Tip 5
Target under-utilised recruitment pools
"Women, mature people and young people can provide rich recruitment pools. You may want to take advantage of the government funding opportunities that exist to help get people into IT work e.g. the New Deal and the Modern Apprenticeships."
Bill Thomas, Managing Director, EDS UK & Ireland
It is well known that there is a 'type' that has developed along with IT roles, a type that does not necessarily fit with the skill set that the sector needs. Perhaps the most striking example is the gender imbalance. The latest statistics show that this is actually getting worse, with men making up around 85% of employees in IT roles. The stereotype can be developed further, with statistics showing a greater representation of people in their 20's or 30's than other age ranges and a high number of people holding degree level qualifications. The fact is that, when you look at the type of people currently in IT roles, there is simply not the kind of diversity that one would expect to see in an industry that so desperately needs new recruits.
There are pools of potential talent out there that remain under-fished. Thousands of young undergraduate women provide the same kind of potential as their male counterparts, but are not necessarily on the same IT related degree courses, or even considering a career in the field. The chances are that they have a poor understanding of jobs in IT and a negative image that puts them off. If employers are to win these women over, they need to think differently. Currently IT recruitment advertising is not being seen by a female audience. A far greater proportion of men than women read IT magazines, take IT related courses and use recruitment web-sites - all the places that companies often target recruitment. Employers that have used female orientated media, like women's magazines and women orientated web-sites to advertise vacancies believe that they have attracted far more women applicants.
There is an interesting statistic that says that men only have to feel that they have about 50% of the advertised requirements in order to apply for a job, where as for women it is around 80%. For some reason, women are more likely to be put off by adverts that demand skills, experience and qualifications that they don't believe that they entirely meet. There is something else about this approach that is perceived as status orientated by women. Adverts and job specifications that focus on what the job is actually about, what it involves and what the recruit will need to achieve, have resulted in more applications from ambitious women who can see themselves making those things happen for that organisation.
Just a few years ago recruits almost always had previous experience in the profession, with the only real way in for new blood being to setting up your own business - not a problem in the times of the dot.com boom. Now the waters have calmed and fewer businesses are starting from scratch, re-cycling the existing talent does not provide a big enough recruitment pool. It follows that the practice has also become prohibitively expensive, with salaries spiraling and agency fees rising with them. The targeting of under-utilised recruitment pools has all the long-term benefits of greater diversity, plus the short-term benefits of lower salary expectations and government financial support for skills development.
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