What is happening in the IT industry right now?
Due to globalization and the technological advances that we have experienced in recent decades, the IT industry is having a significant growth. In turn, it is facing a shortage of talent specialized in technology, specifically in development. Thus, the competition between organizations for the most outstanding professionals is getting fiercer. Aligned with that, the technology field is also facing one of the most stressful drawbacks for any hiring talent team, the highest staff turnover of any industry.
In many ways, the IT industry is experiencing a fantastic range of new opportunities. Over the last couple of years, although the pandemic has been problematic, it has also been responsible for accelerating digital transformation by around seven years. Tech solutions are now evolving faster than ever before. As many companies have noticed over the last year, new innovation means new challenges, and the challenges bring on new strategies and a lot of new things to learn about.
“New innovation means new challenges, and the challenges bring on new strategies and a lot of new things to learn about”.
IT Staff Turnover Around the World
During the 1970s in the United States, it seemed that staff turnover had been an outdated issue, since retention levels had risen significantly. However, large companies such as Google, Apple, IBM, eBay, and Adobe, in 2013 paid large fines because of different complaints about violations of antitrust laws, which were subject of investigation. They realized that there was an unofficial cross-checking of information on salaries, in order to suppress them and “punish” people when they resigned (Tseng, 2010). This case shows the great importance that is now attributed to caring for people’s well-being, bearing in mind that they are not a resource but rather a talent that we must care for and support to grow.
In the Colombian context, it has been found that there is a significant deficit of IT professionals compared to the demand, being a challenge for attraction and selection to find talent for the requirements of the industry (Sepúlveda, 2020).
In 2021, the IT market in Latin America grew up by 8.5% according to data from the International Data Corporation (IDC). The recovery of the IT industry is increasing despite the complex reality that we are still experiencing due to the pandemic. Taking into account the information shared before, companies are increasingly looking for the best talent. Furthermore, staff turnover numbers tend to be higher year after year.
“They are not a resource but rather a talent that we must care for and support to grow”.
With that being said, let’s focus on how, at Ceiba, we have generated strategies from talent management to attack head-on the problem of high staff turnover.
Embracing the staff turnover at Ceiba
In the last year, we experienced an increase in the staff turnover, which is accurate to the current industry’s behavior. However, in the last 4 years, we had an average turnover of 2.23%, which is a much lower percentage in relation to the market average.
The year 2020 was significantly the period in which we had the lowest staff turnover, with an average of 1.69%. On that year, we were sent home with a big uncertainty. We understood that, regardless of the circumstances, we needed to support each of our employees and their families, from the receptionist and our cleaning team, to our developers and designers. By putting our humanity above, we were able to continue and move forward together.
Read Next: Ceiba continues to grow and receives the Great Place to Work and Great Culture to Innovate certifications.
Therefore, we have to understand that staff turnover in the IT sector is a multifactorial cause, involved in a very competitive context to get the best talent, and how we show ourselves attractive to those new talents, so they decide to join us. That’s why we are focusing on adding value to be an attractive company to all those ideal candidates whom we seek every day and provide them with great technical and learning challenges, but always prioritizing human value, letting them know that they and their families, in addition, are very important to us as human beings.
Likewise, we have been progressively strengthening our talent development team, building a multidisciplinary group that allows us a global vision of each human being. This is why, from the Talent Strategy management team, we generate completely personalized development plans, working on the execution of career plans, looking for inclusion and diversity and keeping an active and permanent communication with each team leader. We are always willing to listen to our employees, opening spaces for communication and psychological support. We aim to guide them not only in the professional field but as a life matter.
In conclusion, through these strategies, our goal is to deal with the turnover situation within the IT industry and always try to get the best talent for our clients.
We find ourselves in a changing world and, as a company, we always aim for adaptation and evolution through the use of innovation and technology.
References
Sepúlveda Henao, M. (2020). El reto de retener talento en el sector TI (Trabajo de grado Especialización en Psicología de las Organizaciones y del Trabajo). Universidad de San Buenaventura, Facultad de Psicología, Medellín.
Tseng, C.Y. (2010). The Retention of Software Development Employees in the IT Industry in Taiwan (Doctorate of Business Administration). Southern Cross University, Lismore.
Olvera, E. (2022). Reporte del Mercado Laboral de TI 2022. Hireline. https://hireline.io/mx/estudio-mercado-laboral-y-empleos-de-ti-mexico?year=2022#slide-rotacion-en-el-sector
IT Acquisition Specialists
