You are frustrated that there are certain technical capabilities lacking in your organization. You are not alone. HR.com’s research finds “53% of organizations say that between half to all of their workforce will need to be reskilled in the next three years.” This statistic is both very high and not surprising. Those of us who have spent years in technology, understand the exponential rate of change and the impact it has on our work. All markets are quickly evolving and there has never been a time that is more complex. To truly transform your workforce and not just patch the problem once again, there are solutions!

Review Your Existing Workforce

Your organization and your team members will all benefit from a thorough analysis and realistic view of what technical skills exist in your organization. Once you understand what you have available, then you can maximize the impact of those people and their skills. Once you understand what technical skills you are lacking, then you can hire the right people. When your teams have the right people in place to rely upon, that is where your organization thrives.

Identify the Capabilities Gaps & Untapped Potential

There are various ways to understand your current workforce and the skills that are missing. Begin with the areas that have the most frustrations. Has your team asked for training opportunities already? There will be some areas of low-hanging fruit for some quick wins. Those quick wins will create positive momentum for the organization to build the technical capabilities needed. Engage with and empower your current workforce. We recommend a skills matrix. Let your team members share with you what technical skills they have to contribute. Discover your team’s technical expertise and give them the opportunity to use it! It could be as simple as moving a team member to another department or creating a new role allowing them to flourish.

Reimagine Your Workforce

Now that you have a realistic view of the technical skill sets you have available today, your next step is to give your team the opportunity to gain the skills necessary or the people who can contribute the skills necessary. What is your Human Resource strategy right now and what does it need to look like in the future to ensure you have the right people in the right place? Reskilling and upskilling are helpful tools to use when the skills needed do not require a lot of time to achieve. Maybe an online course or a personal mentorship over a few months is all that is needed to fill the technical skills gap. In fact there are coding schools and bootcamps popping up all over the US that are on average 12-16 weeks. But in some cases, this may be a long term investment. For those organizations with the time and resources to devote, this is an excellent way to build relationships with your employees by investing in their growth. For those organizations, who cannot wait, staff augmentation is very helpful. Think about the benefits of Total Talent Management and a non-traditional employment mix. When supplementing your team with a contingent workforce, the benefits compound.

Reshape for a Future-Ready Organization

Agility must now be the focus of any organization. Everything about your organization must be agile - agile technology, agile processes, and an agile workforce. Technology changes very quickly and we cannot predict the future. So how do you hire for technical capabilities that do not exist yet? The answer is that you don’t. Instead, you hire for learning agility. Ask your candidates questions like:

1. What was the last new technical skill you learned and when?
2. What are your technical interests for future learning opportunities?
3. How do you prefer to learn?
4. Tell me about a time when you were presented with a new project at work that you did not know how to do and how did you learn the skills to complete the project?

An ideal candidate has a continuous improvement mindset, is always open to feedback and embraces new ideas thoughtfully. This person will transform themselves a dozen times over! It is not always the most tech-savvy person, but the one that can reinvent itself quickly who is the best for the job! This may not happen overnight, but is worth the long-term investment.

Mobilizing Tech Talent at Scale

Staff augmentation is the answer for any organization in need of mobilizing tech talent fast! “A recent Gartner survey revealed that 32% of organizations are replacing full-time employees with contingent workers as a cost-saving measure.” Flexibility, affordability and scalability are key features of an agile workforce. In fact, this can be a key differentiator in a competitive industry. At TECKpert, we have the technical talent with the right technical capabilities to transform any organization and deliver on any technical project. Whether you are putting in a government bid and need the talent pool to be ready in six months or if you have maximized your in-house technical skills, our technical experts are ready to deliver. Take this off your plate and rely on TECKpert’s talent pool. Reach out today for a free consultation.