How Industrials Can Compete for Tech Talent
04.27.22
By Phil Stanley, Senior Strategist
How Industrials Can Compete for Tech Talent
The competition for tech talent between industrials and tech has long favored companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and other tech behemoths. These companies, founded by software developers, have championed tech culture, and built global enterprises around it.
With many industrial and manufacturing companies founded long before tech jobs were in existence, many have struggled to overcome the cultural and structural barriers to tech recruitment and retention. Until recently, they lacked a developer-friendly environment that Silicon Valley giants were founded on, fostering creativity, innovation, and success by trial and error. Instead, tech talent was often overlooked as a vital contributor to success.
Today’s market conditions are forcing industrials to adopt a new strategy. A study by McKinsey & Co. discusses how all companies are now in the software development business. Non-tech companies like Goldman Sachs have made the transition reporting 25% of its workforce are developers, while the retail sector reports tech as its fastest growing job category.
In addition, “The Great Resignation” has brought fluidity to the labor market, offering industrial brands an unprecedented opportunity to recruit top talent as 72% of tech workers are considering leaving their jobs. Beyond salary and benefits, the evolved tech worker feels they have no future at their current company. Millennials and Generation Z are driving employers to address these demands with an emphasis on community, world impact, job flexibility and mental health support (Millennials and Generation Z are twice as likely to have a mental health crisis than older generations).
The tech talent force wants more from work; they’re looking for job satisfaction, work/life balance, and a good cultural fit. Above all, they want to know that they matter. To overcome the cultural and structural barriers to recruiting and retaining developers, industrial brands need an over-arching engagement and communications strategy that completely rethinks the employee experience to include a more developer-friendly culture:
1. Communicate differentiated value to the tech worker talent force – Industrials must communicate that they’ve evolved. They must talk about their vision in a digitally transformed world and reinforce that they have the business technology and cultural environments in place.
2. Foster a stronger tech worker community – A company’s best brand ambassadors are its own employees. The ripple effect impacts external perceptions of a company’s commitment to technology, making it more attractive to developers. This shift includes providing the appropriate tools, a deeper understanding of product development, and creating a psychologically safe environment for developers by removing the fear of failure.
3. Personalize the digital needs of workers – Executives need an accurate understanding of how employees use technology in their jobs. 90% of C-suite executives believe their companies pay attention to employee needs surrounding technology, yet only 53% of employees agree. From device optimization to application selection, employees seek options that help them work at their best. Ask workers what they want and need from technology – 73% of people surveyed say they know of systems that would help them produce higher quality work.
4. Personalize the developer’s work experience – Developers and other tech talent increasingly want more opportunities for education and training in soft skills. Far too often, tech workers are seen as code writers, uninterested in broadening their interpersonal skills. Offer varied training curricula that enables tech talent to strengthen their communication, creative, and leadership skills.
5. Provide developers with a role in employee engagement – Industrials are increasingly utilizing gamification to train and educate their employees. This is an opportunity for developers to be the in-house talent, implementing and managing these solutions as part of the team. An employee’s experience carries impact across the organization, shaping everything from how engaged people are, to their enthusiasm for delivering a strong customer experience. Inserting tech talent squarely into initiatives that impact the employee experience will drive a halo effect to the entire organization.
Industrial brands have an opportunity to capitalize if they can meet the evolved needs of tech workers. Brands looking to make real business change must address this holistically; c-suite, marketing, human resources, and communications teams must work together to collectively shift the company culture and environment.
It can be tough for brands to evaluate their business simply due to proximity. Brands entrust InVision as the conduit between leadership and employees - helping them to better understand their challenges and deliver employee engagement programs built on a clear understanding of today’s diverse workforce needs.
Reach out to phil.stanley@iv.com to learn how InVision can help clarify your workforce objectives, personify your employee needs, and meaningfully reach them to earn and retain top talent today.