and Atlanta is a city that has seen the rise of these centers. Georgia Tech provides a steady stream of entry-level IT workers with specialized skill sets into the talent pool, making Atlanta an attractive target for technology companies looking to shrink the IT talent gap. Randstad Technologies will discuss the unique IT labor shortages facing Atlanta and how to creatively tackle this shortage at the CIO Perspectives: Atlanta event on March 9, 2016.
About Randstad Technologies: Randstad Technologies has been connecting top companies around the globe with the expert technology talent and solutions that drive their success since 1984. Our deep industry expertise and full-service capabilities — Recruitment, Consulting, Projects and Outsourcing — enable organizations to be agile, productive and ahead in the field with our wide network of specialists and flexible solutions. For more information, visit www.randstadtechnologies.com.
