The Myth of the Tech Talent Shortage

For many months, all we have been hearing is that there is a massive tech talent shortage.?According to the Wall Street Journal, Employers added 850,000 jobs in June – the biggest gain in 10 months [i].??On top of this, a new survey done for Fast Company by Harris Poll found that 52% of US workers are considering a job change this year, and 44% have actual plans to make the leap [ii].?

This means that there IS talent available; it is just a matter of finding it.?This article’s intended audience are CIO’s, Directors of IT, and other senior level IT Hiring managers.?My intent is to help dispel the myth that there is a tech talent shortage, and help hiring managers actually find talent (it is easier than you think).?This article will also include tips from CIO's (especially in the mid-market space) with regard to what they are doing to find not just good talent, but GREAT talent.

This article will focus on three main points:

1. Creation of Job Descriptions that actually replicate what you are seeking is becoming more important than ever before.?Remember, ‘A Players’ are judging you as much as you are judging them.
2. The increased reliance on ATS and AI tools to screen resumes.?Due to this, there is an issue of faulty and inaccurate data regarding to what talent is actually available.
3. Dedication to the talent agenda.?It is this dedication that will not only help you retain talent but put you in a position for a perpetual positive feedback loop in terms of finding talent.

“The search for technical talent has always been difficult”, according to Jon Baird, Senior Director of IT at First American Financial, but, “It is your company’s culture that will keep your team intact, a Senior IT leader should create a culture of openness, treat your staff as people and not subordinates, and – first and foremost – listen.?We have hired several people in the past 30 days and are continuing on in our rapid hiring rate”.?

(Side note:?I do like to inject humor into my articles, so if something in here makes you chuckle, that was the intent).

#1 The Increased Importance of Job Descriptions

Below are some recent data points from Indeed.??This data represents the last 6 months (January 1, 2021 to July 10, 2021 to be exact) of searches across all the jobs I have actively and passively been working on (36 jobs to be precise).

A quick definition of terms:

Impressions – Total number of people who have viewed a posted role.

Click-through rate – Total number of clicks divided total number of impressions.

Clicks – Total number of clicks.

Apply Start Rate – Percentage of people who hit the ‘apply’ button for a posted role.

Apply Starts – The number of times the “Apply” button was clicked via Indeed sites, apps, and service.

Applies - The total number of applies.

Of Special Note:?Yes, I pay to post roles on Indeed, but I spend, roughly $50/month per role… far less than what Indeed suggests.

I also reach out and ‘hyper target’ candidates for roles I am working on.?I have purchased access to every resume on Indeed, here are the results of that effort from January 1 to July 5, 2021:

A quick definition of terms:

Searches – Total number of searches.

Views – Total number of views (in other words, the number of resumes I viewed).

All Contacts – Total number of contacts (in other words, the number of individuals I reached out to).

Free Contacts – Indeed does give candidates the ability to have individuals such as myself reach out them for free.?This number indicates the number of ‘free contacts’ I reached out to

Positive Responses – The number of candidates that accepted my message to them.?In other words, this is the number of candidates that wanted to engage with me in reference to a role I was working on.

Positive Response Rate – Positive responses divided by all contacts.

Overall Responses – Number of overall responses

Overall Response Rate – Overall responses divided by all contacts

For example, you will notice that there were 300%+ more apply starts for the candidate behavior funnel.?That is an indicator in terms of the percentage increase of individuals who applied for roles I posted in comparison to June 30th, 2020 to December 31st, 2020. ?Why is that data point important??During the height of the pandemic, it was incredibly easy to find candidates.?Over the last 6 months, it has become far more difficult.?However, the data show that a significantly higher number of candidates are applying for roles I have posted over the past 6 months.?Why is this, you might ask??

It is a combination of things.?However, the first – and perhaps most important reason – is the job description.?I spend a significant amount of time authoring job descriptions that actually replicate what a hiring manager is actually seeking, from both a technical as well as a social point of view.

