How leaders can uncover hidden tech talent

As the IT skills shortage rages on, businesses continue to reckon with a lack of talent in AI, data analysis, core areas like cybersecurity, and legacy knowledge which is still core for many organizations.

In this environment, leaders would do well to explore every strategy to build and strengthen their own tech talent pool. The first place to do so, rather than through bespoke hiring, could be within their own organization – saving time and costs while providing existing talent with career progression.

For example, if your organization already implements upskilling and talent progression strategies and has a comprehensive mentoring scheme you already know the benefits of supporting your people. It isn’t a huge ideological leap to consider how such strategies can help career development between different areas of expertise as well as within them.

Harnessing the power of internal skills

In 2024, an IDC report found growing skills shortages will impact nine in every ten organizations by 2026 and cost $5.5 trillion in delays, quality issues, and revenue loss.

It’s clear that addressing these massive impacts will be front of mind for IT leaders.

Even if mentoring is not yet on your organization’s roster, there is no time like the present to examine its potential benefits. Maatia Rickard, global people programs Lead at Black Duck tells ITPro there are a number of strategies which can be specifically useful for identifying employees with interests in and aptitude for developing their tech skills.

These include using a skills matrix, promoting mobility programs and job rotations, and creating transparent communications channels.

A skills matrix can be very helpful in capturing the capabilities of staff teams and can include a focus on opening up the opportunity to identify skills that aren’t already being utilized, including those that a worker hasn’t expressed an interest in developing further at work – perhaps because the opportunity has not been offered.

This is where mobility programs and job rotations can take a role. Offering short term opportunities for a worker to try out another role, or even shadow another worker can help them see there is a way for them to identify an interest – and importantly without making a formal commitment at that stage.

"Setting these job experience opportunities alongside mechanisms for skills building without a formal commitment to anything more than learning, through open communications, can also help workers to self-identify," says Rickard.

Be mindful of every worker and every skill

Organizations can adopt a very broad ranging strategy to help them cast the net as wide as possible in identifying the tech talent that is hidden in plain sight in their organization, just waiting for the right opportunities to surface.

Amanda Finch, CEO at the Chartered Institute of Information Security (CIISec) adds that it can be beneficial to cast a wide net when trying to surface hidden tech talent. Finch explained that leaders should be “showing there are opportunities to retrain and join from any career stage: from school leavers who are still exploring their options, to job changers who feel in a rut, to returning workers who want new challenges and opportunities after a career break.”

In addition, while it is easy to think of tech skills as technical skills, there is in fact a very broad range of non-technical skills that are also required to build and sustain tech teams and their ability to perform in the organization. Finch said, “For too long, the tech industry has prioritized technical qualifications and sector experience over crucial transferable skills. Although technical skills are important, cyber professionals consistently say that the most valuable skills in their profession are communication and management, analysis, and problem solving – not technical ability.”

Build strategies for the long term

While the tech skills shortage is a reality today, it isn’t going to suddenly disappear in the short to mid term. Global labor shortages – not just in tech – could well bite into the 2030s, due to factors such as an ageing population and falling birth rates. Tech roles will need to stand in line along with everything else from healthcare to education, from retail to manufacture.

With this as context, putting strategies in place now feels like setting up foundations for the future, giving businesses the best chance of bearing fruit now and in the mid to longer term. For mid term success it will be particularly important to learn as you go – including involving those who have stepped sideways into tech in refining your programs.

“This isn’t only a one-time effort," says Finch. "Organizations also need to focus on retention: encouraging switching is pointless if talented individuals regret their decision after a few months or years. Encouraging and supporting continuous development, helping teams build new skills, and recognizing and rewarding success are all critical, for legacy as well as new team members. After all, attracting fresh faces is pointless if you can’t also keep the existing ones.”

With an eye on both the present and the future, it seems inevitable that organizations will need to draw their tech talent from a wide pool – and this includes from their existing workforce.