Attracting AND retaining talent in the IT sector: what role does coaching play?

The entire IT sector, like many others in 2022, faces recruitment and talent retention challenges, which have become more apparent with the post-COVID recovery. These issues affect employees, managers, project leaders, and even executives.

According to a report from the Directorate of Research, Studies, and Statistics (Dares) on jobs in 2030, the IT sector is expected to create over 100,000 additional positions during this period. Despite this, the industry remains under tension.

However, the issue cannot simply be attributed to a cyclical context. Companies should take a deeper look at and review their recruitment campaign strategy, external communication, as well as their approach to evaluating and developing management and employees.

What’s Being Done, But With Little Effect: Communication & Training

Inadequate communication campaigns targeting the right audience to make the company attractive and generate the desire to join the organization (often done by people not familiar with the field).

The company hires a communication firm to make its employer brand more appealing:

Communicating and flooding social media to be present and (attempting to) stand out from competitors.
Presenting a friendly and attractive image through testimonials from young, smiling employees.
Installing a foosball table and providing free fruit baskets.
Creating a position of Chief Happiness Officer (CHO).
Promoting the company as "green" and environmentally friendly, etc.

Despite these efforts, the issues of recruitment and talent retention stem from multiple sources:

A lack of understanding of the preferences and work appetites of technical profiles and those working on IT projects.
Common difficulties in this sector in terms of communication and coordination of employees scattered across France, abroad, or working remotely.
Challenges for some managers in managing atypical profiles and teams, such as multi-potential individuals (those with diverse and rich experiences).

Inadequate Training Catalogs on Team Management, Productivity, Stress Management, and Better Communication

To try to maintain motivation and team cohesion, it’s often proposed to managers and employees overwhelmed by daily tasks a catalog of training courses to help them acquire complementary skills and knowledge, such as better communication, becoming more effective as a team, understanding psycho-social risks, managing stress better, etc.

For IT employees, who are highly conceptual and intellectual, accumulating more knowledge doesn’t provide them with the concrete tools to act, evolve, or change a situation in the short term to feel more comfortable in their daily lives.

This leads to the risk of the "3Bs"—burnout (excessive overwork), boreout (profound boredom), or brownout (loss of purpose)—which can have consequences ranging from a deep demotivation to remain in the company or sector to a career change, and sometimes even more dramatic impacts on social or family life. What a waste!

What If We Really Focused on the Needs and Expectations of IT Professionals?

What Should Be Done First: Understanding IT Profiles

To achieve the desired outcome, it is essential to start by defining it, or risk missing the mark. Who are the players in IT? What are their values, desires, needs, motivations, and working styles?

They are often attributed the following general characteristics:

They tend to be introverted.
They are naturally curious, self-taught, and love learning on their own or with the help of their community (via forums, etc.).
They enjoy autonomy and often feel a strong desire to solve problems or find solutions on their own.

But can we be sure about these assumptions? Are we too quickly categorizing these specialists?

If we listen carefully, in informal conversations within digital transformation projects or IT departments, some express their needs and expectations regarding the IT work environment, such as:

Things should be simple, simplified, or explained as such.
People should be honest, fair, and not lie for personal gain.
Continuous improvement should be a top priority, with efforts being recognized through rewards that meet expectations, regardless of whether objectives are achieved.
Their manager should help them progress, while respecting their autonomy.
The work environment should intellectually stimulate them with strong engagement from everyone, ideally with colleagues thinking in similar ways and, if possible, at the same pace.
There should be variety in their work, opportunities to learn something new every day, apply it, and see immediate results.
They should be given the freedom to undertake, propose, and execute their ideas, with trust to succeed or fail constructively.
Clear short-term goals and milestones should be set within a defined framework.

IT professionals also adopt different strategies and behavioral reflexes when under stress:

An offensive strategy (taking responsibility, ordering, delegating).
An avoidance strategy (hacking the problem, disobeying, stepping outside the framework).
An immobilism strategy (letting go, doing nothing, absences, resigning).

As a result, the efforts of companies to attract and retain IT talent are often inadequate. How can we effectively recruit and retain IT talent?

The real question remains: "Do you really understand the profiles of IT professionals to equip yourself with the means to succeed?" There is untapped IT talent within companies. The challenge is identifying and guiding them toward the transformation of their profession, creating a virtuous cycle that leads to enjoyment in working at the company and staying there.

RSM is here to help uncover the multi-potential of individuals and teams:

Understand and identify the individual and collective profiles of your teams, highlighting talents (TMSDI).
Provide training, raise awareness, and instill sustainable change.
Offer individual, team, and managerial coaching.