With a new Prime Minister and the uncertainty of Brexit looming, there’s no question that the UK is entering a time of major transition. Yet despite such a period of change, one industry continues to thrive in the UK – technology.

According to a recent report by Tech Nation, investment for UK scale-up digital tech firms grew 61% between 2017 and 2018. This equates to £6.3bn in venture capital investment, more than any other European country and fourth in the world after the US, China and India.

As the industry has scaled up, the number of job vacancies across the sector has also grown at a rapid rate. Just last year, almost 1.7 million job vacancies were advertised within the technology industry – a third of which were for non-technical roles such as marketing, human resources and accountancy.

While this is considered a positive for prospective employees, it has at the same time brought significant complications for organisations looking to hire and retain the best possible talent.

The growing digital skills gap coupled with the uptick of the ‘quitting economy’ has created a complex hiring system in which vacancies continue to outnumber suitable talent options.

According to a recent Deloitte report, this is especially troubling when comes to the millennial generation, where 43% of the workforce plan to quit their current job within two years and only 28% plan to stay in their current role for more than five years.

Attracting and retaining the brightest tech talent

With the tech industry in a state of change, organisations must be proactive in their approach to recruitment and talent retention. Not only is it a key part of driving a competitive business advantage, it is invaluable to the longevity of each and every business.

To do this, senior leaders must take a step back and completely reimagine the way they approach HR, people and culture. As part of this, those traditionally involved with the internal hiring process must start to be seen as an integral part of a company’s decision-making process – rather than an administrative function.

When this becomes a reality, internal teams can work towards solutions and minimise the impact of the skills shortage and low retention rates. But to do this they must take a holistic approach when getting to know the workplace – beyond what has been considered standard in the past

Technology as a driver for retention

While the expansion of the UK tech industry has created a few hurdles for organisations, the good news is that it has also created a new wave of technology that can help alleviate some of the burden. New technologies, such as people analytics, provide the ability to collect and interpret important insights from employee data.

By having these insights, businesses have the capacity to map the entire workplace, identifying the most influential employees and key connections between departments. It can even go as far as to help predict any problems within the workforce before they get too serious and impact important internal structures.

Using employee data can also help organisations get a deeper understanding of those within the workplace. What do they like? Dislike? Do they like to travel for work? If so, how long is the average commute?

According to the Office of National Statistics, the number of people commuting for more than an hour to get to work has risen by 31% since 2011 - meaning it may be a top concern for many employees.

By having a personalised and deep understanding of each employee’s preference, organisations can pivot strategies and implement new, more flexible ways of working to help enhance work-life culture.

New people-focused technologies can also help automate administrative tasks usually left for internal teams. Using automation can give valuable time back so that those within the organisation can focus on more strategic aspects of the role – especially during moments of growth.

As the job market continues to expand as a result of the booming tech industry, organisations will have to put their best foot forward when competing for the perfect candidate. And with the UK tech sector growing 2.6 times faster than overall economy, this means putting a focus on personalisation and a positive employee experience.

By using data to intimately understand the workforce, organisations can ensure that they are taking a holistic approach to finding and retaining the right employees with the right skills.

Having this mindset will not only benefit organisations, but will help negate the effects of trends such as the ‘quitting economy’, ultimately pushing the UK technology industry forward as a whole.

Joel Farrow is MD EMEA at Hibob.