If your job descriptions mirror a laundry list of a zillion things…half of which do not exist, this is where you should probably start.?Job descriptions should describe the following:

• The team the candidate will be working with.?Describe what a good ‘team fit’ looks like, and the common characteristics of the kinds of people who succeed in this team. As Brendan Kilcoyne, VP and Director of IS at Event Photo and a Senior IT Executive at Iconic Group mentioned, “Too many job postings look like a wish list from a skills buffet”. ??Mr. Kilcoyne continued, “Instead, focus on the learners. The learners can normally take on more over time as they build out their skill sets."
• Describe YOU, the hiring manager.?What are YOUR characteristics??Don’t be afraid to be blatantly honest.?Remember when you hired your current top performers? Look back, and you might find that they probably all had similar characteristics.?Be blatantly honest with your audience in terms of what those characteristics your top team members have, and put that in the job description.??Other top performers from other firms are NOT looking for their next job, they are looking for a good ‘fit’.?So, be honest with regard to what creates a good fit.?
• Speak to the top 3 to 5 skills you NEED for this role.?Do not – for the love of all that is good and pure – list 50 bullet points in your job description.?List the top 3 to 5 and WHY they are important.?Top performers that are looking to make a job change are JUDGING YOU as much as you are judging them. If that top performer gets a feeling like your organization does not know what they are doing, they will not apply…its as plain and as simple as that.?

I have to be Frank (or Sally) here…my recent phone bills have had – consistently – 5,100 minutes on them.?While I am one person, that is A LOT of calls with anxious and nervous candidates that are looking for their next challenge.?The best performers are – granted – in the catbird seat at the moment.?As Mike DeMartino, Director of IT at RegalWare and former CIO at Charter Manufacturing mentioned “It is a sellers-market like I have never seen before”.?But – above EVERYTHING ELSE – they are looking for a positive fit.?Compensation is secondary, a fit is primary, not only for individuals you bring on to your team, but for the team you already have as well.??Mr. DeMartino went on to explain, “A mutual good fit encompasses more than just net skills and compensation.?Paying more than the company next door for a set of skills is a dangerous game that most likely will end up in a disappointing, short-term relationship.?Both employer and candidate need to bring something else to the equation that results in a value-added dynamic of trust and commitment.?This delivers a benefit to both the candidate and to your company and fosters a partnership that is respected and valued in the ‘seller’s market’ that exists today. This has a positive impact on not only attracting the right candidate but in also retaining that employee.”

As Paul Villani, Technology Strategist and former CIO of several mid-market firms mentioned “While it is important to clearly define what you need in a candidate, it is equally important to understand what a candidate will look for in a role and workplace.?Retaining key talent requires an understanding of what’s important to them.?As we’ve seen recently, the current generation of skilled employees (and future leaders) may have different needs and expectations than previous generations.”

Good examples of job descriptions that describe what I am talking about can be found here:

https://www.dhirubhai.net/jobs/view/2630653188/

https://www.dhirubhai.net/jobs/view/2645584375/

https://www.indeed.com/job/data-architect-557899dbda0c9e36

https://www.indeed.com/job/c-developer-focus-backend-ee0e6ad5400c0ad9

#2 Faulty Data due to an Increased Reliance on ATS and AI Tools

I have simply lost count of the number of candidates that tell me – after a 30 to 40-minute conversation of actually getting to know that candidate better not only as an individual but also a technical and social fit – that ‘no one takes the time anymore’.?This is a very sad state of affairs.?While I do not have cross-verifiable data points to prove this, I am willing to bet that if any of the candidates I have worked with are reading this article, they are shaking their heads up and down in the affirmative with this very sanguine point.?ATS tools and AI tools, instead, have taken the place of conversations like these.??

Artificial Intelligence and Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS’s) are – quite frankly – ruining the search for talent.?How many CIO’s reading this have received a resume that mention .net 12 times in that resume only to find out that the candidate is nowhere near close to what they are seeking??I bet it’s a lot of you.?ATS’s will rank candidates based on key words.?However, remember that just because – when looking for a .net developer – that a resume that mentions .net 12 times it does not necessarily mean that that candidate is better than a candidate that mentions it 5 times.?The more mentions of a technology in a resume rarely – if ever – is the indicator that a candidate is a solid technical fit.?

