94% of employees would stay longer with a company if it helped them to train. These are the findings of the LinkedIn Workforce Learning study.
Recruitment is a strategic issue for IT services companies, as human capital is the company’s main strength.
However, according to an HEC study, turnover in the sector is a staggering 20%.
What’s more, there’s a real “war for talent” in the sector, as skills are scarce in relation to demand. So, to attract and retain digital talent, Digital Service Companies need to put in place a real strategy for winning over candidates.
IT services companies’recruitment: the talent shortage
The global COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on recruitment in the digital sector. According to the results of Numeum‘s “Grand angle ESN & ICT” barometer.
| Small businesses are the hardest hit, with a 62.5% drop in recruitment among VSEs.
Large companies are also affected, with a 21.2% drop in recruitment intentions, 34.7% for Mid-sized Enterprises and 32.7% for SMEs. One of the reasons for this shortage is that the number of talents available on the market is insufficient to meet IT services companies’demand. |
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The most sought-after digital skills include :
- Systems engineering, integration and deployment ;
- Information systems, software engineering, system architecture, data science ;
- Security, artificial intelligence, web technology.
(According to the barometer of digital professions 2021 – ITM)
This situation has led to the famous “war for talent” between IT services companies to attract and retain digital talent.
The particularities of IT services companie’s recruitment: hiring based on profile or assignment
In addition to the shortage of talent in the digital sector, there are the peculiarities of IT services companies’hiring. There are two types of recruitment in the sector. This is known as “profile hiring” or “mission hiring”.
Profile hiring in IT services companies
Hiring on profile by an IT services company means that the company relies on the experience and qualities of the future consultant to build up a pool of skills to sell to its customers.
From the candidate’s point of view, this means he’s not sure he’ll get an assignment right away, or even sure he’ll enjoy the future assignment. He must therefore trust the IT services company, and in particular the sales representative responsible for finding him an assignment.
As a result, the consultant may find himself in an inter-contract situation as soon as he is hired, or on an assignment that does not correspond to his professional aspirations.
Hiring on assignment in IT services companies
Hiring on assignment by an IT services company is more concrete for the candidate. He knows which project will benefit from his technical skills, and is therefore free to accept or refuse.
The problems he may encounter are more downstream from the project. Will the IT services company have other assignments to offer that “fit” with the consultant’s skills?
At the end of their assignment, consultants may also find themselves on an inter-contractual basis, if the IT services company is unable to sell their skills to its customers.
On the company’s side, it’s often only after the customer has agreed to the proposed profile that the company decides whether or not to hire the talent.
Is digitalization a solution to recruitment challenges of IT services companies?
For 81% of companies, digitalization is an advantage when recruiting digital talent, for a number of reasons.
On the one hand, this widens the geographic search area, and on the other, it enables us to recruit profiles with broader skills that match the needs of the IT services company’s customer. These are the findings of the “Grand angle ESN & ICT” study.
In addition, to attract and retain talent, IT services companies have implemented several initiatives:
- Employee training ;
- A company agreement that sets employees apart ;
- Mobility plans ;
- Other actions such as CSR, sponsorship, coaching, etc.
In other words, Digital Services Companies are focusing on quality of life at work.
Then there’s the employer brand, which helps offset the image deficit suffered by IT services companies.
Companies are encouraging their employees to become ambassadors for the company on social networks, in order to strengthen their HR communications.
