Could LinkedIn's most promising jobs of 2017 be your biggest IT talent headache?
In a recent blog post, Stoneseed's David Cotgreave brought our attention to a recent bit of number crunching carried out by LinkedIn which, at first glance, looks like good news for IT Project Managers and IT Specialists. BUT is it good news for those that employ them?
LinkedIn recently listed the top ten Most Promising Jobs of 2017 and it turns out the Project Manager's and IT Specialist's skill set is a perfect fit for many of the leading roles. Technical Program Managers, Data Engineers and Architect, Analytics Managers, Software Engineers and Scrum Masters all score high based on the data sets crunched by the networking platform.
A Scrum Master, for instance, is currently benefitting from a 104% hike in job openings and "Career Advancement Score" of eight out of ten! So great news if your CV lists skills including Agile, SQL, Software Project Management, Scrum and Analysis.
Not so great if your business depends upon such a person. If this is the case then chances are it's going to cost you. They want greater career potential and there are more opportunities 'out there' than ever before.
Stoneseed's David Cotgreave comes up with a brilliant retention idea - always having a better offer up your sleeve ready for when your competition tries to poach your talent. David's right. Your best defence is readiness.
In his post on the survey, LinkedIn's Daniel Shapero writes, "Job hopping has nearly doubled in the last 20 years, and is only accelerating. Based on our research, we know that the top reasons people change jobs is to pursue a stronger career path, make more money or access more opportunities within their organisation."
There it is in a nutshell. Look after your IT talent or they'll be off, sometimes even in spite of that improved offer you have up your sleeve. It's at this point that you really have to be ready.
TOP TIP: Either developing a working knowledge of what's available on tap in the "as a Service" market applicable to your IT needs or getting a partner who can advise on best in class solutions will help with short term gaps that open up when talent leaves.
Beyond this temporary fix though you need to be ready to replace your departing talent with 'like for like' or better. That can be trickier than it sounds.
The job market has changed radically during that 20 years that saw a doubling of job hopping. It's now much more candidate led and ....
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