The world is currently experiencing a great talent shortage, especially when it comes to skilled workers, engineers and IT staff. Manpower Group’s 2013 Talent Shortage Survey reports that the global talent shortage rate is currently 35%. One in five employers says that not filling a position is the main cause for not meeting their client’s needs in the upcoming year. How should your organization deal with the great talent shortage?
The shortage is mostly attributed to the lack of qualified, skilled, or certified professionals. Skilled workers and engineers rank as the 1st and 2nd hardest positions to fill, with IT staff ranked as 7th most difficult to fill. In 2013, Japan reported an 85% talent shortage, New Zealand and Australia reported 61% and 45% shortage respectively, and US reported a 39% talent shortage. Germany and China stayed around the global average of 35%. The shortage is likely to remain high as the demand for IT and software engineering staff rises in the future. How can your organization sustain growth and innovation amidst a great shortage of qualified candidates?
The two options an organization has when they cannot hire locally are either to train current staff or seek resources elsewhere.
Building up an internal talent pool is a great strategy, but it requires a lot of time commitment and upfront investment with results months or years down the line. This may be prohibitive to some companies that need ongoing support, immediate maintenance or require urgent product development. For organizations that are looking for more rapid and effective solution it is better to seek resources elsewhere. Already 75% of large companies in Germany that complain of labor shortages look for IT and software talent elsewhere in Europe.
When talent is not available locally and internal training is not a good option, companies should look to other countries that have this talent available. When companies seek software engineering talent, Eastern European countries such as Belarus and Ukraine are often a great choice, since they have a large pool of well educated and qualified software developers. Download this presentation to learn more about the available talent pool in Belarus and Ukraine.
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