One thing we recognize at Generation is that talent is everywhere, but opportunity isn’t. But what are the main barriers to connecting local talent with hiring employers? And what can you be doing within the tech sector to address those barriers?
I’ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Often the issue is a skills gap, not a talent gap. People have the pre-requisite qualities to be successful in an industry but lack the bespoke skills that might be tailored to a specific role or area of tech. And that’s OK! If an employee or candidate for a role is motivated and passionate about the work and the opportunities available, employers can channel this energy into something hugely productive; just by supporting those individuals’ upskilling journeys. Passion and drive are the real catalysts in this scenario, and those things aren’t really something you can teach. Working with employees to explore areas they can upskill is one way to address the skills gap, but it can also be built into your entire recruitment process. Getting support from external organisations (and not just universities!) to access home-grown recently upskilled talent into entry-level roles gives the opportunity for new starters to hit the ground running.
It might seem reductive, but the way you format your employment opportunities and communicate the realities of the role online will have a major impact on the types of people you reach. If it’s entry level, do you really need 1-2 years’ experience in a similar role? And have you made it clear you are still willing to interview those without experience but with transferrable skills in other areas? Similarly, the language used in a job specification and the exhaustive ‘essential requirements’ lists are some of the biggest barriers in connecting local talent with hiring organisations. If every skill was essential, you’re basically asking for someone with CEO capacity in a junior role, so consider prioritizing the bottom-line requirements. Are you still using CVs as the only metric for assessing an applicant’s suitability? CVs are important, but a 5-minute zoom or in-person chat can tell you so much more about a candidate and their readiness for a role. A large national tech organisation who are partners with Generation UK & Ireland once commented that their recent hire would never have succeeded based on the experience on their CV alone, but the candidate’s passion and dedication shone through in the interview, and they secured the role. Some food for thought!
It almost goes without saying that childcare can be one of the most prohibitive parts of a person’s employment journey. According to the National Childbirth Trust, the average cost of childcare in the UK for children under two years old is £138 per week (part-time) or £263 per week (full-time). The weekly average cost of an after-school club is £62.13, and the weekly average cost of a childminder is £71.06. I’ve seen the barrier this creates first-hand when supporting numerous Generation Leeds learners with their childcare support claims, as we are able to provide additional financial support whilst parents’ study. The sky-high cost of childcare combined with the difficulty in finding a local provider with availability and flexibility is a massive blocker for talent. And what about school holidays? What happens when the child gets sent home poorly and must remain at home for 3 days?
The financial challenge is overwhelming, and it frequently seems that the anxiety induced by these additional types of situations that can occur while you’re working, rest with women. The responsibility for adapting and picking up the stress falls to mum, or the primary caregiver. Arguably this has a knock-on effect on the time available for these employees to pursue personal and professional development options and access opportunities that others can take full advantage of. Which in turn can be a major contributing factor in the overall underrepresentation of women in tech/digital roles. Employers have a responsibility to ensure all employees are supported throughout the realities of being a parent. First and foremost, industry leaders need to recognize that company culture doesn’t exist in a vacuum; people have full and varied lives outside their roles that can sometimes have an impact on the day-to-day. But if you create an environment that is flexible and allows employees the space to balance their personal and their work life, you’ll begin to see the rewards in productivity, staff retention and overall employee satisfaction.
In my experience there can sometimes be a level of anxiety in exploring employment opportunities outside of familiar postcodes and community areas. This poor confidence is often compounded by lack of access to a car to make commuting easier, or a concern about the cost and reliability of public transport, or personal safety. Imagine you have struggled to find opportunities that align with your circumstances, and struggled even further to secure interviews for the ones you did find. It can be easy to become almost myopic about your prospects.
At Generation we recently developed a platform to address this as part of the No Code Hackathon that took place during the Climb23 Festival in Leeds. Our goal was to enhance the support for our graduates in connecting them to our employer partners, and we found that by creating a visual map locating graduates’ homes alongside the local employer partners (with a function to detail the public transport options available to facilitate their commute) we can now offer a clearer picture and provide more reassurance. Watch this space!
When applying for entry-level tech roles specifically, a lack of experience in the sector can feel like an insurmountable barrier for many people. If you come from a low-socio economic background and your employment experience has been limited to hospitality or domestic support roles for example, it can be so easy for imposter syndrome to kick in. ‘There are jobs, but not for people like me’. This is why role models are so significant within a workplace, to represent and hold space for others to recognize is available to them if they want it. Again, this mostly hinders applicants from underrepresented groups, and in turn contributes to a lack of diversity of thought within an organisation. If you find yourself reading this as a person who is also an example of an underrepresented group within your workplace, make yourself known. If you can, get involved with recruitment and hiring panels. If you’ve ever been in the position of feeling unwelcome, you’ll know the relief of seeing someone who looks like you, talks like you, represents you, on a hiring panel. So, drop the ladder for those coming up behind you, and make sure their way to the top is lit up by the welcome you offer.
If you’d like to find out more about Generation, our employer partners, graduates, or staff, we’d love you to join us for an informal gathering at Platform One Roof Terrace. The event takes place on Tuesday 4 July 4.30 – 6.30pm, find out more or book your free place here.