As technology evolves rapidly, companies must adapt to stay ahead. This means having technical workers with the right set of skills. But how can you keep up when the skills required seem to change every few years? How do you make sure you can find the right people to tackle your technology needs?
In 2019, hiring managers stated that it was twice as hard to find good technical talent than it was the previous year, and technical roles took over two months to fill, on average.
Skills gaps in technology are only projected to grow because new technology is developed in shorter and shorter cycles. These gaps are particularly pronounced in the areas of AI and data analytics.
This guide will help you determine how to overcome this problem and adapt to the technology market. Correcting for skill gaps is broken down into three stages, presented in the following sections.
Stage 1: Identify your technical skills gaps
The term “skills gap” refers to the gap between your technical team’s current abilities and what is needed to optimize your business practices. Before you can correct such gaps, you must find a way to determine what they are systematical.
This requires establishing your technical goals to define what skills are needed, then performing a thorough assessment of your team’s current skills and defining which skills are needed but not met by your existing workforce. It is those skills that you will need to fill for.
Set technical goals
Setting technical goals requires not only asking what your company would like to have today but where you want your company to be in the future. Questions to ask yourself as you zero in on your technical goals include the following:
- What new projects are on the horizon that could benefit from newer technology?
- What are your competitors using?
- Where do you see your company in one year? Five years? Ten years?
- Which skill needs have been on the rise and may continue to follow that pattern?
- Are there any positions that could conceivably be automated shortly?
- What infrastructure do you have for adopting new technologies and training current team members?
- Are there roles within the company that does not currently exist but will need to be added in the future?
After answering these and other questions, brainstorm a list of the types of technology and associated skills that your company needs. Organize this list in terms of importance and as part of a timeline. In the end, you should have a clear outline of your company’s needs.
Assess your team’s current skills
Now that you have clearly defined your company’s needs, it is time to assess how well your current team’s skill sets meet these needs. Things to consider when determining whether your existing team can meet these needs include:
- The current workload of team members and any projected changes that may result from adding assignments or moving members into different roles.
- The background knowledge of each member, including the skills they’ve utilized for your business and any skills, degrees, or knowledge that hasn’t been utilized.
- The adaptability of team members and their ability to learn new technologies quickly and efficiently. (If it’s possible to train new skills, this might be a cheaper and easier route.)
It’s a good idea to consult your team members during this process, asking them what they feel comfortable taking on and where they see a need for training or staffing. In the end, you want a clear list of what your team can already do, what certain team members might be able to do with a reasonable amount of training, and what needs cannot be met by your current team.
Define your technical staffing needs
After defining your goals and assessing current team members’ capabilities, you should now have a clear list of your remaining needs. Consider how these needs might coalesce into specific work functions.
Collaborate with your current team members on this. After all, you want to add to the team to help them stay current and tackle the technical work required. Considering their feedback isn’t simply a nicety, it will make your search more productive.
Stage 2: Choose your technical staffing strategy
Once you have established your needs, it’s time to find the technical workers who can meet those needs. You’ll need a way of assessing prospective team members on how well they meet the skills needed, such as using a short test or questionnaire.
There are many ways to source prospective talent, including opening up the process for a permanent full-time hire, utilizing a technical staffing firm, or hiring independent contractors to meet your needs.
Hire full-time employees
By hiring a full-time employee, you can gain a long-term resource for your company. Note that the process of finding the right full-time employee may be longer than other methods. If you anticipate dramatic shifts in your technology needs over the coming years, you may want to consider the possible flexibility, or lack thereof, of a full-time hire.
Hire a technical staffing firm
By utilizing a technical staffing firm, you can let someone else do the bulk of the work when choosing appropriate team members. When hiring through a staffing firm, the work can be more short-term, which might be more suitable if you expect your needs to change a lot.
The process of hiring through a staffing firm often takes less time as well, because they already have potential hires and resumes on hand. However, the extra work taken on by the staffing firm does not come for free, as you will need to pay for their services on top of paying the new team member.
Hire independent technical professionals
Perhaps a middle ground between the two other options would be engaging an independent technical professional. This doesn’t require the same onboarding and permanence of a full-time hire and might just be the flexible option you are looking for.
By not going through a staffing firm, though, you have to search for the right talent yourself. This is where platforms such as Upwork can be extremely useful. Upwork allows you to quickly identify qualified workers, arrange work agreements, and start solving technical issues sooner.
Stage 3: Pick the right technical talent
No matter which staffing strategy you choose, you’ll need to ensure they have the requisite skills and work well within your broader technical team.
Assess for specific skills
Assessing for specific skills can be done by requiring that applicants take a test, requesting a portfolio to examine, or by utilizing a service that has prescreened potential talent for you. For example, Upwork makes it easy to choose talent with the exact skills you need.
Consider communication and collaboration
You’ll need new technical talent to fit into your existing team, so their communication and collaboration skills must be top-notch. The professional must be comfortable giving and receiving feedback and tackling problems as they come.
Provide clarity and context
To ensure good collaboration with your existing team, consider seeking their input on prospective workers.
Access technical talent on demand
Identifying and filling your technical skill gaps will help your company stay competitive. Whether you choose to do this by hiring employees or going the more flexible route of engaging qualified temporary workers, you want to make sure you select the right people for the job.