Sean McCormack, a Senior IT executive and former CTO of Harley-Davidson, recommends you leverage your existing talent base to find new talent.?“Help your recruiting team.?Hiring managers can spot good talent quite quickly, so have that hiring manager send examples of good and bad fits, and walk them through a live Q&A session.?Try to give them a hit list of the type of profile you are looking for, the order of priority and a decoder ring (for example, CI / CD is the same as continuous integration) so that they don’t accidentally filter out people for not having the right key words in the resume.?As you get resumes, send feedback to help them refine the search as opposed to yes / no email messages…sending concrete examples are far more helpful”.?

As George Photakis, CIO of several mid-market manufacturing firms throughout his career mentioned, “Work ethic is something you will not be able to discern from an ATS, it is something you need to find as you speak to candidates.?Seek out those candidates with a solid work ethic, along with those technical skills you are seeking”.?He added, “This is not something you can get from an ATS or AI tool”.?In addition, Gustavo Lara, current Senior Program Manager for multi billion dollar projects, and former CIO for a $13B consumer packaged goods supplier mentioned, “Seek that emotional intelligence in candidates, and remember your level of emotional intelligence will also reflect on the candidate”.?This emotional intelligence is yet another characteristic that cannot be discerned by your ATS tool.?

ATS and AI tools will, sometimes, tell a recruiter ‘here are your matches to what you are looking for’ and, without even having a human read a resume, send out a ‘hey, thought this role would be a great fit for you’ (Indeed does this quite often).?When this occurs, that candidate rolls his or her eyes and moves on to the next thing and doesn’t apply.?An alternative approach is to, instead, hyper-target.?Read an individuals LinkedIn profile or resume on Indeed before reaching out, candidates will thank you for the extra effort.?A great many candidates I have reached out in this hyper-targeting manner are ones that – while not in a position to take on a role at the time I reached out to them – are now candidates I am considering for other roles now that they are looking.?In addition, just posting a role and waiting (in other words, the ‘post and pray’ method) will no longer work.?If this was May through September of last year, then – yes – that worked, but that was eons ago.?Now, you must hyper target candidates on LinkedIn and Indeed, and tell them – with true sincerity – why you are reaching out.??

Here is what typically happens to a top candidate (keep remembering, they are judging you as much as you are judging them).?They read a job description and click apply, then – to their misfortune – have to follow a 17-step process to simply apply to a role.?As CareerBuilder suggests, candidates will abandon the hiring process for a number of reasons, primarily among them are that your application is taking too long.?Most candidates prefer a one-click apply process and are not interested in spending more than 10 minutes on one job application. Candidates often have little patience for an application process that’s repetitive.?A common observation is that a candidate will mention ‘I have just uploaded my resume, and I still need to enter my complete work history’.?[iii]

Here is an alternative approach:

• I typically sit down and put on Squawk Box in the morning, right around 6:30am and will respond to candidates (yes, EVERY candidate gets a response for EVERY role for which that they send an application to) until roughly 8:30am.?I actually read through resume, not just for content, but also for context.?Some of the very best candidates (one in fact that is receiving two offers from two separate clients as I write this) have resumes that would probably not pass a firms ATS due to the lack of key words.?
• I am not suggesting that you sit down for two hours a day in terms of reviewing resumes, but what I am suggesting is that you coach HR or perhaps someone in your tech team with regard to not just screening for content, but screening for context as well.?This will take effort, but it will pay dividends.?Seek out someone on your tech team, or an individual in your HR department that shows some promise.?Start coaching them in terms of not just content, but context in resumes…turn them into your ‘Chief of Staff’, someone that you know and trust that can look for talent from the perspective of not just content fit, but context fit as well.
• NEVER ghost candidates.?It takes 45 seconds to respond to an email…DO IT!?Respond, even if it is to say, ‘I don’t really have much to share yet’.?Candidates will thank you for this.??

