So what is happening with layoffs ?

Late last month, Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, announced it was laying off some 20% of its workforce — more than 1,200 employees, CNN reported.

The interesting phenomenon is that while layoffs are bad news all around, demand for IT talent remains strong. Take H-1B visas.

One indicator of the strong demand came on Aug. 23, when US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it had received enough petitions to reach the congressionally mandated 65,000 H-1B regular visa cap and the 20,000 H-1B US advanced degree exemption, also known as the master’s cap, for federal fiscal year 2023.

According to uscis.gov, H-1B is a nonimmigrant classification that allows people who are not US citizens to work in the States in positions that require a degree of high-level specialty knowledge. Previously, the USCIS had announced it received 483,927 H-1B registrations in March for federal fiscal year 2023, up from 308,613 in fiscal year 2022.

“It really reflects the extraordinarily level of demand for talent,” said Mark Roberts, CEO of the TechServe Alliance. He noted the number of registrations is up 57% year over year.

One note on the process: The initial electronic registration selection process was completed in March, and the USCIS conducted a random lottery to select the 127,600 registrations it estimated would be needed to meet the visa cap. The Society for Human Resource Management reported the USCIS selects more petitions than needed to fill the cap to account for employers who don’t follow through on the petition process as well as cases that are denied or withdrawn.

PREMIUM CONTENT: US Staffing Industry Forecast: September 2022 Update

H-1Bs aside, other indicators also point to strong demand for tech talent.

“Many IT consultants that work through IT staffing companies are still receiving multiple offers,” Roberts said. “Despite a few stories of layoffs and hiring freezes among some high-profile tech companies, overall demand for technical talent still significantly outstrips supply. So even if there is some slackening of demand in a particular industry, there are other sectors that will gladly absorb those IT professionals.”

The unemployment rate in IT (as of end of Q2) was approximately 2%. And the TechServe Alliance’s IT index shows overall IT employment has remained flat for the past year because of a lack of supply.

Our research at SIA shows growth in IT staffing has recently been particularly strong. There is talk of possible moderation in that growth, but those forecasts still see the market as strong.

Where do you see the IT market heading? Send me an email with your thoughts at cjohnson (at) staffingindustry (dot) com.

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The post The IT Conundrum: High Demand for Skills Amid Layoffs appeared first on Paragon Strategic Staffing.

In our tech-savvy world, the demand for tech professionals has skyrocketed. Nearly 1 million additional tech jobs are projected to open in the US this decade, according to CompTIA, the leading nonprofit association for the global IT industry. But with the industry’s dire skills gap, hiring managers are struggling to fill open positions.

To set your organization apart and successfully recruit top tech talent in today’s challenging hiring landscape, consider these four tips:

Be open to different types of candidates. With more open tech positions than candidates, it’s important to look beyond traditional educational backgrounds when recruiting. Many professionals are making career changes and finding unique ways to get into new industries, such as attending tech boot camps. Boot camps serve as a less traditional and more affordable way of getting the skills and training needed to enter a new industry. From a hiring standpoint, they provide a large and diverse pool of applicants and can be an excellent source for finding qualified tech talent.

Participate in year-round recruiting. By being open to candidates with different educational backgrounds, you no longer have to limit your window for recruiting entry-level talent to university graduation dates. Switching to a year-round recruiting approach gives your organization access to a more dynamic pipeline of candidates.

PREMIUM CONTENT: March 2022 US Jobs Report

Look for transferable skills, not just technical skills. While technical skills are certainly important, transferable skills are what make a good, well-rounded professional. When focusing more on transferable skills, you’ll find professionals who have strong communication skills, work well with a team and bring a wide variety of experiences to the role. This also allows you to find candidates who will be a good cultural fit and who can ultimately serve as a leader within the company.

Have a well-thought-out interview process. The recruiting process for a technical role typically consists of five or six rounds of interviews with five or more candidates. To avoid wasting your time — and the candidates’ time — be sure your organization has a clear understanding of what the process should look like. For example, will candidates be required to complete coding tests or other technical assessments? If the process is confusing, it can turn candidates away, as they may think the company is unorganized and therefore not on the path to success.

Recruiting top tech candidates is especially challenging given the industry’s worker shortage. In fact, 65% of technology leaders agree that hiring challenges are hurting the industry. But by changing your mindset and looking for unique ways to find and attract candidates, you have an opportunity to stand out among the competition and fill your vacancies with promising new talent.

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What is for certain right now is the universal competition for technology talent. With limitless borders made possible by remote work, small towns and cities are competing for talent with major metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York. As a result, the “Great Resignation” is permeating, and wages are going up across the country. Companies aren’t just competing for talent locally, they’re competing with companies from coast to coast and around the world.

So, where does this leave us? There are two major drawbacks I see with the current hiring environment: commitment and culture.

