Tech talent tectonics: Ten new realities for finding, keeping, and developing talent.

This article was published by McKinsey Digital on 14th April 2022. 

Large incumbents can compete successfully for tech talent—but only if they’re ready to completely rethink their entire HR approach. Tech talent think and act differently.

Late last year, Facebook announced plans to hire 10,000 people in Europe to build out its “metaverse,” an augmented-reality space. Amazon, meanwhile, announced plans to hire more than 55,000 people for corporate and technology jobs in the United States even as Google is moving to hire thousands of technologists.

Exacerbating this issue is the Great Attrition, which is already being felt in many companies as tech talent streams out the door to pursue better opportunities. Being able to work remotely has made it even easier for people to leave, since geography is less of a barrier to poaching talent.

For many companies, these moves come with a big warning: there is a massive push happening to grab talent, and you may be missing out.

These seismic shifts come at a time when the shortfall for tech talent is already acute. McKinsey’s analysis shows that significant skill gaps exist in seven areas, and they expect them to become more severe over time. In Germany, for example, 780,000 additional tech specialists are needed by 2026 to meet the economy’s demand. Globally, more than three million cybersecurity positions were unfilled as of 2020.

Business leaders are feeling the heat. According to a McKinsey survey of more than 1,500 senior executives globally, some 87 percent say their companies are not adequately prepared to address the skill gap. And according to another McKinsey survey, 61 percent of HR professionals believe hiring developers will be their biggest challenge in the years ahead.

Despite the formidable challenges in finding tech talent, incumbent companies cannot expect to succeed in the digital world without being technologically strong, which is simply not possible without a deep bench of tech talent. In fact, developing robust people and talent strategies are among the highest-value actions a business can take. Tech talent, therefore, should be a CEO’s top priority.

Based on McKinsey’s work on more than 80 technology-talent transformations, they have identified a set of ten realities companies need to face and what they can do to address them.

Read the full article here.

Authored by: Sven Blumberg, Ranja Reda Kouba, Suman Thareja, Anna Wiesinger.