If you are an employer, you are probably here because you face the same problems which lead us down this path. Due to the tech boom we are competing for talent like never before. We are struggling with employee housing availability and costs, prevailing salary requests, pivoting our businesses to pay those salaries, and perhaps more than anything finding quality talent with a skillset that aligns reasonably with our needs without excessive training. We feel you.
Talent acquisition costs vary from employer to employer, but the core cost centers are similar:
- Paid job postings
- Recruitment management software
- Candidate sorting and filtering
- Preliminary phone interviews
- In person interviews
- Team deliberation
- HR Onboarding
- Orientation
- Training
Many employers many not even track all of this time (which is money right?) and the cost is not trivial. If the employee doesn’t work out, you get to do it all over again.
From a skills perspective we have found that many applicants have only a portion of the experience we are looking for. This requires training at the expense of productivity, or they have exactly the skills we want at a very senior level beyond what we may need (or possibly afford). In our experience the best workers are often “generalists” within related disciplines, meaning their capability goes beyond a single specialty. Maybe that’s a IT engineer who also knows how to deploy code, or a front end developer who knows there way around backend coding as well. At the rate tech is advancing it is more difficult to keep a “specialist” busy on the job. To the degree this is true for your company is likely a function of size.
Apprenticeships are the future.
Obviously we believe that, and since 2016 there’s a big push at the federal level to build out tech Apprenticeships. Larger companies are perhaps better situated to operate an apprenticeship, and with that we feel comes a great responsibility. Sitting someone in the corner with occasional mentoring is not going to provide the desired outcome for apprentice or employer. Before you consider operating your own apprenticeship, consider the following:
- Have you ever run an internship, or otherwise trained an under-skilled employee?
- What was the lost revenue cost of having your staff train the employee?
- How comprehensive was the training?
- How successful were you at achieving an educational outcome?
- How quickly did the employee start generating revenue?
- How long did it take for you to get return on investment?
If your company is setup to effectively execute an apprenticeship, then welcome to the club! If not, this is where we can provide a lot of value. You might consider partnering with us, because we’re really good at this.
Our approach to training our employees is relatable to the way our parents taught us how to fix things, build stuff, and otherwise prepare us for adulthood. Our parents cared enough to take us under their wing and pass on their knowledge for the best possible outcome. We take the same thoughtful approach as we take apprentices “under our wing” in an attempt to clone ourselves.
Now ask yourself – what is the value to your company for a model employee with a strong skillset aligned with your needs, and familiarity with the similar tools and workflows you use? We’d like to hear from you.
Would you like to discuss your talent needs, partnership opportunities, and purchasing a seat at the recruitment table?