Here are some questions to ask in interviews in regards to actually ‘engaging’ with technical talent as opposed to just ‘screening’ for candidates:

1. Feel free to pick two projects in your past that you believe are examples of your best work.?Tell me all about it.?What did you do??What were you (or your team) responsible for, what were the results?
2. What are the 4 to 5 things you would say you are best at, from a deep technical level?
3. In everyone’s career, everyone is going to have a project that simply stinks.?I don’t need to know what it was that stunk, but I am interested in what you learned about yourself through that process??What were the positives you took from that opportunity?
4. In everyone’s career, everyone is going to come across a favorite boss, someone that they have worked with before that they will work with again.?Tell me all about this person.?What did they do to help you succeed??What were some characteristics of this favorite boss?

By answering these questions, you will get to the heart of the matter in terms of what makes a candidate tick, what they are really good at, and weather they will succeed in your team.

#3 Dedication to the Talent Agenda

As Rafi Khan as well as another trusted C level executive at several firms throughout their career mentioned, “Finding talent requires patience to seek out the required technical skills, as well as a team and cultural fit. ?Include the applicant’s future team members to be the interviewers – usually three plus myself. This team approach helps select the right-fit candidate, and all involved will organically support the candidate’s success at the company”.

Mr. McCormack also mentioned that you should also, “Strive for an awesome on boarding experience.?New employees are most excited about a company when they are first joining that company.?If you have a great on boarding experience, it will keep their level of excitement up and studies have shown that it has a big impact on long-term retention.?Give them good equipment and quickly, set them up with a peer mentor and a team lunch.?Be sure to introduce them to the leadership team, walk them through the corporate and technology strategies that you and your executive team are working on.?If the first few days are chaotic and painful, the new team member will feel unappreciated and – due to that – you will have already damaged the positive momentum you had from hiring them”.?

This dedication to the ‘Talent Agenda’ as Mr. Lara commented, is key to not only your success in terms of finding talent, but also retaining that talent as well. ?Mr. Lara knows what he is talking about.?He had a 97% employee engagement rate for a $13B Consumer Packaged Goods firm, and a jump from 32% to 74% in employee engagement rate for a $2B private education firm as well.??

As Mr. Lara continued to explain, “Ask yourself…how much time are you – as a hiring manager – dedicating to the talent agenda?”?He continued, “This is not just for recruiting, but for retaining talent as well”.?In addition, he mentioned that, “If you are passionate about keeping talent, you will increase your level of referrals.?If you team is happy, trained and developed, they will refer you to their friends and you will essentially create a brand for your team”.

Mr. Lara mentioned a few keys to his success:

1. Feel free to let your team members express their ambitions to you.?Listen to their aspirations and ask how you can help them achieve them.
2. Offer work life balance perks like unlimited vacation, and making it an objective to help team members find roles that expand their career.?Mr. Lara found that people took less time off, and his retention rate rose.
3. Remember that ethics create a brand.?Your ethics will help determine your overall team’s ethical behavior.
4. Assure that your team members are valued, considered, and that your team’s drive for success is due to your assistance in the act of striving for that success.

There is a note of importance, however.?If you – as a hiring manager – ARE given relevant and accurate data, and still cannot make a hiring decision, you may need to evaluate your own biases and determine if you really, sincerely, do want to hire.?This may be a cathartic moment for some, but if you have been given relevant and accurate data and have interviewed several candidates and are 6 months into a search and haven’t made a hiring decision, you might want to consider stopping the hiring process.?You are not only causing yourself undue heartache, but you are contaminating your hiring pool.?Remember those top candidates will speak to other top candidates, and word will get around, quickly, that you don’t know what you are doing.?Be cautious of the 6-month time span on a search.?If you have been on a search for that long, chances are that you – the hiring manager – are partly, if not mostly, to blame.

In conclusion, if you follow the steps discussed in this article:

1)????Create job descriptions that actually identify what you are looking for.

2)????Decrease your reliance on ATS and AI Tools.

3)????Dedicate yourself to the talent agenda.

You will be able to not only increase your ability to find talent, but also to retain that talent as well.

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[i] https://www.wsj.com/articles/june-jobs-report-unemployment-rate-2021-11625176511?mod=lead_feature_below_a_pos1).??

[ii] https://www.fastcompany.com/90607167/is-now-a-good-time-to-change-careers-more-workers-are-feeling-good-about-it.).?

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[iii] https://resources.careerbuilder.com/recruiting-solutions/5-reasons-job-seekers-abandon-the-hiring-process

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