Small and mid-sized companies (SMEs) are struggling to
attract IT talent in the face of competition from big-name
employers.
But as long as they listen to what people actually want from a
job, they will succeed in attracting good IT staff, according to
members of a round table held by IT education supplier RM.
The culture of the company matters for today's generation of IT
job seekers, said Gideon Kay, IT director at Haden Building
Management. "Young people can come from an open university culture
to what feels like an IT prison. That is not the culture they
want."
Alexandra Sheriden, team manager at Elan IT, said compamies do
not think about the impression they are creating. "The company
really has to sell to the candidate now.
Salary is one thing, but it is also about holidays, pensions
and even membership to a gym helps. Everything counts, from the
receptionist's manner when they come in for an interview to how
long it takes HR to send out the job-offer paperwork."
Meurig Beynon, from the computer science department at Warwick
University, said, "Young people do not want to be put in a niche
and told what they are doing. They want challenges."
Companies can take certain steps to overcome the current skills
shortage. RM, an education software and hardware supplier, is
recruiting in Poland and has set up a website where potential
candidates can ask current staff questions. They also have a
virtual tour around the offices on the website. Vince Naylor, a
network and IT systems manager at Snowdrop Systems, said he has
started taking some post A-level students on. He said that the
company takes plenty of non-IT graduates. "We look a lot at
personality and mindset rather than technical skill."
Beynon said guest lecturing at universities is a good way to get
students' attention, and Tilly Travers, from
E-Skills UK, said taking
students for industry placements during their degree is a
cost-effective way for smaller companies to attract graduates to
work with them.
But the consensus is that the onus is on the company to become a
place where people want to work. IT professionals want to be both
listened to and challenged, and they want to see how IT will take
them to the top. Mike Rodd, director of learned society at the
British Computer Society, said it is possible to learn from the
bigger companies such as Oracle.
"They just asked people what they want," he said. "What matters
to employees is life-balance and green issues. So they provide
buses for people to get into work, they provide family care and
everything needed for career support."
Although businesses can work to counteract the problems caused
by the skills shortage, what really matters to employees is the
perception of the IT industry, and how it is regarded in terms of
professionalism, Kay said.
"Until IT has got to the point where it is a recognised
profession, people will see it as a gamble. There is still a huge
amount of work to be done, both in the UK and globally. We need
people to see it as a career that will take them to the top of
organisations. That is what will attract people," she said.
E-Skills UK is working with school children and university
students to change IT's image, and Mike Rodd reported progress in
the quest for professionalism in the industry. But for the time
being, companies will need to compete for scarce talent with a
mixture of ingenious recruiting methods and attractive packages and
policies, Alexandra Sheriden said.
"Candidates are now getting two to three job offers on the
table. Who they choose does not necessarily come down to money, but
the idea they have of your company," she said.