By Matthew Gharegozlou, Vice President of Progress for the Americas
You have probably heard about the skills deficit. We are constantly being warned that the workforce does not have the right qualifications for today's requirements and promises to be even worse equipped in the future.
Apparently, there is not enough talent. Sergio Sgobbi, director of institutional relations for the Brazilian Association of Information and Communication Technology Companies (Brasscom), explains that the IT sector has increased its spectrum of activity because the number of people with access to new technologies has also grown - and this expands the demand for professionals.
"The need for qualified people has grown, but we are also more rigorous in the hiring process and in terms of technical requirements to bring in new employees," he says. "That's why people are missing."
What's more, technology is creating professions that didn't exist until recently. Training these people takes time. "Three years ago, a digital media analyst was a profession that did not exist", exemplifies Sgobbi. "The IT professional must be clear that he will be forever held hostage by the learning".
But talent exists, companies just need to be a little more insightful with how they build those skills.
The scarcity of IT specialists is not an exclusively Brazilian characteristic. But Brazil appears in 38th position in a ranking that evaluates the countries with the best programmers. The first on the list is China, followed by Russia and Poland.
The list was created by the Californian company HackerRank, which offers challenges for software developers and has generated results based on data collected on its online platform over the past few years.
The results come from evaluating a combination of speed and hit rate of the 1.5 million programmers that the company says it has in its user base.
What most companies need to do is change their perspective and approach to find the talent they need. Developers are a vital resource - every business is a technology business, after all - and crucial to success, driving business and digital transformation. A mix of technology tools and recruitment processes will ensure that you have everything you need to thrive.
Forget & #39; Perfect Candidate & #39; teach skills
There is no such thing as the ideal developer. Any recruitment process begins with the desired skill set that must lead back to a problem to be solved. Software development is based on strong skills, easily defined and understood. Need an Android app? Get a Java developer. Looking for an iOS app? So it would be an Objective-C and Swift.
No matter how good a developer is, if they don't specialize in the language you are looking for, they are not suitable, right? To some extent, yes.
It's true that you can't fully train each new developer in a new language - which would be like hiring a native German speaker for a role that requires Mandarin. However, with a little bit of lateral thinking, you can find certain skills that are much more easily transferred than you might think.
Getting stuck in a job specification could be the difference between finding a candidate that fits your company's culture and not finding a good candidate at all. Provide tools to get the job done.
What needs to be done is to equip your development teams with the tools and the environment to maximize their skills. As I mentioned, software development is an industry based on several specializations. However, certain tools and frameworks may make it possible for developers to apply their skills more widely to those different tasks, applications and platforms that normally could not work.
The NativeScript framework, for example, allows developers with knowledge of Javascript - typically used for web development - to create native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Phone. The benefit of this is obvious. If a developer can create applications for all major mobile operating systems using one language, you don't need two or three different experts to fill your company's skills gap. Finding developers who have skills that can be applied widely, with the right help, expands the pool of potential talent available to you.
What motivates developers?
Although the skills gap has been widely overestimated, the skills they bring are still in high demand. Winning over potential candidates is far from a given. Understanding what software developers want and what drives them is critical to ensuring that your company has all the skills it needs. In a recent survey conducted by Stack Overflow, more than 50,000 developers answered questions about their work.
In addition to the salary, 37,1% said that flexible working hours are important. Most interestingly, 35.9 percent of developers feel that building something meaningful is an important factor in their work. Developers need to be sold on their vision and feel that they are part of that delivery. A good salary and perks at work are important, but in order to attract the best for your business, you need to think a little more out of the box. You've been looking in the wrong place.
The Stack Overflow report highlights the wealth of talent available: 73% from developers are actively looking for new job opportunities. However, 51% from the developers labeled recruiters as the most annoying thing in the employment process. Of course, standard processes, like going to a recruiter or using Linkedin, will not really abolish this when trying to fill positions in your developer team. You need to think outside the box.
A good place to start is forums. The software developer community is just that, a community. They are active in forums, where they share ideas, tutorials and general ramblings. These are the perfect environments for companies to build their talent pipeline. In terms of job discovery, 28.3 percent of developers said that a friend referred them, higher than any other job discovery method.
Familiarizing yourself with the community will go a long way in finding and attracting the right talent. You will be able to identify regular contributors in your region, what they are talking about and find out who to target in the wider community. Think smarter, act smarter.
Whatever the role - developer, IT, sales or marketing - your workforce is your most precious resource. Getting the right people on the team should be one of your main concerns. But don't let the idea of a "skills gap" force you to make hasty decisions or worse, paralyze you with the kind of fear that leads to indecision.
Understanding what you need and then applying a little lateral thinking will allow you to find the developer talent you need in a real reservoir of manpower.
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