The World Economic Forum predicts that over a third of skills that are considered important today will have changed over the next five years. According to the Future of Jobs report, two of the top five drivers of change in South Africa over the past five years are technology related – big data and mobile internet/cloud technology. Career Junction’s latest jobs index shows that the Information Technology sector in general has a demand for technical skills that far outweighs the supply, which is at 50% of demand.
But what does this mean for companies looking to hire technical skills in a highly competitive market?
“There are a number of implications for HR professionals and the companies they work for – some are challenges, while others are opportunities,” explains Michelle Baron-Williamson, Chief Transformation Officer at Managed Integrity Evaluation (MIE). “One of the biggest opportunities is for companies to focus on developing skills in-house, and in turn, creating and growing workplace skills programmes that have the benefit of not only adding to the general technology skills pool in the country, but that can be tailored to the specific requirements of the organization.”
“On the other hand, one of the big challenges that this skills shortage presents to organizations is the risk of hiring candidates who do not have the correct technical skills,” says Baron-Williamson. “Candidates could either misrepresent their skills in a demand-heavy market, or the companies themselves might not have the expertise required to effectively evaluate the competence of these candidates. Hiring strategies will need to change to keep up with the type of technology skills that are in demand, especially if HR professionals have very little knowledge about these areas of specialization themselves.”
Enhancing talent acquisition with accurate assessment of technical skills
It is imperative that companies implement talent acquisition solutions that enable sound assessment practices to identify the right candidates from the application pool. Making better people decisions not only ensures that the right skills are hired into the business, but comprehensive assessment tools can also help avoid performance issues and unwanted behaviours in the future.
Assessing talent correctly upfront will increase an organization’s overall performance, align with best practice in terms of talent acquisition, and help position the organization as an employer of choice – a highly valued attribute, especially in the technology space where differentiators are critical in the race to hire scarce talent.
