HR across sectors
6 Biggest HR Challenges in the Tech Industry
Nirvi B
March 20, 2024
5
mins
Today's tech industry is interwoven in practically every element of the global economy. The industry as a whole faces a number of significant human resource difficulties in spite of the far-reaching ramifications of continual technological advancements. There are a few HR challenges in the tech industry that companies can't afford to overlook.
Any company's backbone is built on a solid human resources foundation, but HR technology in IT industry is especially important. From new tech startups to blue-chip technology firms, tech industry is almost certain to grow in the future.
What kind of hurdles can an industry this advanced possibly face?
Top HR challenges in the tech industry:
1. Dealing with the sequel of employee burnout
The old saying “work is not your life” is becoming harder and harder to believe. It is especially true for those who work in the tech industry.
What’s the problem?
Employee burnout in the workplace is on the rise and it appears to be common among the HR challenges in the tech industry. ‘Hustle culture' and (unrealistic) high outputs are usually encouraged here. This could be attributed to an entrepreneurial mentality and constant advancement of technology, a need to have things done instantly. All this comes with consequences: Working hours are increased. Poor leadership, unclear direction, work overload and a toxic work culture are also among the industry's top stressors as showing in this HR in tech companies statistics:
The solution:
Dr. Alex Lovell of the O.C. Tanner Institute mentions a couple of levers to help employees reduce burnout.
- Leaders who hold (bi)weekly one-on-one meetings with their employees to discuss mental health and holistic wellbeing reduce moderate to severe burnout by 38%.
- Learning how each employee contributes to the organization's overarching purpose leads to increased engagement and a 48% reduction in feeling burned out.
According to Lovell, now is also the moment to acknowledge employees working for the job they do on a daily basis.
HCM system can make a difference
Take for instance: when an employee is absent, it is unavoidable that work be reassigned to other team members. With a Human Capital Management (HCM) system in place, management teams can readily allocate tasks and manage employee overtime whenever necessary
Every business will face stress in this area at some point, but it should be the exception rather than the rule. Employees will be less stressed and more productive if their work schedule is predictable.
2. The hunt for qualified candidates: Prevalence of talent war
What’s the problem?
There’s more day to day rivalry for talent today than ever before. In spite of rising unemployment rates, finding technically qualified candidates is becoming increasingly difficult. Google, for example, increased software engineer hiring by 12% in 2020. Even after increased hiring, 41% of IT hiring managers think sourcing tech talent is growing more difficult each year.
Also read : Talent management is dead; Long live employee experience
A fact: Alternative career paths for people in tech are rapidly expanding. Companies from every other industry want to hire ‘the tech guy’ to digitise their workplace systems and procedures. Meaning, recruiting in the tech industry will face more difficulties because tech employees won’t just be limited to jobs in the IT sector.
The solution:
Anyone whose sourcing candidates has a million balls in the air at the same time. Managing all of that activity in spreadsheets and documents can rapidly become overwhelming, but that's exactly what most recruiters have had to do up until now. Using the right recruiting tools, like peopleHum, may help you streamline your recruiting process, organise your strategy, and find the top applicants faster.
3. Managing remote onboarding process
What’s the problem?
The demand for talented employees has necessitated tech organisations to quickly hire and onboard new employees. To do so successfully, HR challenges in the tech industry require a streamlined, remote work supports remote onboarding procedure to tackle the large number of manual chores that they encounter on a daily basis.
The solution:
A great remote onboarding experience while employees are working from home is the one in which, neither the new hire, nor the HR professional is confronted with perplexing department visits or stacks of paper documentation. It makes all the difference if you have a modern cloud based HR software that allows you to issue digital offer letters, collect e-signatures, and automate onboarding activities.
4. Curbing with employee turnover and retention rates
What’s the problem?
HR challenges in IT industry have a fairly high employee turnover rate of 18.3% worldwide. Many HR in tech companies have begun to investigate the influence of personality type on long-term retention. More and more organisations are looking for workplace solutions that go beyond a "one size fits all" strategy to better address employee demands.
The solution:
Employee recognition and engagement are the two main pillars to combat both, turnover and retention. An employee engagement software allows firms to keep a finger on the pulse of their organisation, letting them decide which managers require additional training, which teams are at higher risk of leaving, and how important objectives are being reached. The software makes the appreciation practice simple and convenient by adding recognition tools.
Most employee engagement solutions allow you to communicate milestones and company news across the organisation via enjoyable social posts. You may also use these platforms to hand out awards and badges as well as mark birthdays and work anniversaries.
5. Learning and development (L&D) management
What’s the problem?
“The problem with Tech hiring,” says Dheeraj Jain on LinkedIn, “is that everyone wants to hire the same Top 5% talent, while the majority of 95% IT employees continue to be grossly underpaid due to absolute lack of quality training and skills.”
He further adds that even for yesterday's professions, the quality of education provided by engineering colleges is outmoded and useless, let alone for tomorrow's jobs. “While we may boast of large number of engineers, there's hardly any talent or training in the graduates we are churning,” adds Mr. Jain.
“The majority needs an education ecosystem for IT education that we simply never talk about.”
Also read : The importance of training and development in the workplace
The solution:
Technology and human resource management has derived yet another fruit i.e., learning and development system. These are used to fully eliminate training costs like online site rents, printed eLearning materials, accommodation and travel for employees, etc. Since employees can complete their training online with a L&D system, companies can save a significant amount of money. For example, you won't have to bother about printing 500 manuals or arranging a hotel room for your course instructor because the information that your online learners require is all available in a cost effective L&D system.
6. Encouraging women’s participation in the industry
What’s the problem?
In an industry that prides itself on breaking barriers, the gender discrepancy slaps as a contradiction. While men and women at tech companies begin their careers at the same age, women's career progression is slower, as per a NASSCOM report. It also revealed a higher number of women at lower career levels in the IT industry, as well as fewer women in top-level positions. This has become one of the major HR challenges in the IT industry.
The solution:
The first step toward bridging the gender gap is to hire women. Another among the HR challenges in the tech industry is to encourage and support your female staff. For instance, make no assumptions about what a woman's job will entail or what breaks she will take if she has children. Make sure you provide the same benefit of the doubt to the women on your team as you do to the men. Evidently, women are offered less opportunities in this field, therefore it's time to level the playing field.
