A regular refrain in industries and businesses of all sizes and focuses is that it’s hard to land and keep top tech talent. However, leaders may discover there’s a solution right in front of them: sourcing new tech team members from existing staff throughout the company. Professionals of all stripes who work with technology every day often become intrigued by it; they may even start thinking about—and asking about—a career switch.
While you’ll always need a core group of educated and experienced tech pros, tapping into the enthusiasm of employees who’ve become excited about tech and who already understand your company’s products and services, mission, and processes could be a very smart strategy. Below, 20 members of Forbes Technology Council share their tips to help business leaders begin to build and cultivate a reliable and effective internal tech talent pipeline.
1. Foster A Learning Culture
Cultivating tech talent from within can be done by fostering a learning culture, providing regular feedback, offering growth opportunities, establishing mentorship programs and ensuring clear career paths. Offering rotational roles, recognizing achievements, promoting inclusivity, investing in training and facilitating both internal engagement and external networking are also crucial. – Frank Chan, Medtronic
2. Provide Structured Time For Personal Growth
We need to enable talented individuals to develop a depth of expertise that allows them to have a profound impact on the company mission and purpose that they believe in. Companies can do this by facilitating structured time outside of day-to-day tasks for employees to focus on their growth, including mentorship programs, training programs and role rotations. – Mahesh Saptharishi, Motorola Solutions
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3. Invest In Development And Innovation
Business and tech leaders should invest in continuous learning and development programs designed to upskill existing employees, encouraging them to adapt to evolving technology landscapes. Create a collaborative environment where employees can work on innovative projects, and nurture a culture of growth and innovation to retain talent and attract new, skilled professionals. – Indiana (Indy) Gregg, Wedo
4. Cultivate Clear Promotion Criteria And A Psychologically Safe Environment
Business and tech leaders should prioritize creating a culture of continuous learning, ensuring equal opportunities for job rotations. It’s essential to cultivate a psychologically safe environment where teams can reflect on and learn from their mistakes. Additionally, transparent internal certification programs with well-defined promotion criteria can further promote fairness and in-house growth. – Hassan Abbas, Ericsson
5. Build Robust Entry-Level Training Programs
When considering an in-house tech talent pipeline, don’t limit your approach to the top industry performers. Start from the bottom up and build out robust entry-level training programs. Partnering with a certification provider can also be a first step in generating a pipeline. Companies need to recognize that they’re training the next generation of leaders and put in the resources to match. – Raghu Bongula, ConnectWise
6. Develop Career Progression Processes And Policies
Have formal enterprisewide processes and policies in place for the career progression of team members, even if that means a step sideways into a business team. The worst thing you can have is team members hitting a career ceiling with the only option being to move on to another company to get ahead. – Gladwin Mendez, Simplyai
7. Don’t Say ‘No’
Nothing kills passion like dismissing a budding engineer’s suggestions and ideas. Even if you have no budget, no time and no business reason to follow through with the ideas, features or technologies being suggested, simply acknowledging their value and allocating some time for them to be pursued will cultivate your talent and build loyalty. – Garrett Fritz, Swenson He
8. Establish Internship And Apprenticeship Programs
Along with the regular programs for students and early-career individuals, establishing internal internship and apprenticeship programs for career changers is the way to go. Upskilling and reskilling are the new norm in 2023 and beyond. Supporting this new type of internal career mover helps nurture and develop a pool of skilled talent that’s already tailored to the company’s specific needs and culture. – Sergio Tang, Space AG Global
9. Provide Opportunities To Try Out Various Options
There are several important things. Have a well-defined career progression framework, as well as individual development plans to support and grow each employee through the levels of the company. Further, provide opportunities to try out various career options for both horizontal and vertical growth, including shadowing, secondment and pair programming. Create a diverse and inclusive culture where people from different backgrounds can shine. – Simana Paul, SumUp
10. Encourage Self-Training
Establish mentorship, learning and development opportunities. Encourage self-training by providing in-person or online courses, and build an internal community to share resources and research papers. Allow time for side projects, such as hackathon-type events, to help promote and demonstrate in-house talent capabilities and broaden a team member’s idea of what they might be able to achieve. – Raj Neervannan, AlphaSense, Inc.
