Companies have long battled against pervasive IT skills gaps. Part of what makes the situation challenging is the ever-evolving nature of technology itself. Upskilling a workforce requires a shocking amount of agility, mainly because the target is continuously changing. The must-have skills of today don’t always reflect the needs of tomorrow, increasing the overall difficulty.
But that doesn’t mean the DevOps skills gap can’t be addressed. If your company needs to overcome it, here are some tips that can help.
Have the Right Tools Available
Companies can minimize the impact of skills gaps by implementing the right tools. With the proper solutions in place, the need for certain skills is diminished. This is especially true of systems that provide automation capabilities. With automation, the system can handle a range of tasks, taking them out of employees’ hands. This creates a situation where fewer team members need creation-related skills, closing the gap incidentally.
Additionally, with robust, user-friendly options, learning curves can also be lessened. As a result, existing employees can better adapt to new technologies, allowing them to overcome skill gaps with greater ease and simplifying upskilling efforts.
Cultivate a Learning Culture
With many companies adopting a remote-first mentality and having to adapt quickly to the changing circumstances created by the pandemic, many training initiatives fell by the wayside. While this may have been necessary for the short-term, reasserting it as a priority is necessary for addressing DevOps skills gaps.
By creating new training avenues and finding opportunities to encourage skill development, a company can cultivate a learning culture. Leaders need to proactively help employees find approaches for enhancing their capabilities and ensure those methods are highly accessible.
Often, this requires a direct investment from employers, allowing online courses to be free to workers. Additionally, creating space in work schedules for training is a must, giving employees a chance to participate without having to do so outside of work time.
Be Proactive
Covering skills gaps is often a reactionary process. Leaders identify emergent shortcomings in the workforce and attempt to shore them up while projects are underway, an approach that can lead to panicked decision making and heightened stress.
While a degree of anxiety will always come with addressing skills gaps, as they are clearly a worrisome obstacle, focusing on being proactive can make a difference. Leaders need to consider what the company’s long-term needs look like, giving them insights into the skills that are genuinely required within the workforce today and down the line. With this approach, efforts can be focused on skills that will provide the most value.
Then, employers can seek out alternatives for covering short-term skills gap-related needs. For example, they can find a temporary worker to assist with a project, allowing a gap to be covered for a critical interim. That creates a solution to the situation at hand without any unnecessary investment. As soon as the skill is no longer needed, the contingent hire can be released from the role. Plus, the company can focus its training efforts on long-term skills-oriented needs, ensuring they get the most value from those investments.
Ultimately, the tips above can help your company overcome DevOps skills gaps. If you’d like to learn more, the staff at The Squires Group can help. Contact us today.
