New and continued growth in career paths like AI engineers, cybersecurity professionals and blockchain developers is forcing companies to ask themselves the question: Do we have what it takes to stay competitive?
Organizations already have to contend with a clear and growing cloud skills gap; however, emerging roles will further highlight many businesses’ weaknesses in addressing technical knowledge gaps. Organizations must focus on strategies prioritizing stability, growth and opportunities to stay competitive. These strategies include the following:
Follow effective hiring practices.
Empower employees to retain talent.
Offer training opportunities.
Invest in technology.
Partner with experts.
Whether maintaining effective career development paths for existing workers or providing an attractive environment for new employees, modern organizations must support their employees and encourage them with development opportunities. Consider the following strategies for building such an environment.
Follow effective hiring practices
Organizations that want to attract top prospects must likewise be attractive to potential candidates. A clear hiring strategy can help reinforce a business’s first impression to prospective employees. When strategizing hiring practices, keep the following in mind:
Include relevant requirements. For organizations that require a particular set of cloud skills, specify them in recruiting processes so that the job expectations are clear.
Improve college-to-work paths. These can help integrate a business into a community and enable it to tailor inbound employee skills to any anticipated requirements.
Create effective onboarding. New hires should have access to clearly defined career advancement paths, training opportunities and available resources.
Effective hiring practices position new employees for success, while also ensuring the company’s needs are met.
Organizations that want to attract top prospects must likewise be attractive to potential candidates.
Empower employees to retain talent
Addressing the cloud skills gap means today’s organizations must examine an employee’s entire professional lifecycle and provide them with benefits that make their jobs worthwhile. While this certainly means attractive salaries, it also means positioning employees to be challenged, capable and fulfilled in their cloud careers.
Evaluate and maintain competitive salaries and benefits packages that attract or retain top professionals in the field. Establish career advancement paths that current and future employees are empowered to pursue. These paths should address any shortages that contribute to a cloud skills gap. Set an organizational goal of retaining existing talent rather than incurring the massive expense of replacing staff. Keeping existing employees is far more cost-effective than constant turnover, especially when top team members leave for more competitive offers.
Offer training opportunities
Technical training is neither a worn-out nor tired concept in IT. It is a critical ongoing process essential to any organization’s continued growth and innovation. Training must be focused, nimble, available and relevant to make it effective. Organizations not addressing ongoing skills development are setting themselves up for future problems.
Businesses should consider implementing the following in their internal career development strategies:
Implement mentorship programs. Establish mentorship or apprentice programs that partner skilled professionals with upcoming talent. These provide an opportunity for networking and career development.
Focus on upskilling. Continually upskill existing staff with relevant learning opportunities based on experiential learning around evolving technologies. Include boot camps, workshops, online training and certifications.
Prioritize demonstrable skills. Focus on practical, demonstrable skills instead of traditional — and possibly obsolete — academic credentials. While a degree can symbolize proficiency in a field or concept, certifications can ensure competency in relevant technologies or skill sets.
Invest in technology
Examine how technological innovations help the IT staff fulfill expectations. Tools like automation and AI continue to revolutionize every industry. Because these fields change almost daily, analyzing them regularly and addressing shortcomings quickly are critical. Tools and resources businesses should consider adopting include the following:
AI technology. Review existing and new AI tools to support current employees, workflows and markets.
Cloud automation. Automation and orchestration practices reduce workloads, improve efficiency and bridge the cloud skills gap.
New platforms. Consider cloud-based low-code/no-code platforms that require fewer technical skills to use.
Partner with experts
Partner with cloud service providers (CSPs) when necessary to avoid staff burnout or generating inefficiencies. CSPs like AWS, Microsoft and Google offer design and implementation services to customers to help ensure success. Partnering with these teams helps cloud administration staff understand tools and new services.
CSPs understand and effectively use their tools and services. These providers are the experts on their products, so it’s only logical to lean on them for their skills. Businesses can also hire contractors, consultants or cloud-managed service providers with the necessary skills for specific initiatives and projects. Their in-house expertise can support smaller tasks that don’t make sense.
Damon Garn owns Cogspinner Coaction and provides freelance IT writing and editing services. He has written multiple CompTIA study guides, including the Linux+, Cloud Essentials+ and Server+ guides, and contributes extensively to Informa TechTarget Editorial, The New Stack and CompTIA Blogs.
