Technology Leadership – What you really need to know
Taken from a recent survey conducted, the following stats highlighted some very interesting trends relating to employees within the IT/Technology sector…
- 33% of IT professionals have moved jobs during the last 12 months
- 25% of your team will change jobs in the next 12 months
- 33% of your team are actively looking for a new role
- 80% will answer the phone and listen to what a recruitment consultant has to say
- 72% of IT professionals believe that they need to leave in order to progress their careers
- 32% of people who had a pay rise last year believe that there is still opportunity to progress with their current employer
- 22% of IT professionals have felt let down by their employer in the last week
- 47% of IT professionals work 5 hours more than their contractual hours with 22% working 10 hours or more above their contractual hours per week.
The Good News
- Keeping your staff happy is not all about money
- The 3 most effective methods of retaining your team are –
- Giving them interesting and challenging projects to work on
- Making sure they are surrounded by good people
- Ensuring there is open, honest and regular internal communication
- Innovation is the most important factor in retaining your team. Allowing your team time to innovate will make them want to stay.
- 80% of IT professionals who are not allowed time for innovation believe that they need to move on in order to progress their career
Source: computerweekly.com
Despite best intentions to give what you can, it is almost inevitable that at least 2 members of your current IT team will move on within the next 3 months and that’s when the fun really begins! Finding the time to read through CV’s and conduct interviews can be a tough call on top of your already busy workload.
As the news reports unemployment levels dropping, the old age topic of skills shortages raises its ugly head yet again – only this time it’s worse. For many years, we have dealt with this within the IT sector but due to the recent recession, other industries were also beginning to feel the pain. This situation was mainly due to very few graduate/trainee roles being created in the last 5 years. A lost generation?
And now, at least you have the green light to recruit, so you need someone to hit the ground running, a few years’ experience, someone to bridge the gap between entry level and ‘experienced’, not quite a manager, someone who can be molded into your way, but someone who doesn’t need to have their hand held every minute of the day.
With the competition really heating up, strong candidates in the £30-70k bracket are getting 3-5 interviews within a week and most are receiving multiple offers within a fortnight.
So, the burning question is “how do I get them?”
Money is still a motivation, but it’s worth noting that most will not move for money alone.
Speed is important – many great candidates are lost between CV to interview. However, speed is not the only answer as candidates are waiting for the right opportunity.
The one most common thing missing of late is Attractivity. To get the right people, you really need to shout about what’s in it for them. You may have been through a tough patch with redundancies, pay-cuts and working harder than you’ve ever worked before or even been scared for your own job security, but think back to what attracted you to the role. So many hiring managers are still making the common mistake of thinking that people are just grateful for a job as this is definitely no longer the case in over 80% of the IT market.
Consider future projects that are in the pipeline. Candidates really want to know – whatever they are.
What about new technologies? So many of your competitors never tell of new technologies and something as simple as this can give you the competitive advantage.
Where did you start in your current organisation? Where have others moved to within the organisation? What are the opportunities for career progression? Share some success stories.
And last, but by no means least, training. Even if it’s on the job training or mentoring it is worth noting.
Here at Langley James, we are passionate about recruiting – that’s why we do it! We love getting to know you and getting to know our candidates resulting in the right person for the right role; something we have done over 3,000 times in the last 15 years. We are experts at attracting the best calibre of candidate for your role, not just skills wise, but that all important personality too.
