Recruiting for Cloud Computing is a Challenge
According to the 2017 UK Cloud Skills Report, nearly half of organisations plan to recruit people with cloud skills over the next year. There is no doubt that cloud professionals are in high demand. However, with 38% of businesses reporting difficulties in finding the talent they need, there is a pressing need for candidates to skill-up and knowledgeable, specialist recruiters to step in and help.
The report found that the majority of businesses surveyed agreed that cloud skills (and IoT as part of that) are essential to the transformation of their organization but the pressure’s on to secure the tech skills to ensure that happens. As more businesses search an overworked pool of professionals, the harder it gets to maintain momentum in the UK.
In order for British companies to move forward in technology, the responsibilities lie in various camps to ramp up efforts:
- Firstly, IT professionals need to build on their skills with ongoing training. As a whole, tech people are pretty comfortable with continuous professional development – it goes with the territory – but they will need to focus their attention on specific languages, technologies and platforms to skill up in the cloud.
- Secondly, companies need to support their IT teams with training and certification in cloud technologies. They should also reach out to specialist recruitment firms who have access to an untapped network – in other words, those that understand today’s cloud skillset and can headhunt those professionals with the right experience.
- And thirdly, tech recruitment firms and RPOs in the emerging technology space, need to build on their internal knowledge and networks of candidates to offer fresh talent, strategic support, guidance on employer branding, and help to candidates. It is their job to translate what the market needs to both clients and candidates so that everyone involved can play their part.
- Finally, and probably most importantly, the technology leaders like AWS, Azure and Cloud Foundry need to continue offering comprehensive, easy-to-access training courses for companies and professionals. Over 33% of respondents to the UK Cloud Skills Survey reported that certifications are essential when hiring.
As a cloud computing recruitment agency, we’re investing our time and effort into staying abreast of the industry’s needs so we can guide our clients and candidates on how to find talent and secure jobs but there’s always more that the industry could be doing. What do you think? We’d love to hear your views and experiences as either a hirer or job seeker.