Engaging tech talent through career agility

Authored by Joan Goodwin, Manu Rawat, and Leonard Dubovoy

Career agility can help organizations create differentiated value proposition for tech talent

85% of global chief executive officers (CEOs) have accelerated digital transformation efforts since 2020, with spending projected to comparatively double in 2024.¹ While these efforts are often enterprise-wide —involving departments such as human resources, finance, or supply chain to deliver on the strategic transformation—they all involve technology and tech talent. As such, information technology (IT) teams are called to maintain routine operations—while navigating the complexities of an expanded, tech-driven future. This increases reliance on both advanced technology and the professionals needed for its realization.

With software development jobs projected to grow by 25% over the next decade¹ and demand exceeding the supply at least until 2026², an increasingly persistent problem will be delivering on the strategic vision of technology transformation with talent that’s hard to find and retain. Recent surveys show that only 33% of IT employees have a high intent to stay in their organizations vs. 41% of non-IT employees.³ Organizations face immense pressure and hypercompetition in all industries to attract and engage top IT talent.

Career agility: A differentiator of your IT employer brand

With turbulent global markets and fierce competition in a post-COVID-19 pandemic world, the pace of change is accelerating. The result is a paradigm shift where employees wield unprecedented influence over the choice of employers and the nature of work. This heightened worker agency can be attributed to factors such as rising social consciousness, motivation for purposeful work, and technological advances—allowing value creation “anywhere, anytime,” especially in the tech sector.⁴ Employers are unsure of how to best source and retain tech talent, especially when employees go as far as sacrificing job security for values, as shown in the Deloitte Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, where a third of respondents indicated they would leave their job without another one lined up.⁵

Tech employees cite career growth and development opportunities among their top-valued attributes in an organization but rank them among the lowest in terms of satisfaction.⁶ Vertical, ladder-based career paths can be restrictive for growth and expansion of ever-evolving technical skills.

Here are three strategies for organizations to use career framework components—such as skills and developmental experiences and internal talent marketplaces—to source top tech talent.

1. Think farming, not hunting. Focus on skills.
   Enterprises that strategically invest in cutting-edge technology while prioritizing the development of their talent workforce, poise themselves for sustained competitiveness. An integral approach to workforce development involves strategic skilling, upskilling, and reskilling initiatives—cultivating tech talent organically over external sources.
   
   With 81% of executives saying that work is increasingly performed across functional boundaries, and 63% of workers performing work outside their current job descriptions, the idea of a “job” is no longer relevant when matching talent to opportunities.⁷ Instead, organizations should strategically focus on a skills-based approach to develop talent, placing employees effectively internally across digital or technology transformation initiatives and worrying less about headhunting.
   
   To start, focus on a skill-based tech talent strategy. Examine your organization's technology enabled business strategy for pain points and opportunities with an eye for what future skills are needed, critical and foundational.⁸ Collect and analyze data on what skills your employees possess, regardless of whether the skill is needed for the job, and create a robust skills framework as a basis for developing a talent inventory. A clear skill framework gives workers transparency on the skills valued in the organization. Combining this with additional data points, such as individual values and interests, helps workers link their developmental aspirations to the organization’s strategy—motivating them to invest in their own upskilling.
2. Fish in blue oceans. Internally source tech talent.
   As an adjunct to skilling strategies, enterprises must contemplate diversifying internal candidate pools to source tech talent. Through a robust skills framework emphasizing transferable skills across tech and non-tech talent, organizations can significantly enlarge the internal candidate pool. As gaps are assessed in current employees, organizations should design talent upskilling programs, creating an internal tech talent ecosystem.
   
   Imagine the value of applicants with strong leadership and problem-solving skills (the top two non-technical skills critical to team success)⁹ plus a programming background that in the span of a few months, could build their skills in machine learning to be competitive for critical artificial intelligence (AI) positions that a majority of organizations are struggling to fill. Such an approach not only benefits performance, but promotes workplace diversity and equity by democratizing access to opportunities which normally relied on traditional hiring approaches, such as degrees. Building an internal talent marketplace can help organizations source internal tech talent by matching skills.¹⁰
   
   When strategically sourcing internal tech talent, organizations can optimize the workforce ecosystem by eliminating conventional employment distinctions that might otherwise impede the talent acquisition process.¹¹ Contemporary careers no longer adhere to rigid vertical or lateral growth trajectories. Individuals now seek opportunities within an internal talent marketplace, and their past experiences often contribute to skill sets that may not be immediately apparent in their current roles, rendering these capabilities latent or “invisible.” Failing to leverage internal talent due to inflexible job descriptions risks overlooking candidates capable of propelling stagnant projects, introducing innovative ideas, and expanding access to a network of individuals with similar skills.
3. Don’t lose your catch. Create a growth focused and engaging environment.
   With growth and learning opportunities ranked as the most important factor in driving a great work culture, facilitating developmental opportunities becomes critical for organizations in sourcing and retaining tech talent. By creating a career growth culture,¹ where individuals can flexibly pursue different pathways to success—such as a specialized individual contributor role over a traditional managerial role—organizations help individuals stay true to their interests while meeting workforce needs.
   
