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Everyone is aware of the current shortage of experienced tech talent in Canada. From cyber security to healthcare, we need help.
Yet Human Resources departments and hiring leaders “have been slow to adopt new approaches to recruitment and retention,” according to a new report, “The State of Talent Acquisition 2023.”
The report, released recently by upskill platform General Assembly, found that non-traditional approaches to recruitment, like skills-based hiring, “are not being adopted quickly enough to keep pace with the changing labour market.”
“There is a talent shortage that’s not going away,” warns Ankur Gopal.
Gopal is the founder and chief executive of Interapt, which recently joined forces with General Assembly to launch a new apprenticeship program designed to help employers address recruitment and retention challenges.
“The demand for technology workers is increasing at a rapid pace,” Gopal says. “The supply side isn’t keeping up.”
He believes this is not a temporary problem, so avoiding solutions now could cause challenges later on.
Though 90% of survey respondents were either extremely, very, or somewhat concerned that current recruitment and hiring methods will not be enough to fill their open tech positions in today’s market, only 23% have updated job requirements to provide greater opportunities for candidates from non-traditional backgrounds, according to the report, which was conducted in partnership with Wakefield Research and produced by Whiteboard Advisors.
“[Labour supply is] not going to keep up for multiple years, so companies that don’t adopt creative new talent acquisition strategies are going to be left behind,” stated Gopal.
Awareness of the situation is increasing, but Gopal and others feel adoption is lagging too far behind.
“The findings of this survey indicate that, even though businesses acknowledge the challenges they face when it comes to hiring for tech roles, awareness has not yet translated to action,” stated Lisa Lewin, CEO of General Assembly.
General Assembly and other Canadian-based up-skill organizations want a higher number of hiring firms to recognize the validity of digital training programs, and continue to advance their courses and marketing to achieve such an outcome.
“By arming leaders who need tech talent with these insights, we hope to not only shed light on the extent of the problem, but also point the way toward scalable, sustainable solutions—with the aim of building a more diverse, more resilient tech workforce,” Lewin said.
Her pitch doesn’t require a leap of faith: in a competitive market, it just makes sense to lean on skills.
According to LinkedIn, these are the skills tech talent should hone today.