Part of what makes work worth doing is seeing the results – the fruits of your labor, if you will. The mass exodus and temporary mindset of today’s worker – both those considering contract positions and those working in full-time roles – is leading to a highly disengaged, transactional employee and contractor mindset. Employee burnout is happening across all sectors, and I think a contributing factor to that burnout is the way in which people are engaging with their work and the overall lack of commitment. In contract staffing, this comes with the territory. As a business, we work hard to build meaningful relationships with our candidates from the beginning; the staffing organizations that do are usually the ones that win out with really great, committed talent. This is becoming harder and harder with today’s candidate. They know they have options; without even looking, they’re being presented with new, higher paying opportunities. This, as we all know, will not last forever. What will last beyond the talent bubble we are all in are relationships. My recommendation? Don’t stop trying to build them just because you don’t have to in this market.

PREMIUM CONTENT: IT Staffing: Growth Opportunities in the New World

The second casualty of the remote working environment and temporary employee/contractor mindset is culture. In near overnight fashion, organizations took their operations virtual. The trouble is many have not gone back to readdress holes left open as a result of hasty decisions made quickly at the onset of the pandemic. As a result, culture is suffering. It’s easier to be dismissive of one another – employees and contractors of employers and vice versa – when there is no in-person interaction. Organizations are quicker to say, “So-and-so isn’t working out, so who else can you find me?” This can be harder to do when you have lunch with someone every week and take the time to learn more about them. When we can, we are advising our clients to invest in their culture and their people, contractors included, by having non-work-related conversations, addressing mental health and overall well-being, developing trust and transparency, and communicating often. It’s easy to move quickly in this environment. Stop, take a look around and make sure you’re building something beyond just today.

It will be interesting to see where we all are a year from now. Will organizations, especially in technology, still be working predominantly from home? Will it still be a candidate-driven market, and will candidates still be commanding top-end dollar for the work they are doing? Will they be more or less committed? And, perhaps more importantly, will people be happy with the work they have done over the last year?

MORE: Great candidate experiences balance tech and human interaction

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The latest real-time statistics from Broadbean Technology indicate that the UK’s skills shortages across broader white-collar jobs are increasing, with application numbers across IT roles in particular showing a concerning decline in Q3 2021.

Our figures show that the total number of applications per vacancy in the UK dropped 49% between Q3 2020 and Q3 2021, while the number of vacancies during the same period doubled.

It should perhaps be no surprise that there is a significant disparity between supply and demand when it comes to digital skills, in particular. Even pre-Covid, businesses across Britain were battling to secure tech talent in order to keep pace with rapid technological advancements. Post-pandemic, the situation is chronic. According to our data, demand for IT skills across the UK increased 66% between the third quarter of last year and Q3 2021, which is indicative of the continued pressure facing UK firms to digitise their businesses and workplaces in a hybrid working model. However, application numbers fell 41% during this same period, indicating a decline in the readily available IT expertise that the county desperately needs as the economy recovers.

The statistics also suggest that employers are already beginning to feel the impact of this gap in supply and demand, with average salaries for permanent IT roles increasing by £2,607 in 2021 as firms turn to financial incentives to compete for talent. In addition, anecdotal evidence suggests that employers are also using other strategies to plug troublesome skills gaps, including promoting a compelling EVP to potential recruits, exploring underutilised talent pools and introducing training and development programmes in an effort to retain and upskill existing employees.

While our analysis indicated sector specific skills concerns across the IT sector, it is also worth noting that this dearth of talent is being felt across the board, with banking and finance firms also finding it especially tricky to source and secure the talent they need to thrive.

PREMIUM CONTENT: VMS Global Landscape and Differentiators 2021

The number of people applying for roles in financial services dropped 50% in Q3 2021 when compared with the third quarter of 2020. However, during this same period, the number of vacancies in the sector spiked 88%, which is indicative of a widening gap between supply and demand that could impact the UK’s financial services arena.

We’ve each witnessed the impact that the skills shortage has had on logistics and supply chains but, as our data demonstrates, today’s shortfall of applicants isn’t just limited to HGV drivers and warehouse operatives — it’s a widespread challenge that is impacting almost every sector across the UK and beyond.

The fact that we’re seeing an increased gap between the number of vacancies across professional services roles overall while the number of people applying for these positions continues to plummet indicates that the UK is facing a scarcity of talent that could soon reach a critical point.

The decline in IT applications, in particular, is a concern that every business in the country should be wary of. Make no mistake, it will affect us all. The shortage of specialist tech skills is an issue that has long been building in the country, and while the plans to ‘level up’ the country that the Prime Minister has outlined should help address this talent dearth to some degree, for the immediate demand, UK firms simply need to be able to tap into other talent pools easily, including international pipelines. For the financial services sector, meanwhile, much of this brain drain has arguably been driven by a loss of talent post-Brexit, and it’s clear that the sector is in need of more resources — and fast.