   The key is clearly communicating to workers how pursuing new opportunities will affect them. For example, this could mean outlining expectations around a technical subject matter expert (SME) role track vs. a more traditional manager track—sharing performance and clear progression expectations for both. By doing this, employees can weigh the pros and cons of each role and select the one that resonates. They’ll be more engaged, purpose-led, and not feel misled. This creates value for the employer–employee relationship and enables a culture where individuals can feel confident about the type of training they pursue now and into the future.
   
   The talent marketplace can also serve as a conduit for exposing professionals to new learning opportunities and roles they might not have previously considered. This includes tying learning content suggestions to a certain career pathway, or providing insights into data that could improve performance and productivity.¹² Employing tools such as a talent marketplace and embracing transparency is a pivotal measure for cultural reform initiatives in organizations. It makes career growth a tangible reality and fosters an environment for meaningful change.

Trust: A key enabler for an agile workforce

Allowing employees to move across functional areas (powered by skills) is vital in a career agility strategy. But enabling a culture of continuous learning and growth requires trust between leaders and employees many organizations fail to achieve. Now is an especially crucial time as many organizations are experiencing layoffs which are known to erode trust¹³ and make employees apprehensive around exploring new career paths and skills outside their “comfort zone.”

Ensuring employees are aware that efforts invested in developing high-value skills make them eligible for internal roles is crucial. This fosters motivation for reskilling and upskilling, reinforcing the organization's commitment to empower individuals in their careers—even amid economic uncertainty.

Maximizing these strategies

Just as a sports team can score more points with certain high-performing players, it may be the case that creating a winning team of IT talent follows the same premise. Per a recent MIT Sloan Management Review article, focusing on top tech talent will reduce costs by 30% without reducing current performance or productivity.¹⁴

Employing a skills-based methodology for sourcing, developing, and engaging top tech talent lets organizations prioritize individuals with expertise in areas conducive to the organization's growth, whether within a specific industry or advanced tech like AI, or aligned with organizational culture and values. Leveraging transferrable skills and transcending employment distinctions taps into previously unused resources. Cultivating an environment where workers’ interests align with their roles ensures long term commitment and engagement.

The evolution of workers' agencies has reshaped career dynamics, impacting individual role choices and organizational approaches to talent development. In the tech sector—at the forefront of workplace transformations—talent is experiencing the profound effects of career democratization. By tapping into career agility, organizations can craft a tech talent strategy that elevates their IT brand value and builds deeper employer-employee relationships.

Authors

• Joan Goodwin
• Manu Rawat
• Leonard Dubovoy

Contributors

• Ying Wang

Endnotes

¹ Michael Bechtel and Bill Briggs, “From DevOps to DevEx: Empowering the engineering experience,” Deloitte Insights, December 6, 2023.
² Burkhard Boeckem, "Three Lessons About Recruiting and Retaining Talent," Forbes, March 15, 2024.
³ Gabrile Vogel and Lily Mok, “CIOs Must Reinvent Their IT Employment Value Proposition to Compete for Top Talent,” Gartner, January 6, 2023.
⁴  Sue Cantrell et al.,  “Harnessing worker agency,” Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023.
⁵ Deloitte, The Deloitte Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey, 2022.
⁶ Gabriela Vogel, Lily Mok, and Lee-Anne Vallee, “CIOs Must Reinvent Their IT Employment Value Proposition to Compete for Top Talent,” Gartner, October 12, 2021.
⁷ Sue Cantrell et al., “Navigating the end of jobs,” Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023.
⁸  Sue Cantrell, Jonathan Pearce, and Michael Griffiths, “Skills: The new workforce operating system,” Deloitte, October 21, 2021.
⁹  Lou DiLorenzo Jr., Anjali Shaikh, and Khalid Kark, “2023 Global Technology Leadership Study,” Deloitte, 2023.
¹⁰ Ina Gantcheva et al., “Activating the internal talent marketplace,” Deloitte Insights, September 18, 2020.
¹¹ Sue Cantrell et al., “Unlocking the workforce ecosystem,” Deloitte Insights, January 9, 2023.
¹² Mackenzie Wilson et al., ”Internal mobility and talent marketplace solutions: Market primer,” Deloitte, 2020.
¹³ Punit Renjen and Sandra Sucher, “Building organizational trust—and making it tangible, measurable, and actionable,” Deloitte Insights, September 16, 2022.
¹⁴ Peter Jacobs et al., “It's time to reset the IT talent model,” MIT Sloan Management Review, March 5, 2020.