6 Actions You Can Take Today To Build Cloud Talent !

Tech and Technology - there is no other field as competitive and groundbreaking as this one in today’s date. There is more than US$ 1 billion worth of new value at stake in the cloud, but it has become difficult for organizations to tap into this pool due to a lack of the right talent to do so.

Investments in cloud transformations have tripled between 2017 and 2021, but cloud engineering skills, that is, the company’s existing cloud talent pool, have not been able to keep up. Earlier, when the global movement towards the cloud had started to become obvious, companies in India did not have experienced employees or partners to guide them towards working in the cloud. And today, there remains a dearth of cloud talent.

As a tech company focused on business strategy and growth, Growth Jockey brings to you the six actions that you, as a company, can take to build the right cloud talent, and build the cloud platform towards your goal.

More Experience And Skill Goes A Long Way

There are three umbrella categories of employees in a tech firm - the engineers, who develop cloud software and determine which cloud services can be consumed; the developers, who piece together these services for innovative outcomes; and the non-technical staff, who work on risk management and maximizing cloud benefit.

Companies must hire engineering talent that has broad experience and cloud computing skills to convert this experience into creating cloud platforms. Consider not only the depth but also the breadth of your new talent’s experience before they join your company. This can mean variation between traditional and non-traditional IT work, generalisations and specializations.

Along with this, professional developers may not hold certifications but must bring in at least 5 years of experience. This allows the company to be sure that the new employees have sufficient programming language skills, networking abilities, and a habit of life-long learning. Specialist jobs may require additional skills.

Stay Playful in the Balance Between Experience and Maturity

Strive to strike a balance between broad experience, knowledge, areas of expertise, skillset, and maturity, while selecting your cloud team. As they say, “a little bit of everything is better”. Maintaining a balance between recruiting anchor roles and entry-level positions comes along with training and working with partners, which have been further discussed below.

In terms of maturity, or experience, levels, McKinsey research suggests that successful IT organizations must have a 30-50-20 split: 30% of their cloud platform should be in the top ‘expert’ and ‘proficient’ tier, 50% in the middle ‘capable’ tier, and 20% in the junior ‘novice’ and ‘advanced beginner’ level.

People with lesser experience can also bring cloud engineering skills to the table, as long as some other employees with broad experience bring complementary cloud computing skills and networking opportunities. If, as a company, you are able to bridge this gap between skills and experience through diverse hiring, you can better plan your cloud platform.

Apply In-House Upskilling and Reskilling Modules

Building cloud requires constant upskilling. And when this is not provided by the company, new hires are 2 to 3 times more likely to leave the company to begin somewhere else. Then how can companies prevent these cloud computing skills from leaving their offices?

Upskilling and reskilling opportunities within the company allow employers to retain employees and bridge the gap between requirement and skill at almost half the price of hiring newer employees. Engineers are able to learn new coding techniques, programming languages, cloud engineering skills, and design approaches.

These programs can also become easy grounds for networking and expanding through conversation. You can partner with technology-born and technology-focused companies like Growth Jockey to strategize an upskilling program, complete with a list of skills, methods, incentives, and future opportunities - all of which will benefit the company as well as the cloud talent.

Optimize The Slow-Moving Bureaucracy

On average, over 95% of IT processes need updating, with 62% requiring a major overhaul, executives interviewed by McKinsey have stated. Traditional IT architecture requires solutions to go through repetitive rounds of reviews before approval. Executives with a clearer mental space have noted that this change does not only mean doing things differently. The hardest part is to change the mindset of the approvers from ‘why you can’t do this’ to ‘how you can.’

In a culture where cloud talent thrives, professionals building cloud must be given autonomy to work on discrete products and platforms. This reduces labor. Cloud talent must be kept focused on important work, rather than discussions, meetings, approvals, and such.

Engineers must also see to it that their platforms prioritize the developer experience - providing default configurations, security controls, and such things as automatic stakes. Similarly, developers must develop cloud software in a way that works with the company’s business context, user personas, customer journeys, and product adoption.

Consider Partnering Instead Of Hiring

One-third of today’s cloud talent is hired by professional service companies. Thus, many organizations in India will struggle to building cloud talent without any partnership with these talent-holding companies.

The beginning of working with partners effectively is to move beyond vendor-management practices, such as third-party vendor negotiations. Collaborations should happen in a way that the developer and engineer are able to expand on their programming languages and cloud engineering skills and companies benefit from the developed cloud software. Along with this, partnerships open up opportunities for networking and new talent recruitment, too. Basically, you must focus on capability building.

In productive partnerships, capability expectations and productivity, both are higher. Partners help to inform critical decisions and also provide insight and context from other companies that develop cloud software. One such example can be the tech-driven company of Growth Jockey.

Focus on Motivation

Less than half of the existing cloud professionals have been in their roles for more than two years. It has been proven, time and again, that the biggest motivators for employees in an IT company are compensation or pay, access to cutting-edge technology, the work environment, and the possibility of professional development.

To create a motivated work environment, cloud platform companies must provide their top talent with the opportunity to work with the most advanced technologists, programming languages, frameworks, and tools to help evolve their cloud computing skills.

This is also to help your talent gain the broad experience necessary to continue to be successful in the organization and the industry. When this process is aided by the removal of managerial red tape and the provision of funding with clear guidelines, employees building cloud will also gain the freedom to experiment with new services and solutions.

To Conclude

Without a cloud talent pool, companies will be unable to tap into the vast potential that the cloud offers. Today’s fast-paced IT market will keep moving forward with leaps and bounds - what remains is to strategize in a way that your company can keep up with the progress. And this will come through cloud computing skills.

Firms and businesses must gain a clear understanding of what talent and cloud engineering skills they require, build an environment where this talent can thrive, and commit to changes if necessary, to develop cloud software. This way, you can capture cloud value easily and quickly.

Growth Jockey is a technology-focused Indian company that helps your business strategize its growth process and implement necessary changes for the future. We provide out-of-the-box solutions for businesses to identify opportunities and target them with the correct execution framework, such as building cloud talent. Growth Jockey houses teams of Marketing, Strategizing, Product Engineering, Sales, and Operations to aid you in your growth.

At Growth Jockey, we are fully committed to providing tailored solutions that effectively tackle the crucial challenges in cloud and cyber security faced by our clients across diverse industries. Regardless of the size of your company, whether it's a small-scale enterprise or a large corporation, you can now leverage the advantages of advanced technologies in cloud and cyber security.

Take the decisive step towards unlocking the next level of growth and protecting your brand by contacting us today!