11. Have Experienced Team Members Guide Newer Ones
To build a strong tech team from within the company, leaders should set up mentoring and coaching programs where experienced team members help and guide newer ones. This way, everyone learns and grows together, making the team stronger and ready to take on bigger challenges in the future. – Ravi Tenneti, Olive AI
12. Look For Unique Knowledge And Talents At Onboarding
Management should actively be directed to engage in mentorship with individuals who have been identified at hiring as having unique educational or experience backgrounds. Often, these high-potential attributes become overshadowed post-onboarding. By fostering these talents, companies can tap into often-overlooked in-house expertise and potential. This also lends to higher rates of talent retention. – Rob Tillman, Copy Chief©
13. Form Strategic Partnerships With Nearshore Development Teams
One effective way for business and tech leaders to build and support an in-house tech talent pipeline is by forming strategic partnerships with reliable nearshore development teams. These partnerships should emphasize best engineering practices, maintainability, quality and security standards, thereby supplementing the internal talent pool with valuable expertise. – Sebastian Avila, Novatech
14. Make Employees Ambassadors Of A Growth Culture
Make employees “fall in love” with a company culture that promotes opportunities for learning and growth and provides meaningful rewards. Make employees the ambassadors of such a culture—they will bring in more people to develop the talent pipeline. Make employees responsible for contextual learning and development while the company builds the core learning required to meet standards. – Spiros Liolis, EYP Mission Critical Facilities, Part of Ramboll
15. Demonstrate That You Value Hungry, Humble And Smart Team Members
Tech leaders can build and support an in-house talent pipeline by fostering a culture that values hungry (ambitious), humble (collaborative) and smart (emotionally intelligent) individuals. Additionally, nurture skill development and provide growth opportunities. – Dr. Vivek Bhandari, Powerledger
16. Let Employees Live ‘A Day In The Life’ Of Someone In Another Role
Consider your teammates’ evolving interests and support internal career switches. Occasionally, we allow our employees to live “a day in the life” of a person in a different role. This way, they can see whether a career change is worth pursuing or might be a bad idea for them (which will make them feel happier where they are). If they need to switch careers to regain motivation and joy in their work, let them. – Konstantin Klyagin, Redwerk
17. Explore Reverse Mentoring
Tech leaders can build an in-house tech talent pipeline by implementing a reverse mentoring program. Pioneered by Jack Welch, reverse mentoring pairs tenured employees with newer employees for mutual knowledge sharing. While tenured employees mentor newer employees on organizational culture and leadership competencies, newer employees can share knowledge of tech trends that veterans are unfamiliar with. – Justin Goldston, Environmental Resources Management – ERM
18. Establish ‘Innovation Labs’
Tech leaders can foster in-house talent by establishing “innovation labs,” catalyzing creativity and skill discovery. These labs act as incubators for fresh ideas, allowing employees to collaborate on passion projects, experiment with emerging technologies and take calculated risks. By enabling these labs, leaders encourage a culture of creativity and problem solving and unearth and develop latent talents. – Amitkumar Shrivastava, Fujitsu
19. Implement Tailored Micro-Learning Modules
Implement micro-learning modules tailored to the company’s specific tech needs. These bite-sized, self-paced lessons can cover emerging technologies, coding languages or industry-specific tools. Employees can access these modules on demand, fostering continuous skill development and keeping the talent pipeline updated with relevant expertise. – Jagadish Gokavarapu, Wissen Infotech
20. Gamify The Learning Process
The secret sauce? Gamify the learning process. Initiate tech challenges and hackathons regularly within the company. Not only does it spark innovation, but it also spots internal tech talent who might be underutilized. Those who shine get accelerated training and mentorship. It’s fun, keeps everyone on their toes and fosters a culture of continuous learning. Plus, who doesn’t love a challenge? – Andres Zunino, ZirconTech
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