Tech Talent: Winning the Talent War

Enterprises are realizing that classic attraction and retention strategies are being relegated to “common differentiators.” Many enterprises are starting to max out on the stretched end of their annual digital talent budgets – even as attrition levels spike beyond 30% for key roles.

Here are a few novel approaches enterprises can take to initiate a digital talent strategy and alleviate digital talent challenges, especially for access and time-to-hire:

• Relax shortlisting criteria: Recalibrate technical competency thresholds (for example, the stringency of HackerRack test ratings and additional technical rounds), within reasonable limits, to broaden the talent funnel in the short term. Consider increased training at the start and on boarding graduates with dedicated training investments
• Involve business and operations: Follow the lead of best-in-class enterprises by having:
  • IT engineers, product managers, and agile coaches actively recruit and scout in online communities
  • Senior IT and business leaders elevate brand value and excite prospective candidates via informal discussions
  • IT teams screen candidates to cut down shortlisting efforts, especially for critical/complex roles
  • Team members  approach candidates before the on boarding to build rapport
• Upskill rapidly: Stagger skilling and training for new employees joining the organization and existing employees switching roles to reduce deployment time (for example, from 8-9 weeks to 4 weeks)
• Focus on internal mobility: Re-evaluate internal career progression designs and create better growth opportunities for employees by properly mapping competencies, clearly articulating alternative roles/paths, and incentivizing critical skills development
• Explore alternative channels: Expand staffing partnerships, leverage hackathons/online competitions, proactively reach out to developer communities (Hacker News, Github, Stack Overflow, and Reddit), and engage with boot camps to improve channel access
• Hire location-neutral: Hire talent remotely with no requirement of the work location to tap into the broad IT pools and push decisions on Work from Home (WFH) or visas for later. Consider pods, satellites, and Centers of Excellence (CoEs) to access niche skills
• Increase referral premiums: Jack up referral premiums by 50 to 100%, especially for critical positions

• Award retention bonuses: Offer retention bonuses with a time lag of only a few months to counter immediate attrition