Page 3 - KLIPINGBELMAWA08072019PAGI

software engineering, many employers still put resume screening instead of skills testing as a first hiring step.
This kind of process is prone to hiring bias by recruiters. It is not impossible for employers to overlook great technical talent when the resume does not have glittering credentials from top universities or employers. If we are fully aware that we have a shortage, then screening talent based on educational background or previous experience prior to assessing their technical skills is not a wise move. Employers should believe that talent is evenly distributed and everyone with the right skills should be given a chance.
The second solution is reskilling, an approach to develop employees to meet future talent needs. Reskilling has long been encouraged by organizations such as the World Economic Forum as a solution to close the skills gap. However, Indonesian tech companies’ talent strategy is still dominated by a focus on hiring.
The human resource budget is spent mostly on — and the conversation revolves mostly around — talent acquisition and “hijacking” talent from other companies. A captive segment, which is the company’s existing employees, is often overlooked even though they pose tremendous potential to meet future talent needs. Employers can learn from organizations such AT&T, which has a Future Ready initiative that boldly tries to reskill its 100,000 employees to develop cutting-edge digital skills. We might not have AT&T’s resources, but we can start by following its mindset.
Fast-growing companies might have many things on their plate, hence it is always tempting to prioritize short-term solutions such as “buying” talent with proven backgrounds. However, it will not hurt for them to start playing the long game by shifting their talent strategy to be more inclusive and allocate more funding to develop employees instead of constantly finding new, unproven ones.