By: Aashna Puri
In June, I participated in a panel discussion at The Cloud, Content, and Telecoms (CCT) Summit in Dublin. The panel was part of the pre-event seminar and focused on ‘The Talent Crisis in the CCT Industry’. What took place was a lively and interesting discussion on the challenges our industry is facing when it comes to attracting and retaining talent - particularly the younger generations, Gen Z and Millennials. Here are some of my takeaways:
- Perception is Reality: What is the ICT industry? To be honest, when I think of that acronym, there is no visual that comes to mind. In fact, I had never thought of myself as working in “ICT” before. The panel moderator, Isabelle Paradis, described the sector to often be considered ‘muted, mundane and male’ and as such un-relatable to young people making career decisions. However, as a millennial woman of color, I find my job to be multifaceted, rewarding, and relatable. In an increasingly tech-enabled world, this industry drives forward change, growth, and transformation and is the heart of the global economy. It is filled with purpose. Evidently, there is a disconnect between the experience of working in our industry and the perception. We desperately need a rebranding effort to tell our story better.
- Change is here: As a show of hands, attendees were asked to indicate if they had worked in the industry for 5, 10, 20 years. At 30 years, there were still many hands raised. This industry skews toward the Baby Boomer and Gen X groups. A lot of the discussion reverted to how things were done “back in the day” as a reference to what worked well or what made the industry “fun” as a reference to creating loyalty. The question though is, does this resonate with skilled talent today? During one section of the panel discussion, Gen Z and Millennial attendees were invited to the stage to share their perspectives on what is required to address the talent shortage. As uncomfortable as that was, that is exactly what is required to create an open, collaborative, and inclusive culture. We need to become better listeners to understand what drives and motivates incoming professionals and craft a talent strategy accordingly.
- Nowhere and everywhere: The obvious question when faced with a shortage is where are you looking? The problems this industry is seeking to solve are varied and require diversity of thought in addressing them. We need environmentalists, policymakers, engineers, marketers, financers, researchers, and more to bring their best thinking so we can meet the needs of an increasingly interconnected world. There should be no one who cannot find a fit here. As such, the onus is on us as an industry to expand where we are looking for talent. We need to meet that inner-city kid early in their journey to educate them on what a future in digital infrastructure could look like so we can help them choose the right track. We need to evolve our interview filtering process towards people who demonstrate aptitude and attitude. And lastly, we need to recognize differences as a strength in building a robust and agile sector.
The skills shortage isn’t so much about a dearth of skilled people but rather a lack of awareness. To close the gap, new systems need to be laid so a path can be formed from the talented to us. It will not be easy to solve, but it is necessary work needed to ensure the future of our sector.
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