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To get through the current talent shortage, organizations must keep an eye on the future when sourcing and recruiting, no matter the economic climate.

If HR leaders are only recruiting for currently open positions, they leave their teams exposed to risk in the future. It is important for talent acquisition specialists to connect with candidates consistently so that they can establish and continue to develop relationships with them. This leads to finding candidates that are right for the role now or in the future, or candidates that will feel comfortable enough to connect HR leaders with a high-quality referral that could satisfy their needs.

PREMIUM CONTENT: US Staffing Industry Pulse Survey Report: May 2021 Selected Highlights

Referrals are often where the best talent comes from. It is necessary to put in the effort to source passive candidates as not everyone is seeking new opportunities on job boards. In fact, one could argue that most of the types of people HR is on the lookout for are already working and perfectly content in their role. However, if HR leaders can connect with candidates through LinkedIn or by phone, the relationships that they form will help plant the seed of opportunity with potential future candidates, so they keep your organization top of mind when it’s time for them to make their next move. There is no substitute for picking up the phone and making calls. Think about the world we live in now: when a phone starts ringing and it’s an unrecognizable number, it often goes straight to voicemail. If recruiters can leave a voicemail that intrigues the candidate — an elevator pitch – they will call back.

One of the things that has helped me build my skills as a recruiter was being recruited myself. I look back on how recruiters approached me and how they presented their information — how they tried to “sell” me. The focus should be on presenting yourself as someone that can help that individual get that “job of a lifetime,” and having the conversation that excites them and makes them believe that their life and career will be better for it.

It is also important that organizations set themselves apart from the pack as the employer of choice – a best-in-class company that differentiates themselves against what their competitors are doing. Taking the time to evaluate what is and isn’t working in terms of recruitment can ensure organizations are able to attract, hire and retain the best candidates now and in the future.

A company’s reputation is everything — and when you are doing it right, people will notice.

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Here are four ways to do just that.

Focus on creating the right culture. Top tech applicants want to work for exciting companies that value and support their staff, so focus on establishing and growing the right company culture to appeal to the best applicants.

That means encouraging new ideas, contributions, and creative ideas, inspiring your team and engaging everyone with the business. The best tech applicants want to be able to make a difference and be provided with the opportunity to put their skills and experience to the test.

You want to hire experts that are going to develop and expand your business, not just carry on doing what you’ve always done. This means you need to provide opportunities for your team to test out their ideas and provide a space for them to suggest new and innovative approaches.

Stay up to date with the tech industry. You can’t expect top tech applicants to work with outdated computers, software, or equipment. Not only will they be more interested in companies with the latest tech because it’s something that they’re engaged with and excited to try out, but up-to-date equipment will also ensure that they can do their job well and keep up with industry standards.

While you might not be able to stretch your budget to updating your tech every few months, you need to make sure that your systems and equipment are relatively up to date and as high spec as possible.

To keep up, follow relevant tech blogs such as TechRepublic, to keep up to date with the industry, updates and new releases.

You also need to demonstrate that you’re on board with current tech throughout the recruitment and hiring process. Make sure your hiring process is online: Be flexible with video interviews, online assessments, provide digital copies of documents, and use HR software to streamline the hiring and onboarding process.

PREMIUM CONTENT: North America Internal Staff Survey 2021: Lessons learned from adapting to COVID-19 crisis

Provide tailored training and development opportunities. Offering the resources and support for your employees to pursue training opportunities and progress in their careers is essential. But you need to ensure you have a structure in place that provides highly relevant training that can be tailored to each individual.

Instead of offering generic training programs, create your own bespoke courses that enable your employees to stay up to date with the latest skills, best practices and technology. There are plenty of easy-to-use online course platforms to choose from, but you can take a look at Learning Revolution for useful insights to help narrow your field of choices. Alongside your in-house training, you can offer reimbursement or support for external training opportunities.

Offer a flexible work environment. Another essential part of appealing to top tech applicants is offering a flexible working environment that can be tailored to what they need. When you’re hiring people with a lot of talent and experience, they want to feel like they have the freedom to work in the way that suits them. You don’t need to be monitoring every aspect of their day.

Be as flexible as you can on working hours and location; requiring everyone to come into an office Monday through Friday will put off some of the best candidates, especially now that the world has gotten a taste of long-term remote work. Plus, if you can offer full-time or at least part-time remote working then you’ll be able to attract more applicants from further away.

Benefits and compensation should also be tailored to individuals. Every applicant is going to have slightly different priorities, and you’ll be able to set your business apart by offering benefits that are actually valuable to each person.

To make your business appealing to top tech applicants you need to create an innovative and engaging workplace that’s up to date with the latest tech and industry trends. Follow these four tips and your business will stand out from the competition as an exciting opportunity for tech applicants.

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