Sarvesh Goorha - CIO Security and Info System, iYogi

What are the essentials when it comes to tech talent strategy?
There really isn’t a huge difference between hiring tech talent, and hiring for any other role - management, for example. The strategy we work with is to keep it simple. If, as a tech company, we are not able to provide that set of challenges and at the end of the day, a sense of satisfaction at a job well done, they will leave.

What are the various ways to retain tech talent?
The environment and the culture has always been the key to retaining tech talent – you give people an environment to express and enjoy themselves, and they’ll exceed your expectations. We have been able to build up a healthy, honest, collaborative environment with a lot of room to grow and experiment.

What is the importance of training and development for retaining high-valued tech talent?
When serious tech talent comes on board they are looking at a minimum set of requirements which, in their view, the company has to give them. One of them is mentoring, but the most important is training and certification. Every tech employee, regardless of his/her role in the organisation should be given the chance and the incentive to replenish and reinforce their skill sets. We try to do that with exhaustive training programs, hackathons and fun activities, all of which are aimed at our talent becoming even more talented. Development doesn’t stop with that, though. Only an organisation looking at the wholesome growth of an employee will ever be able to retain the people it wants to.

Brief about the specific IT/Tech skills required for mid-senior level roles?
This depends on the specific platforms and technologies we are working with, but when recruiting with mid-senior levels in mind, you are looking more at the whole picture, rather than in parts. You want someone who understands what the company as a whole is trying to do, and then apply that in parts so that the pieces of the puzzle fall together. And with mid-senior people, who are going to lead teams, people skills are sometimes equally important, if not more, than their tech skills. The ability to guide and mentor young people is a gift, and someone with these skills is a definite asset. You want these people in your organization because not only will they give their best, they’ll inspire a lot of other people to do so too.

To put that in perspective, iYogi’s tech support boutique offers a different technology challenge when compared to iYogi’s digital services for small businesses. Again, the technology question is different for our enterprise solution Digital Service Cloud. Will a techie be equipped with the skills necessary to understand all of these? Of course not, but the person who understands how one touches upon the other and the coherence of all three is who we want to hire.

What are the challenges in recruiting senior tech leaders?
In this time in our country, the challenges are just too many. Though there is no shortage of talent, there is a shortage of vision and innovation. We have been lucky enough to recruit and retain some of the best tech talent on this side of the hemisphere, and that has been because of a calculated, concerted drive to do so.

But in so far as I know, the biggest challenge has been to get the attention of the job market. How do you let the best out there know that here is an opportunity for them to come and make a difference? Nearer the top, there are relatively fewer people to consider, but that also means that these few are already somewhere they like being. How do you get their attention? That is the question.

Highlight the ongoing technology challenges.
I wouldn’t say challenges as much as I would use the word opportunities. There’s big data, there’s the whole social wave, and when you add the whole privacy issue, you have a series of tech opportunities staring you in the face. Of course that’s not the end of it. There’re so many more, but I choose to highlight these because they are out there in the playing field right now. So there you have them, each of them throws up a thousand ideas, another thousand applications. When you sit down and think about them and how they can impact your business, how you can possibly use them to give your customer more value, more technology in a way, and sooner or later you’ll know the answer.

So the challenges are always going to be there. It’s up to you and your organization to transform them into opportunities.

Via Tech Gig
Srilagna Saha