The Talent Economy Graph Is Moving To Another Curve

by Hassan R. Tech Enthusiast

The Relationship Between Business And Talent Is Changing

Evolution of the “Human Resources” function—from ‘personnel management’ to ‘Human Capital Management’ and ‘Strategic HRM’ is an apt reflection of how quickly the business of leading people changes.

And in the past century alone, industry has witnessed enough turbulence, (or ‘hiccups’, if you will) to understand that when it comes to talent management, a one-size-fits-all approach never works. Managing IT talent, especially, is a challenge. Because it has all the challenge of other types of talent, with the added complexity of rapid obsolescence.

Hiring managers struggle to find the right technology experts in this stage of the talent economy. Fortunately, this year has shredded many assumptions and laid bare the absolute truth about finding, onboarding and retaining IT talent.

In Q1 2020, we witnessed the IT talent sector in turbulence. Defined by mass layoffs, industry strongholds declaring bankruptcy, and many internet giants forced to retrench at an unprecedented rate, this was uncertainty like no other.

The new equilibrium of the talent economy graph was forced left.

Fortunately, technology experts, like the leaders who put their talents to best use, proved resilient. Demand for IT talent did not dry up even as economic prospects seemed bleak.

The New Demographic Reality

Before COVID-19, the career graph of technology experts would typically follow a ‘move fast and break things’ adage. It was disruption in action. Several short-term projects. Short-lived technologies and fragmented industries. That’s what the average resume boasted. But with COVID-19, many of these technology experts were forced to slow down and reflect. They discovered their real career priority. And surprisingly, it isn’t always about money. As some talent experts state, preferences in:

· Project location

· Technology stack

· Team composition

· Project duration

· Experience required and

· Industry

Weigh in heavily when technology experts choose a project.

What this means in the COVID-19 age is that hiring managers have a wider talent pool to choose from. Their assumptions about demography have changed. Now you can have highly-skilled technology experts happy to work remotely, or a less-skilled resource who will meet the requirements of your project and save valuable negotiation time.

This means that whatever implicit biases hiring managers had about IT talent (And we know they had those biases!), have been called out. And biases work both ways by the way—the technology talent industry is not free from ageism or sexism.

The new demographic reality is that the talent curve is well and truly flat when it comes to gender, location and other areas previously considered in discriminatory hiring.

Remote Work Is Here To Stay

Many practitioners cite COVID-19 as a ‘harbinger’ or ‘accelerator’ of things to come. Remote work used to be a limited privilege pre-COVID-19. In Q2 2020, we assumed it was a short-term measure to avert loss in productivity.

The truth is, remote work and permanent work from home capabilities have been around for a long time. The 20^th century’s first “work from home” policy was pioneered by a woman working as computer programmer in the USA. COVID-19 merely made us realize that what’s possible, should in fact be mandatory. And so, many global leaders have led the movement for extended work from home, permanent remote work and so on.

While remote work does have its detractors, its overall gains in productivity, efficiency, employee and societal well-being are well-documented.

Some organizations were very proactive in their response. They:

· Enhanced their remote screening capabilities for hiring managers

· Shared best practices for remote interviews

· Published emerging research on WFH challenges and opportunities and

· Defined the changing nature of responsibilities when leading technology experts

New Emphasis On Psychographic Variables

The last point—the changing nature of responsibilities—is particularly critical in the New Normal. We have already been familiarized with imminent mental health issues. But that’s not all. With a remote workforce, job enrichment, and new industry concentration, the very nature of work is changing.

Empathy will be an interpersonal staple, of course. But as the talent economy curve shifts right, other interpersonal skills will come into the spotlight too. Skills that were previously considered too subjective to be measured are now a core priority. For instance, hiring IT talent for:

· Critical thinking

· Communication skills

· Analytical and problem-solving skills

And so on.

In the talent economy, hiring managers will compete for solutions that provide the most transparency and accuracy in measuring interpersonal and functional skills. A lucky few have already found it.