As companies compete to find employees, some are attracting the best talent with tech. But the best employees want to work for the best companies. Having a solid reputation and history of treating employees right is important. But technology is also key to attracting an innovative talent pool of candidates. But before you try to hook quality employees, you should look in the mirror to see your company stands with technology. Hint: check your company culture. If you’ve been doing business the same way for quite some time, you may be sending out the wrong message. Updating your business to be more innovative is the beginning of attracting the best talent with tech.
What research tells us
Research tells us that employees want to work for companies who have invested in technology. In one recent Deloitte survey, 76 percent of respondents felt that working for an organization that is “digitally enabled” is very important or extremely important.
At the same time, the pool of talent who’s out looking for their next job has shrunk. According to a National Federation of Independent Business October 2018 survey, 38 percent of small companies were not able to fill open positions. In addition, 60 percent of small company owners reported hiring or trying to hire to fill positions “with 88 percent reporting few or no qualified applicants.” This percentage hit a record high compared to data going back to 1973.
And millennials are creating a bigger challenge for businesses of all sizes. They were more likely to change jobs than non-millennials and Gallup estimates this costs the U.S. over $30 billion annually. And there’s a growing movement to work as an independent worker or freelancer. Many of these workers are part of the tech industry.
Some companies still in the technology dark ages
Surprisingly, there are still quite a few small to midsized companies that are not incorporating the right technology to make a difference. In fact, you might say that some of them are still in the technology dark ages. Shuffling paperwork, for example, is one of the most common issues. Administrative and office functions like payroll and accounts payable prove to be the most troublesome for mid-market growth. And the issue is “not having the right systems in place,” if any system at all. This leads to disjointed, unconnected processes created by employees. Unfortunately, this scenario is a ticking time bomb that increases the risk of error and inconsistencies on the job. Bottom line, operating inefficiently will not attract employees.
On-the-job tech skills?
And while attracting the best talent with tech will help grow your business. It’s just as important to remember to invest in the training that goes with it. By training your employees, you are investing in them and this is a win-win for businesses and employees. In fact, on a University of Pennsylvania study, when 10% of business revenue was invested in their employees, productivity increased 8.5%. Worth it when you consider that when the same amount is invested in capital improvements, businesses only saw productivity increase 3.9%.
Employees know that staying on top of emerging trends in technology is important. But a recent Randstad survey reported that over one-third failed to develop these new skills within the last 12 months. But the responsibility to keep skills up-to-date shouldn’t lie solely with employees. Employers need to step up and contribute to upgrading employees’ skills if they want to keep them around. And while there are lots of training options out there, employers are always not taking advantage of them. Developing technologies themselves can play a role in training employees. Virtual training, machine learning, and augmented reality can make training engaging for all employees and replace thick, boring training manuals.
Make technology part of your strategy
So, attracting the best talent with tech can take many forms for a company and its employees. It can mean revamping your business processes to include technology solutions to replace manual ones. Or, it can represent a solid enterprise-wide EAS software solution to build a future for you and your employees. Maybe it’s integrating new technology into existing programs to update your existing operations. In any event, if you’re looking to attract and keep top-notch employees, technology will more than likely need to play a key role.
Let Bitbean move your business forward with custom software that will help you increase productivity by attracting the best talent with tech. Contact us today.
