Corporate Strategies Category Archives - General Assembly Blog | Page 3

GA Apprenticeships, Powered by Interapt

By

Apprenticeships are one of the oldest forms of education in human history, but there’s something about them that still captures our imagination. It probably has something to do with their brilliant simplicity: if you want to learn a new skill, the most direct route is to just start practicing it under the supervision of an expert. It makes sense that the best learning happens when you’re developing your skills in a real-world context — while earning an actual paycheck. 

With employers facing a historically tight labor market and an economy still recovering in the wake of the pandemic (not to mention declining college enrollment and mounting skepticism about the value of the four-year degree), workers and employers alike are in search of new solutions to these persistent problems — and are turning to apprenticeships. 

To help address these workforce challenges, we’re launching GA Apprenticeships, Powered by Interapt, a tech apprenticeship solution designed to fast-track high-potential, overlooked talent into careers in software engineering, data, and cybersecurity. With the launch of GA Apprenticeships, employers will gain a derisked opportunity to onboard entry-level tech talent — while also enabling apprentices to earn a salary as they learn alongside senior-level developers. 

Read on to get a taste of what’s involved. 

Continue reading

The Top 3 Talent Challenges Facing Enterprises Going Into 2023

By

View larger image.

Meet with an expert to discuss a custom talent solution for your team.


We’ve been hearing it for over a decade: there isn’t enough tech talent to meet rising workforce demand. This story is nothing new—enterprises have struggled since well before the pandemic to attract and retain technically inclined candidates, let alone diverse technical talent. In a to-come study, we found that 90% of HR leaders are concerned that they won’t be able to fill their open tech positions.  

Hold on, we know what you’re thinking: we’re entering a global recession. This may be true, but the fact remains: the tech skills required to stay afloat—let alone compete—are on the rise, without talent to fill the gap. And the gap is substantial, with nearly seven times as many current job openings there are annual computer science graduates. In fact, as of October 2022 Comptia reported 317,000 tech job vacancies in the US alone. 

But businesses aren’t the only ones struggling to connect the dots. According to a recent study from LHH, 77% of workers are aware that they have a skills gap. The shortage is particularly prominent in individual contributor roles—where only 36% say their company invests in the skills employees need to get the job done. These workers are often left either feeling stuck in undesirable positions—or forced to seek opportunities to grow elsewhere. 

As we enter a new year with new challenges, what will technology and talent leaders have to look out for in 2023? 

Continue reading

How ServiceNow is Building a Talent Pipeline to Meet DEI Goals

By

We know that diversity in the workplace is not only the right approach—but a sure path to greater innovation and profitability too. Diverse companies are 35% more likely to outperform their competitors and 15% more likely to perform above industry medians. In the United States, for every 10% increase in senior team racial and ethnic diversity, there is a corresponding 0.8% rise in earnings. Inclusive companies are 1.7 times more likely to innovate and are 70% more likely to capture new markets. 

And yet… only 44% of companies have a clear, actionable diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy. Even when a program is in place to attract and train diverse candidates, it can be difficult to find the right talent to take part. 

We checked in with Kurdin Bazaz, Staff Design Program Manager at ServiceNow, a cloud-based workflow platform based in San Diego, to discuss how General Assembly built a talent pipeline that helped her organization meet its DEI goals. If your company is struggling to make diversity a reality, her experience may help illuminate the path forward.  

Continue reading

Bridging Tech Talent Shortages: How Upskilling and Reskilling Can Help

By

When it comes to tech talent, we’re facing a supply and demand problem of unprecedented proportions. In the U.S. there are five jobs for every one software developer. In 2020, 4% of emerging technologies could not be implemented due to a tech executive shortage; today, that percentage has increased to 64%, according to Gartner—highlighting the impasse global enterprises face when it comes to accelerating innovation. The trend is set to continue—one report indicates 85 million tech jobs may go unfulfilled by 2030 due to lack of skilled talent. 

As a result, HR and technology leaders are increasingly searching for new ways to fill their open technology roles. Depending on organizational goals, businesses have started to leverage reskilling and upskilling to ramp up the tech skills they need. 

These strategies have not only proven effective, but they’re also helped increase employee retention and loyalty. Today’s top talent wants to work for businesses that invest in them. In fact, 74% of employees say they’re eager to learn new skills outside of work hours to improve their job performance.  

Upskilling and reskilling are often lumped together, but the two terms have very different meanings and different business use cases. Let’s take a look at what distinguishes the two—and how each applies to your organization.

Continue reading

Is Quiet Quitting Here to Stay? 3 Employee Engagement Strategies to Beat the Quit.

By

Hybrid and remote work ushered in a new era for the relationship between employers and employees. As workers reassessed their priorities and where work fits in, millions joined The Great Resignation. For employees who stayed, many opted for “quiet quitting”—a newly coined term for disengaging, or putting in the bare minimum at work. 

