Since the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020, many businesses are having difficulty finding and retaining employees. While there are plenty of jobs available, there are actually less people in the workforce now to take them, thus resulting in a labor shortage.
With the increased use of technology, there is a great need for skilled IT field technicians to install, maintain, and upgrade various systems. Without the proper, qualified personnel it becomes increasingly difficult for any business to thrive.
If you feel the impact of the shrinking supply of skilled IT tech employees, this post offers solutions to find qualified IT field techs for your company.
Factors That Impact the Skilled Labor Shortage
Although more people continue to participate in the workforce, several key factors explain why these numbers have yet to meet pre-pandemic levels, resulting in a shortage of skilled laborers:
- The Great Resignation: With so much uncertainty during the pandemic, many people retired and simply left the workforce. Others took the opportunity to become entrepreneurs themselves, leaving their jobs and starting their own businesses.
- The Great Reshuffle: With so many working opportunities available, several people have changed jobs. Whether it’s better pay, hours, benefits, or anything that might improve their own situation — many employees have walked away from their jobs and found something that better suits their needs.
- Early retirement or aging out: With nearly half of the IT Techs in America being over 50 years old, many are retiring and leaving a large gap in qualified employees available. There simply aren’t enough new employees that can match the experience and skill from those that have left.
- Lack of necessary skills: As businesses consistently upgrade their technologies year after year, and older, experienced employees leave, it is increasingly difficult to find techs with the proper skill level needed.
How the Skilled Labor Shortage Impacts Field Service Leaders
To run a successful and competitive business, you have to constantly add and upgrade various technologies. Doing so benefits you with a smoother operation, makes production more efficient, and lowers costs.
Unfortunately, such technology is useless without the proper IT techs to maintain and manage it. Making the situation more complicated is the high demand for such individuals. Not only is it difficult to find and retain qualified IT field techs, but you also compete with other businesses for those IT experts who can be an effective addition to your team.
These next sections explore just how the skilled labor shortage can impact your business.
Field Service Leaders are Struggling to Find Qualified Talent
Following the pandemic, IT spending increased by 40% as a percentage of revenue as businesses accelerated the adoption of technology to quickly pivot to digitization and turned to cloud solutions to make scalability more practical and their systems more agile.
Although these systems weren’t a priority before the pandemic, changes were necessary to keep businesses thriving. This influx of need puts a further strain on the IT field tech demand, while the shortage of technicians leads to field service leaders struggling to find qualified talent.
Increased Demand for IT Professionals Creates a Competitive Hiring Culture
IT tech jobs posting have increased by 25% in 2023 compared to 2022. With the low supply of qualified individuals, field service leaders face a competitive hiring environment. They must ensure that their hiring process is thoughtful and that their company reputation and job offers are more favorable than competitors.
Retaining Qualified IT Professionals is Difficult
Even if you hire skilled IT techs, it is increasingly difficult to find and keep them. IT techs can be lured away as promising opportunities with other companies or flexible hours working for themselves become a reality.
The numbers are staggering:
- A recent survey reveals that 72% of IT employees plan to leave their current job within a year and look elsewhere.
- 41% of IT workers report that they want to leave due to limits in job progression.
- 40% cite lack of flexibility with their work hours.
Strategies to Future-Proof Operations with a Tech Labor Shortage
Finding and retaining skilled IT employees is difficult. There are some strategies, however, that can help a company thrive even while dealing with a tech labor shortage.
- Meet the needs of current employees. This involves creating a work environment that promotes growth for the employees. Add additional training opportunities so that current workers can evolve with the ever-changing and expanding technology. Apprenticeships can help new hires to adapt and excel in your company.
- Transform your business digitally. Businesses can remain viable by focusing on their digital operations environment. Companies can find success when they have the proper infrastructure and the people trained to utilize it.
- Rely on a blended IT unit. Using both current employees in addition to outside contractors together can allow for a more flexible work environment as your IT needs change.
Options for Finding Qualified IT Field Technicians
Finding new, qualified IT specialists is no easy task. It is not impossible though, and you have a few options at your disposal:
- Labor marketplace for IT: This option connects companies to independent contractors looking for work. Here you get the advantage of both having control over who is hired for the projects and payment for the projects they are assigned to.
- Hiring: Bringing in full-time employees gives you the final say on who you hire and what kind of qualifications and expertise they have. On the other hand, you can potentially lose money by paying someone who is underutilized as they tend to experience plenty of idle time.
- Third-party subcontractors: Here you are more in control of the money as you only pay for the time they are required on the job. Unfortunately, you often have little to no say in the quality of the personnel, in addition to not being able to have them immediately on hand when needed.
Finding Trusted IT Field Service Technicians
The on-demand labor marketplace option clearly is the better option for any business. The challenge is finding the right marketplace with the skilled IT techs that can best meet your needs.
The best way to find the right person for the right job is through Field Nation. Field Nation can pair you up with qualified independent IT technicians with an average response time of 12 minutes operating in every zip code in the United States. Field Nation has reliable IT techs that you can trust to represent your brand, get the job done, and elevate your company to the next level.
