High-quality communication and information services from telecom, cable, wireless, and satellite internet providers have never been so in demand as today, so consumers can enjoy enhanced flexibility within the purchase. Logically, this leads to a more competitive environment in the Telecommunication industry.
Together with a complex competition among different telco organizations, another major challenge is emerging its ugly head – threatening every single player, big or small, in the industry.
Besides chip shortages and supply chain issues, the shortage of skilled staff is becoming a real problem and alert for the days to come.
It is predicted that by 2030 the deficit of skilled workers in the global technology, media, and telecommunications sector will reach as much as 4.3 million workers!
In order to somewhat prepare for this future difficulty, managers and human resources leaders will need to rethink their approach to hiring and training.
And what are currently most demanded skills in the telco realm?
- Digital and analytics skills, including hardware and software skills;
- Specialty domain expertise on particular topics and areas, like 5G;
- Cross-functional management support for skills crucial to leadership, project management, and effective hiring and talent retention.
Allow us to illustrate the trouble.
Imagine this. In the next 20 years or so – more than 800,000 5G towers will be deployed in the U.S. only! Plus, standard wired fiber or wireless microwave are needed for backhaul connections. To achieve that, at least 20,000 additional technicians will be required.
And this doesn’t happen in the U.S. only. As many as 86% of worldwide organizations’ executives and top management admitted that skilled workers are the primary challenge this industry is facing.
The knowledge gap doesn’t help either. The retiring experts and the next generation of technicians with much less experience created this gap that will be rather arduous and demanding to fill.
What are some other reasons this shortage of workers is rising by the day?
- Nowadays youth chooses traditional 4-year college much more than trades and apprenticeship education, making them unavailable for practice or hiring for longer.
- The baby boomers are retiring at an increasing rate.
- The rapid advancement of telecom technology is increasing the required technical skills spectrum.
- The proliferation of the connected network and the necessary build-out require a technical workforce.
Conclusion?
It is of the utmost importance to create a constructive and motivating environment where recruitment methods are highly sophisticated and thorough, where talent retention is creative and employee-wellbeing orientated, while skill training programs are a matter of routine.
This needs to be done right away as demand for labor is rising while the availability of trained workers declines!
Cultivating and keeping 5G Talent
Maybe the most urgent global project within the telco industry is the 5G infrastructure setup. It requires qualified workers ASAP!
To set in motion and maintain 5G networks, telecom companies need to retain outstanding talent, as building 5G needs unique capabilities and they depend more on software than hardware/equipment.
This specific characteristic demands digital up-skilling. The 5G technicians will need a wide range of new technology skills.
This implies training in small cell antenna installation, distributed antenna systems, fiber work, and the particulars of 5G design, construction, equipment…
Positions in demand will include tower techs, RF engineers, antenna installers, and site managers. Of course, once the 5G becomes a worldwide reality, personnel responsible for maintenance tasks will require retraining into new roles.
The Great Resignation threat
The task becomes even harder when looking at the Great Resignation phenomena. It is predicted that in the following year, 1 in 5 employed people across the globe will change jobs!
And why is that?
People are getting more and more interested in job fulfillment. That means that money is no longer the sole motivator for people to remain at the same job. After all that happened, people are getting more and more aware of all the options they have to reach their personal balance and peace. The new generation mindset is only contributing to this new philosophy that has an enormous impact on every industry there is.
What can be done?
Making the job easier, for starters.
The Great Resignation will only accelerate automation.
Getting rid of all those repetitive, boring and, before everything – meaningless tasks is the first step. This is where project management tools come in very handy.
How can Teodesk help?
Our tool is a Cloud-based process and project management app that provides intuitive design for the management of complex activities of different teams within the company. It is a planning solution, executing and monitoring various activities in the telecommunications and construction industries. The initial goal of the Teodesk tool is to cover the entire project flow, from obtaining bids for certain projects, to planning functional requirements, hiring teams/people to work on specific projects, and monitoring the implementation of the project in order to meet all defined milestones. The realization of activities within the Teodesk tool is organized through several modules, which allows managers to determine, execute and further develop control over every segment of the project, making the entire process way easier.
How does Teodesk manage Recruitment, selection, training, onboarding, and retention projects?
It is important, today more than ever, that the company culture relies firmly on a super-organized HR team. The process of talent acquisition and retention is now vital for, not only success but also – for the survival of every single company that would like to stay in the game.
Among other things, Teodesk is a great helper when it comes HR department.
Our tool is created in a way that is easy to customize and use for keeping the company’s information organized. With Teodesk, you can manage the interview process, onboard new hires, monitor and analyze all employees and build a quality company culture.
Teodesk provides you with a detailed workflow to support every step of recruitment as well as the retention of existing employees. It can be used on small teams but, also on those that count more than hundreds of team members.
With Teodesk, you can define the whole process through one flow with predefined task templates holding chosen key information.
You can define the recruitment flow through phases and data such as incoming candidates, candidates in processing, interview, technical interview… Also, there is a list made of those who were accepted and those who are not. This allows you to create a certain database with eligible candidates – for now and the future.
Talent acquisition and retention are now a well-defined process where you can create fields and name them conveniently.
As recruiters go through the process – you create a file on them. It goes the same for the employees. The Employee Module is always active feature where you follow each person’s activity, development, and productivity.
Basically, Teodesk helps you empower your team members so that the entire organization can thrive when communication and collaboration are top notches!