The percentage of engaged workers was on the decline before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the fallout from The Great Resignation and economic uncertainty has driven engagement levels to all-time lows. For example, a recent Adobe study found that employees—worried about the economy—are spending around two hours during each workday consuming news instead of getting tasks done.  Disengaged employees can cost organizations millions of dollars in revenue due to lower productivity. According to a Gallup poll, each disengaged employee costs their employer $3,400 to $10,000. 

Continue reading

4 Steps to Building a Future Ready Marketing Team

By

With technology moving at a blistering pace, skills gaps are wider than ever before. Roles are evolving fast and in some cases becoming completely obsolete. And this problem is not unique to the marketing sector. According to a Gartner report, building up employees’ skills is one of the top priorities for leaders across industries—with many of them ready to invest in upskilling but unsure of how to integrate those efforts into their organizations.

Staying ahead of the curve now entails embracing continuous learning and investing in your team’s capabilities to help them remain competitive and take full advantage of new opportunities. An upskilling initiative that’s aligned with your organization’s strategy and long-term goals can help shrink skills gaps, empower your team to adapt to evolving challenges and build up a skilled and adaptable talent pipeline. 

Unsure of where to start? Start here.

Continue reading

Cruise Past the Competition: 4 Steps to Attract & Retain Non-Traditional Talent

By

Recruiters around the world are facing a labor shortage unlike anything they’ve experienced in the last decade. 63% of recruiters say talent shortage is their number one problem. The good news? There’s a solution that not only benefits businesses but society. By tapping into the wide non-traditional talent pool–from veterans and military spouses, to caregivers and people in their 60s and older, to those with disabilities or who were formerly incarcerated–organizations can bridge the labor shortage gap and build a robust pipeline of talent.

Continue reading

3 STEPS TO TAKE TODAY TO RECESSION-PROOF YOUR TALENT — AND YOUR BUSINESS — FOR TOMORROW

By

2022 has been a year for the history books for business leaders–and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Amidst an ever-growing talent shortage and seemingly indomitable virus, leaders are juggling a wholesale re-envisioning of the workplace (do we go hybrid? Full-remote?) while trying to attract and retain talent who are still in the mindset of the Great Resignation.

Now, a looming recession threatens to strike just two years after the last one, leading many to fear sweeping layoffs of the global workforce. 

This presents a catch-22 for already-overworked HR leaders. How can companies cut back to survive a shrinking economy when they’re short-staffed to begin with? The tech skills required to stay afloat — let alone competitive — are on the rise without talent to fill them. By 2030, there will be a global talent shortage of more than 85 million tech workers, representing a loss of $8.5 trillion in annual revenue for the economy. This begs the question, can companies afford to downsize?

We know this complex problem just piles up competing priorities for business leaders to process. You’re already busy, with constant pressure to show immediate results. However, in a landscape where recessions typically last about ten months on average, it’s necessary to act in the long-term interest of your business and, more importantly, your people to come out stronger on the other side. To help you make a plan, we’ve outlined 3 steps you can take right now to start recession-proofing your talent.

Continue reading

Now Available: The Employer’s Roadmap to Harnessing the Great Resignation

By

Between a looming recession and record-high job openings, it’s no wonder that employers are struggling to recover from the Great Resignation. In 2021, after the shock of COVID-19 upended life as we knew it, talent around the world reprioritized how they spend their valuable time — and employees left work in droves, leaving business leaders to tackle a shrinking economy without the manpower to succeed.

Today, despite businesses’ best efforts, the Great Resignation shows many signs that it will continue through 2022. This global movement signals that major changes to the working world are necessary to create a value proposition strong enough to win talent back. This task can be overwhelming at a time when leaders are struggling to stay afloat, so we’ve created a downloadable guide to help you through.

Available now, The Employer’s Roadmap to Harnessing the Great Resignation shares a streamlined, step-by-step guide to transforming your workplace into a space where talent wants to stay, grow and thrive. 

Continue reading

Building a Future Ready Workforce: How Employer and Community Partnerships are Leading The Way

By

With the technology industry changing faster than ever, companies need a workforce that can evolve just as quickly. But how can these companies develop a pipeline as agile and versatile as the workers they hope to employ one day? And how can private and public sector partnerships build future-proof workforce development programs by tapping into their communities

Our VP of Government & Workforce Partnerships, Priya Ramanathan sat down to discuss this problem with Kelly Martin (Head of Strategy & Operations at M&T Bank) and Sarah Tanbakuchi (President & CEO of TechBuffalo). They fleshed out lessons they’ve learned, particularly from the hard-working graduates that made up their first Data Analytics cohort. Keep reading to get crucial tips for rethinking your candidate pipeline. 

Continue reading