How to Hire Tech Talent to Accelerate Your Digital Transformation

The tech talent market has been tight for at least a decade. In 2011, just over half of CEOs in one survey expressed concerns over finding qualified candidates to fill digital roles. By 2019, that number jumped to 79%. The pandemic has only widened the tech skills gap as more companies are digitizing faster than ever before.

A recent Workforce and Learning Trends report from CompTIA found that 40% of organizations had filled technology roles during the pandemic. Another 66% have plans to do so soon. As companies embrace new technologies, they need the right teams to implement and manage related projects.

Essentially, people are the main drivers of digital transformation. Employees with the right skills to lead tech initiatives can help you realize the full value of your technology investments. What to look for in a candidate will vary from one company to the next, but you often need proactive, strategic, and agile people. Technology, after all, is constantly changing, and tech recruits must be able to adapt quickly and learn new skills. Leadership and communication skills are also critical, as employees will be driving transformation and innovation throughout your ranks.

Recruiting the Right Digital Transformation Skills

Start with these steps to enhance your talent acquisition efforts and secure the skills required for digital transformation:

1. Get to know the talent market.

Many companies embark on their digital transformation journeys with idealized versions of the perfect candidate—someone with a specific mix of tech skills that fill all the gaps. However, one “dream” candidate often doesn’t possess all of the skills required for digital transformation. Candidates might be database administrators or cloud developers, for example, but rarely are they both.

Get to know the talent market and compare the digital transformation skills currently available with those needed to fill key roles in your organization. Otherwise, you risk losing out on qualified candidates and slowing down the digital transformation process, all in the hopes of finding someone who may not even exist.

2. Build robust talent pipelines for future needs.

Organizations often take a reactive approach to talent acquisition by only starting the process when a role becomes available. However, that methodology is not conducive to successful digital transformation recruiting because you must predict future needs. Even if you don’t have an immediate opening, it’s important to identify and establish relationships with potential candidates.

For example, you might find a candidate who possesses the skills you need but is currently in another job. Talk with that candidate to learn their salary requirements, specific tech skills, and what they could do for your organization. That way, when they’re open to the opportunity, you’ll be ready to bring them on board.

3. Create remote opportunities.

Before the pandemic, IT still held onto the old-school mentality that all work had to happen onsite. By now, we’ve seen that you can control remote work in a way that doesn’t put assets at risk. It’s time to change the mentality and lean into the remote work trend. Remote opportunities create a much wider digital transformation recruitment net as they break down geographical barriers. It will be easier to find the most qualified candidates to fill tech roles with a much bigger pool to choose from.

4. Promote upskilling programs.

Just as digital transformation requires investment in technology, it requires investment in people. Consider upskilling initiatives to help employees develop the exact skills they need to drive your transformation forward. Whether they’re junior candidates you’d like to fill senior roles or current employees who already have most of the skills they need, upskilling programs can help you mold their skills to fit what you need today and what you’ll need in the future. What’s more, showing employees that you support internal career development can help you bring on new hires and increase employee retention.

If you want to see real and significant benefits from your digital transformation initiatives, you need the right people with the right skills to drive them. But the competition for tech talent is higher than ever as companies worldwide lean harder into technology. The strategies above can help you stay ahead of the rest and secure the tech skills you need to succeed today and into the future.

Interested in learning more about taking a people-first approach to your digital transformation? Read “The Heart of Digital Transformation: Emotional Intelligence” to learn four principles that can help leaders promote a culture of innovation and collaboration during their transformation journey.

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