The Big Move Of Data Strategy To IT Staffing Shortage

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IT is at the core of modern business operations. Companies that leverage and grow IT thoughtfully tend to be ahead of those companies that do not, and in large part because it helps them achieve their strategic goals rapidly and with more accuracy. However, the biggest challenge that IT has to overcome today is Big Data.

Some would cite IoT (Internet of Things) to be the next big challenge for IT but IoT is not the problem per se — the demands for big data are here, right now and not a novelty for the every day consumer. Thing of the demands you find in the customer journey for example – consumers expectations on user experience are growing by the day with advanced technology methods in rendering content, video, and images in a user friendly way. This, of course, happens with the help of some nifty web designers. Plug in the use of cookie data for targeted audience creative and now you have a big data solution. While the technological developments are ongoing, organizations all around the world are worried about the ability to compete in an environment where there is an IT staffing shortage. More data means more jobs, and more jobs mean more talent needed—but where’s the talent?

IS IT STAFFING SHORTAGE REAL?

Yes, it is real. The dearth of IT talent can vary from industry to industry. For example, healthcare industry is facing the biggest famine skilled IT professionals. According to a Health Information Management and Systems Society survey in 2014 a third of respondent healthcare managers agree that they had to either delay their IT project or reduce its size because they lacked the IT talent to execute them. It is alarming that hospitals and IT vendors, according to the 2018 workforce survey by HIMSS, are still 56% and 24% fully staffed respectively.

It would be wrong to say that it’s just the health industry that’s facing this shortage. The devoid exists in the overall IT talent pool, all over the world. A 2018 US Salary Guide shows 89% of the IT employers believe IT skill shortage is causing damage to their businesses. The recruiting company, Hays, states constantly evolving technology as one of the reasons why the market is seeing a shortage of IT skills. According to SHRM, as referenced in our eBook on Specialized IT Staffing, there is a shortage in supply owing to the exponential upsurge in STEM-field jobs. Specialized technical talent is simply in high demand. 

THE IT PROFESSIONALS YOU NEED TODAY – THE ONES HIGHEST IN DEMAND

It is important to understand here that missing IT talent hurts the rising IT fields the most. Information Technology is an umbrella term under which there are hundreds of branches. As stated earlier, the biggest challenge for organizations worldwide is big data handling and management.

It is in this area that businesses need professionals the most. According to The Economist, data has replaced oil as the most invaluable resource on the planet. It is no coincidence that the demand and salaries of big data jobs are on the rise today. Moreover, new big data related job roles are appearing frequently. CDO’s and data scientists are being recruited for organizations at an ever increasing rate every day. One of the biggest challenges of course is the snowball effect that happens when an organization makes the investment in information as an asset – they grow. This means that organization may double down on growth and invest in more technology and more relevantly new jobs to help carry out the corporate mission making it difficult for new players to acquire the local talent they need. 

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HOW TO SOLVE THE IT STAFFING SHORTAGE PROBLEM

One could answer this question from multiple perspectives. Here are the three overarching solutions to the prevalent IT staffing shortage.

THE SLOWEST SOLUTION

Raise awareness and promote IT related education. Educate the community about the importance of IT and request universities and colleges to make their IT programs more attractive. If you focus on connecting the best and brightest with the best big data educational programs you will grow the number of available in each market for growing companies. This is already under way in many pockets of the country and hopefully as the economy becomes continuously more technology driven more, talented people will find themselves in these vocations in coming decades. 

THE LESS SLOW SOLUTION

Land in the tiny pool of available IT talent, fight your competitors and hire new talent at any cost. The drawback to this one is that you will have to offer extraordinarily high salaries and attractive perks to pull the talent towards you. That is assuming you are in an enticing market like New York, Austin, Denver, or San Francisco where young talent wants to live and grow families. Often, lesser known markets suffer to recruit the necessary talent. 

THE FASTEST SOLUTION

Outsource this role to the right people. Cruz Street is the most unique and effective solution to hard to find IT talent. Cruz Street Media lets you outsource the CDO (chief data officer) role to the most learned, experienced and knowledgeable professionals who help your company create a data-driven system that automatically produces successful data-driven strategies. It’s fast and also the most affordable solution out of the three. A dedicated partner focused on growing your organization’s knowledge, value, and use of data is in many cases a more effective bridge solution to help you climb the data mountain. A dedicated partner will also help you staff for full time or project oriented roles around your big data needs. 

CONCLUSION

Although there is a staffing shortage does not mean you have to put your projects on hold and delay your organization’s ability to treat data and information as an asset. You have to do your staffing based on the next big challenges that your industry is facing or will face at the time it makes sense.

Moreover, your advantage over your competitors relies heavily on how quickly you make those decisions. If there is an instant, cost-effective and practical solution available to the problem, i.e., on-demand CDO from Cruz Street Digital, you should go for it before the opportunity stops knocking on your door.

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