(Lots of) Help Wanted

Many of us have been writing for months about predictions of a talent shortage. This is not one of those "I told you so" scenarios—this is my own sounding of a (very) loud bullhorn to let you know this ship is now sailing. Cover your ears! The shortage is no longer a myth-it's very real and it's finally here. And in spades! A recent glance at a few HCIT job boards and my eyes could not believe the number of openings for implementation, help desk, deployment teams and so forth. Incredible! Several of the ads I scanned had 15-20+ open positions in a single facility. Others had even more. Let's face it HCIT is still largely a cottage industry and the talent pool is just not readily available. Maybe one day—but we are not there yet. Not even close. I really believe that CIO's will have to get very creative in the way candidates are profiled, screened and (yes) trained for skills they don't have today to fill the void. There are simply not enough people. period. The math doesn't work. It requires an investmnent and a new way (mindset) for hiring talent. While that in itself is a bit scary—those doing little to NOTHING is even worse! I get calls all of the time from great highly skilled candidates that have solid demonstrative technical abilities. They just don't have HCIT skills. But they certainly can learn—and are willing to do what ever it takes to become part of our industry. That is pretty cool. The challenge is that most organizations have not changed their rigorous demands of skills and experience candidates are required to have to be considered. That old way of thinking must change. And soon. So when I hear from prospectvive clients about the large volume of openings that have—I understand. And I would love to help. Finding purple squirrels in the search business is a challenging feat. No doubt. Looking for talent that does not exist based on supply and demand is a totally different issue. Just wait until the HCIT talent pool discovers their true market value. Their salaries and bonus requirements will go thru the roof. Just wait and see.