May 3, 2022
If you thought the IT talent shortage was bad in 2021, it’s going to be as bad or worse in 2022. In fact, a recent Gartner survey of IT executives identified talent as “the most significant adoption barrier to 64 percent of emerging technologies,” categorized across compute infrastructure and platform services, network, security, digital workplace, IT automation, and storage and database.
“The ongoing push toward remote work and the acceleration of hiring planes in 2021 has exacerbated IT talent scarcity, especially for sourcing skills that enable cloud and edge, automation and continued delivery,” said Gartner research vice president Yinuo Geng.
Even so, a Gartner survey revealed, 58 percent of IT leaders are going full-steam ahead when it comes to emerging tech investment. Part of that involves adopting “multi-cloud and hybrid-cloud technologies to better support the movement of information between physical and virtual locations as their employees adopt new ways of working,” ZDnet noted. “This in turn is creating a heightened need for infrastructure security, since hybrid work environments are particularly prone to cyberattacks.”
But guess what? There aren’t enough qualified IT professionals to facilitate these transformations. Not that companies aren’t trying. As of November, one-third of a record 360,065 tech roles posted by employers were specifically for emerging tech.
As of late 2021, according to CompTIA, the industries most in need of scarce IT specialists included professional, scientific and technical services, finance and insurance, manufacturing, information, retail trade, healthcare and social assistance, educational services and public administration. Consequently, companies are going all out to attract and retain talent.
Many experts suggest the answer is to make more talent. One way of doing so is by building what Information Week described as “a pipeline to attract students from colleges offering STEM courses, taking a balanced approach to immigration policy, and embracing intern and employee upskilling programs.”
While hiring the right talent is a major challenge, keeping it happy can be equally difficult.
“Our research indicates that a top reason tech workers consider leaving is a lack of career growth opportunities, a telling message to employers not to underestimate the value of investing in staff training and professional development,” said Tim Herbert, executive VP for research and market intelligence at CompTIA.
In such a tight IT job market, losing what you already have could be deeply damaging to your organization. That’s why employee satisfaction is paramount. Comprehensive benefits packages and salaries, which average low six figures, are only part of that equation. As Terry Jost of the global business consulting firm Protiviti told Information Week, it’s also about “managing workloads, providing a constant flow of training and education, and creating formal talent development programs to allow [staff members] who are newer to the profession to work alongside, or shadow, those with more experience.”
From In-House to Third Party
According to Tad Gralewski, Mindsight CIO, “In just the last two months, we’ve had multiple clients reach out wanting to have conversations about managed services because they’ve had IT staff leave the organization. This problem is only going to get worse after bonuses get paid out, which typically happens in the first quarter.”
Building an in-house team takes time and money. If you bring in the wrong person or people (assuming you’re lucky enough to find someone), you’ll have to start the training process all over again. It’s not the most optimal scenario, but it is a likely one.
In a bid to avoid such headaches, many organizations are opting to work with managed services providers (MSP) rather than start all over and hire in-house. MSPs, like Mindsight, have years of experience across multiple platforms—from cloud to cybersecurity, unified communications to network infrastructure. Their technical teams have the latest certifications; 95% of Mindsight engineers, for example, have the highest-level certifications and they are expert-level-only. Costs can also be lower when partnering with an MSP compared to doing things in-house, particularly when you factor in soft costs like time to productivity and lost productivity.
What’s more, business risk is reduced, not only because you have expertise when you need it, but MSPs monitor and manage environments continuously, performing patching and upgrades as they are released, thereby safeguarding the environment from cybercriminals. They apply cybersecurity best practices, proactively identifying gaps in your security posture and addressing vulnerabilities. They often have deep knowledge across industries and understand the compliance requirements and regulations as well as business drivers associated with each industry. These are just a few of the major reasons midmarket companies have continued to adopt managed services models.
If you’re interested in learning more about managed services, read our recent blogs:
- Top 7 Things to Look for in a Managed Services Provider
- How Emerging and Midmarket Companies Leverage Managed Services
About Mindsight
Mindsight is industry recognized for delivering secure IT solutions and thought leadership that address your infrastructure and communications needs. Our engineers are expert level only – and they’re known as the most respected and valued engineering team based in Chicago, serving emerging to enterprise organizations around the globe. That’s why clients trust Mindsight as an extension of their IT team.