One in three Investing tech companies annoyed by incompetent job applicants
Ede, 3 October 2023 - Despite large ongoing shortages of skilled technical staff, the industry still has a negative attitude towards hiring staff from other sectors. As many as a third (32%) of technical companies are annoyed by incompetent people responding to vacancies. Three in ten (29%) even write off applicants without the right qualifications straight away. The reason? Over a quarter (27%) feel that inducting lateral entrants costs more than it brings in. This is according to the seventh edition of the TechBarometer by technical training provider ROVC, which surveyed over 1,000 HR decision-makers, 2,700 technicians and 1,000 potential lateral entrants on the state of affairs in the technical sector.
Structurally undervalued
The reluctance in terms of hiring lateral entrants is also logically reflected in the number of organisations investing to attract this group. Only 44 per cent of companies are actively committed to recruiting more lateral entrants. This is remarkable, given that the industry has been desperate for staff for years. In fact, the number of vacancies at technical companies has increased by as much as 45 per cent in 2023. And no improvement is expected in the coming years: eight in ten HR decision-makers (79%) think they will still be short of technical staff in the next five years. That lateral entrants are an important solution to reducing the persistent tech shortage in our country is something 57 per cent of tech companies do underline. Yet willingness to invest in them remains lacking.
"A missed opportunity," says John Huizing, director of ROVC. He explains, "Tech companies continue to insist on strict requirements for staff, despite the fact that most of them are at a loss due to huge, persistent shortages of skilled technicians. While some see the need to hire staff from other investing sectors, concrete action in many cases remains absent. Many tech companies do not know how to efficiently employ this group and that is a shame. Onboarding inexperienced staff does not have to be a lengthy or complicated process by any means. In supervised on-the-job learning, an experienced professional guides the tech start-up in all aspects of on-the-job learning: from instruction to reflection. While this requires a temporary investment, it delivers much more: initially, a functionally employable employee, i.e. someone who can take over routine tasks. And after the familiarisation period, even a permanently employable employee, and these are very much needed. I therefore urge companies to look at smart and flexible solutions like this."
About the TechBarometer
The online surveys for the benefit of the TechBarometer 2023 were conducted by Markteffect on behalf of ROVC and TechniekOpleiding.nl. The HR decision-maker group covers 1,000 respondents, all of whom are (co-)decision-makers in tech companies on human resources and other HR-related matters. The technician respondent group comprises 2,727 tech workers. The group of potential lateral entrants consists of 1,038 respondents who are currently unemployed or working in industries other than tech.
