Neil Owen, director at Robert Half Technology, explores the issue of attracting and retaining tech talent in today’s digital skills climate.
The digitisation agenda is fuelling demand in IT recruitment, and developers with experience in security, the cloud, mobile and user interface design are in huge demand.
Professionals with experience of managing digital projects, such as enhancing the customer experience through digital technologies for mobile, tablets and wearable devices are in hot demand, particularly for interim roles, as firms seek to create digital solutions that are both innovative and compliant.
Not surprisingly, UK CIOs and CTOs claim it’s a challenge to find skilled IT professionals. The vast majority (96%) say it’s difficult to source the right people while 89% fear losing their best employees to competitors.
Attracting top professionals
Where there are high salaries, there also tends to be considerable employee churn, so the first question to ask is what you can offer technology professionals beyond a high salary.
According to CIOs, these elements could include technical challenges working with the latest and greatest technology, the freedom to work on their own development work, a cool and modern workplace and a strong company culture.
The next question is how to attract tech professionals from the competition, especially when it may not be immediately obvious who they are. For example, the rise of FinTechs and startups means that traditional companies may no longer be competing for staff with the same peer organisations.
Almost all (91%) financial services, banking and insurance executives are concerned the growth of the FinTech sector will negatively impact their ability to attract skilled professionals with relevant sector experience, including 35% who say they are very concerned.
It therefore pays to focus in on the benefits of working not just for your individual brand but also how your position in the marketplace will provide a great opportunity. If you’re a FinTech, you may be able to offer equity in the company and the kudos of getting in on a new and exciting proposition from the very beginning.
There is also the cultural and entrepreneurial aspects that you can highlight, particularly if you are hiring once you have hit the ‘hyper-growth’ phase.
On the flipside, an established financial services company can offer stability, great pay and benefits, a flexible career with the opportunity to move between departments or even between countries.
There are also strong indications that traditional companies are increasing their spend on disruptive and innovative technologies in an effort to not only meet the challenge of new market entrants, but also to attract the best people in the industry.
Our research found that over half (54%) of traditional financial services firms, such as banks and investment houses, are increasing spend on disruptive and innovative technologies in the next 12 months.
Financial services firms boosting IT spend plan to do so by 15% in the next 12 months, with multi-million pound investment programmes implemented to help compete with new FinTech market entrants.
While hiring pure technical skills is a challenge when you consider the number of computer science graduates with IT development skills has declined over the past decade, the demand continues to grow, particularly for professionals with the right cultural fit for the organisation.
At a professional level, FinTech’s, for example, are challenged when combining existing professional experience in a traditional financial services environment with the willingness to embrace a potentially higher level of risk.
Of course it’s not just about attracting the best technology people to join your team, but it’s also just as important to ensure IT professionals continue to enjoy working in the organisation once they are there.
Retaining top performers and keeping them motivated
We found that 85% of executives in the financial services sector are nervous about their ability to retain their own top performers in the face of new FinTech competition, with almost a third (32%) very concerned.
In our experience, tech professionals are motivated to stay in their roles by the same elements that attracted them in the first place, notably exciting technology projects that enable them to see a real impact on the service their employer offers or the internal processes that they run.
They also value exposure to new technologies and areas of responsibility, and receiving positive feedback from the senior team.
The war for tech talent will only continue to intensify over the coming 12 months along with the need to review existing models and invest in new technology to seize competitive advantage.
Organisations will need to think extremely carefully about how they position their brands in order to attract the skills they need.