How tech talents, diversity, and upskilling can move you and your team forward
a guide by Dr. Ranja Reda Kouba
Do you know how many employees in Germany will need new skills for their jobs by 2030? 6.5 million. In addition, German companies will need 700,000 tech specialists by 2023.
This poses three big questions for executives and department heads: How do I recruit the few tech talents on the market who are open to a new job? How do I leverage my existing team effectively? How do we all work together in a way that keeps the company competitive? Dr. Ranja Reda Kouba explored these questions in the podcast with Jan Veira. Take action to ensure your team’s future viability with the following guide.
Recruiting of tech talents
There are several areas of work that require highly trained tech specialists. According to Dr. Kouba, these include DevOps, customer experience, cloud, automation, platforms and products, cybersecurity and data protection, and data management.
Recruiting can be difficult due to high demand. But with these tips from Dr. Ranja Reda Kouba, you can be successful in the process:
Tech talents like to talk to other tech talents: In recruiting, you have to be careful that they don't just talk to the traditional HR people but are really recruited by the "techies" in the company. And time is underestimated: top talents wait - surveys show - on average only one week for an acceptance or rejection.
Even though in the tech sector employers are fighting tooth and nail for employees, decision-makers should still think about the company’s long-term goals:
- Quality over quantity: Since on average one IT expert is as productive as eight beginners, team leaders should make sure to hire people who already have a lot of in-depth knowledge and experience in their field.
- Jobs are always changing: As technologies continue to change, so do job requirements. When recruiting, managers should therefore ensure that future employees are highly adaptable.
Re- and upskilling of existing employees
Not all newly created jobs can be covered by new employees. In addition, some employee activities are eliminated by automation. For companies, this is a great opportunity to retain internally trained employees through reskilling and upskilling, to drive innovation, and to save costs for new staff. Three insights from Dr. Ranja Reda Kouba and Jan Veira from the retraining processes they have accompanied:
- First of all, a basic digital understanding must be built up in the company. Only then can you go into technical depth with reskilling and upskilling. This basic understanding must first be built up at management level. Read here what this has led to at our customer ZEISS .
- Companies are usually surprised by how easy reskilling and upskilling often is when the trainings follow clear goals, learning journeys, and processes.
- Reskilling is successful and useful in far more areas than one might initially think. If you start planning early enough, you can train specialists in a wide variety of areas of digitalization.
Enhancing diversity in the team
Diversity is a big word that companies today like to use to present themselves as modern, attractive, and inclusive. But what is behind it and why is a diverse team important in connection with the shortage of skilled workers? Here’s what Dr. Kouba has to say about it:
- Gender diversity: Companies must also try to attract women to tech topics. There is simply too much demand for jobs to attract predominantly men to this career field.
- Role diversity: Diversity doesn't just mean gender. The new professions that have emerged also need a different kind of leadership. Leaders therefore need to look at how they lead certain roles. For example, a data scientist needs different feedback than a mechanical engineer.
- Diverse teams: Studies show that teams with cultural, linguistic, gender and professional differences work more effectively and efficiently. Of course, teams with many differences also bring challenges, but according to Dr. Ranja Reda Kouba, leaders need to ease the fears of this in order to drive efficiency and innovation in the team as a result.
3 tips from Dr. Ranja Reda Kouba
For executives who want to advance the company's innovative power
- Make tech talent gaps a CEO issue.
- Don't just think about recruiting - other levers such as reskilling and upskilling or diversity are also needed.
- Diverse teams are more efficient and effective.
Recommendations:
- Book „The 7 technological capability fields of the future“: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/how-companies-can-win-in-the-seven-tech-talent-battlegrounds
- Stifterverband study on the lack of skills in Germany: https://www.stifterverband.org/medien/which-skills-are-lacking-in-germany
- McKinsey study on the future of work after COVID-19: https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19
- Book „How women rise“ by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith http://www.howwomenrise.com/
- Book „No rules rules“ by Netflix Co-founder & CEO Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer INSEAD Business School https://www.norulesrules.com/
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