If you have managed to secure the right talent for your client’s IT needs then we would like to know your secret. CompTIA’s IT Industry Outlook 2020 states that MSPs are struggling to hire candidates with deeper expertise.

Acquiring the right staff across all four IT pillars is a challenge to most businesses. MSPs are primarily targeting either early career (3-5 years of experience) or mid-level (6-10 years of experience) staff. This may make sense in the areas of infrastructure and software development, where businesses have likely built a hierarchy of skills over time. But, for cybersecurity and data, the situation is more complicated. Now that these areas are distinct functions, there are difficulties in creating the pipeline for more advanced talent. Over time, entry-level positions will likely emerge, but in the meantime, companies will have to explore different avenues for filling their skill gaps.

It’s time to take a more strategic approach to secure the right talent in your MSP business. We have reviewed your options and outlined them below, to help you make the right decision.

1 – Look to ‘develop your own’

Thanks to these pipeline challenges, hiring is lower on the priority list for companies. Instead, MSPs are focusing on training and certifying the employees that are already on board. When it comes to career growth, there are three distinct areas IT pros expect to develop.

• Technical skill within the existing specialisation. With so many different topics within each pillar, there is plenty of room for growth.
• Technical skill in a new area. The four pillars interact in unique ways, and these overlaps define how business solutions are built and maintained.
• Career growth in project management. Going beyond the technical interactions to handle scheduling, deliverables, and trade-offs.

If you are serious about addressing the skills gap internally the strategies below were most frequently cited by respondents in the CompTIA Assessing the IT Skills Gap report.

Top Cited Strategies for Addressing Skills Gap Challenges Among the IT Workforce Pipeline

• Better ways to provide on-the-job experience, such as internships
• Better ways to provide intense job training, such as apprenticeships
• Early student exposure to careers in IT
• Certifications/credentials to validate skills and knowledge
• Better assessments/methods for evaluating the skills of job candidates

2 – Look to outsource specific areas

Outsourcing on a white label basis is a legal way of utilising the products or services of another company and taking credit for it within your MSP business. It is difficult in any industry to cover all services you might wish to provide, depending on the current expertise of your staff members, and the resources that you have access to. White labelling is a great way to fill in any skills gaps and provide your customers with the best possible all-round services. If you’ve not considered outsourcing to a channel-only IT partner, here are 5 advantages that you may want to consider:

1. Practical time saving and value for money
2. Offer great service to your clients
3. Experienced IT professionals, working as an extension of your business.
4. Assurance that your clients projects will be delivered on time.
5. Benefit from years of expertise

3 – Look into flexible resourcing with Dedicated Tech.

A Dedicated Tech solution allows you to build your own dedicated team at a fraction of the in-house cost. This is a relatively new service that is very similar to option two, but with a whole host of additional benefits:

• Your clients can choose a specific team of individuals with certain expertise to match their requirements.
• Removes the recruitment burden, allowing you to spend less time hiring and more time on growing your business.
• Flexible resourcing that allows you to expand your team and gain a more diverse set of skills and experience.

In summary

Overall, the landscape for the IT profession in 2020 is one full of opportunity, but also one that is rapidly changing. There is the potential to develop within, but for those of you that have demanding clients with unique requirements, outsourcing might be the way forward.

One thing we can be sure of is the rate in which technology is changing and the cost involved in improving technical skills across the business. Existing skills and practices provide the foundation for MSP business development. However, technologists should also be open to new ways of securing skills and expertise to add further value to their business.

If you are struggling to secure the right talent for your client’s specific requirements and are looking for a flexible resourcing solution – Contact us to find out how we can help with our Service Desk, NOC, Project Services and Remote Dedicated Tech.