For leaders in IT organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to numerous challenges in their ability to train and upskill their IT talent. With in-person initiatives on pause and without the ability to send professionals to conferences or onsite trainings, many CIOs are left without effective options for employee development. Yet, job demand for people with tech skills is still on the rise despite the pandemic, which means investments in training are a critical component of a talent retention strategy.

Leading companies are starting to look beyond traditional online learning platforms and have started partnerships to create bespoke training programs. These programs can be designed to transform business users of today into tech talent of tomorrow, or they can be used to expand the skills and training of current IT professionals. Either way, it’s imperative for organizations to begin experimenting with new talent development models, especially when it comes to filling technical positions.

Finding Tech Talent Outside the IT Team

Whether they know it or not, nearly every company today is a technology company. Many organizations have training programs designed to introduce new skills to tech resources, but how many have corporate training programs robust enough to enable non-tech employees to transfer their skills into junior software developer, systems analyst, user support specialist, or quality assurance roles? The job market for software developers continues to grow much faster than other job areas, creating shortages. Therefore, more companies are looking for ways to transform existing talented and business-savvy employees to fill critical technology positions.

Motivating IT Talent with Training Opportunities

When it comes to selecting reskilling options, empowering employees with greater choice and aligning resources to employee interests and passions will help create a positive workplace culture and strengthen job satisfaction. A people-first approach during a crisis can help position your organization to attract top talent in the post-pandemic days to come. Additionally, different upskilling approaches have different outcomes and a comprehensive talent development program for the IT group will probably need to include different channels. While you may want to hire new skills into the team to fill highly specialized roles and challenge your team with new thinking or perspectives, a part-time training course could be a better options for upskilling talent in a complex industry where understanding of the business is harder to acquire than new tech skills.

Adding Software Development Skills to Support Digital Transformation

As organizations adjust to a new norm, technology has become the critical factor in continuing to move forward while implementing strategies for remote work. Companies across industries are making the change by employing technology tools to maintain productivity and community. While the IT organization is critical to enabling expected productivity rates, companies are also expecting the IT organization to drive the acceleration of digital transformation. Yet, the skills needed to support a digital enterprise may not be what you hired your team to do five, or even three years ago. The delta between current state and what’s truly needed is different for every organization. That is why organizations like Momentum Learning offer bespoke, custom, modular trainings as part-time offerings to help IT organizations transform their tech skills.

Another reason organizations turn to Momentum is that employee’s skills don’t evolve as fast as needed without help and support. Approximately 70% of employees report that they don’t have the mastery of the skills needed to do their jobs. Best-in-class IT organizations cannot afford to let down their organization right when their skills are valued most. New methods of upskilling your workforce are surfacing during the COVID-19 pandemic and it is important for CIOs to make sure to explore and test with the training options that can help them best achieve their business objectives and upskill IT talent.