Finding Enough IT Talent is a Top Concern with Executives

Posted April 13, 2021

Recently CNBC released a new Technology Executive Council (TEC) quarterly survey in which nearly half of the respondents listed hiring top talent as their largest risk over the coming year. The council, in conjunction with CNBC, leads ongoing high-priority discussions about employing breakthrough technologies to solve problems and power growth while addressing the challenges presented by these innovations.

The shortage of available technology workers has been fueled by strong IT sector growth. As companies quickly adapted to the pandemic-driven work-from-anywhere shift in production, the world also witnessed a 358% increase in malware in 2020 and a 435% increase in ransomware according to research by Deep Instinct. The increase in cyber threats and the shift to remote work has led the research consultancy IDC to project IT spending will reach $5 trillion in 2021 — representing a 4.2% growth rate and a 5% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2024.

According to the CNBC TEC survey, businesses are removing job requirements in order to fill open positions including academic degree requirements. Cloud computing, software-defined security, machine learning, and artificial intelligence lead the critical issue list for which survey respondents are hiring. Companies are also building out on-the-job training opportunities, creating apprenticeship programs, and even filling roles with liberal arts graduates. About one-half of the survey respondents report hiring candidates with no degree at all.

The CNBC report highlights how difficult it is to fill open IT positions with qualified candidates. The tools are there but businesses are struggling to fill the necessary roles. This has led to a growth in managed services, outsourcing, and staff augmentation for specific IT initiatives within organizations.

Three out of four survey respondents stated their corporate board of directors has had a formal discussion regarding the SolarWinds hack, its aftermath, and the broader cybersecurity implications it has created. This heightened awareness of cyber threats at the executive level is driving a surge in IT cybersecurity spend and often outsourcing in order to find the right talent. The heightened awareness has not slowed plans for cloud adoption, however. According to the survey, 67% of executives report the SolarWinds hack will have no impact on their pace of cloud adoption and 15% said it would actually accelerate their shift to cloud-based applications.

Recruiting, training, and onboarding new talent are time-consuming and costly exercises. To reduce these costs, businesses are striving to retain talent, but they also battle a workforce that is more mobile and flexible than ever. Understanding the reality that many in the millennial generation prefer variety in their careers and moving between jobs every few years has led businesses to look at staff augmentation to have the talent they need ready in weeks instead of months.

For years tech jobs have been difficult to fill due to the significant training and certifications necessary. And the continued increase in demand doesn’t look to be slowing any time soon. Leading organizations will continue to find creative ways to increase the supply of available talent.

At Verus, we are ready to help with your staffing needs. Through years of loyalty to each other, we have built a team of experienced and seasoned technical engineers who are ready for your project. We are passionate about serving our clients and each other. Contact us to learn more about how we can help.

Kevin Willette

Kevin Willette is Partner / CEO of Verus Corp. His focus is ensuring complete customer satisfaction and providing as much or as little support as is needed for the individual client. Kevin knows that plenty of places do IT services, but what sets Verus Corp apart is the local feeling and the commitment to doing things right the first time. He has always wanted to be a business owner because it affords him the opportunity to offer a service that was better than anything clients had seen before. His true goal is to help customers make their businesses better by removing potential IT barriers. Kevin served as chair for Habitat for Humanity during his time at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He has also served on the WatchGuard Advisory Council since 2016. Kevin’s work with Verus Corp has helped them achieve awards as the WatchGuard Partner of the Year and Cisco Select Partner. Kevin graduated from Minnesota State in 2000 with a major in Business Marketing and minors in Business Administration and Music.