Men and technology have often been synonymous with each other. However in recent years, there is a growing focus on women and their roles in technology.

Women today are no longer mere laboratory assistants in technology. Instead, women today are part of the technology “brain-child”. Which designing new innovations and solutions that will help businesses in the future.

Yet, women today are still being put in the backseat in technology-related roles. While we hear of numerous renowned tech geniuses, the likes of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. We rarely see a female tech genius on the same platform. Without providing a platform for women to step up to tech roles. Businesses could potentially lose out in these untapped potential. Here are some ways in which organisations can encourage more women to stay in tech roles:

Creating a conducive workplaces

Organisations first need to create an ideal workplace in which employees can be their best self. And this includes providing equal opportunities to all employees regardless of gender. In other words, this means that leaders as well as HR need to implement policies and practices to provide an unbiased workplace for employees to work in. This helps female employees to understand the various opportunities available to them and that the organisation is willing to invest in their potential.

Allowing diverse inputs

Promoting inclusivity and diversity is a great retention strategy for women in tech roles. Creating a panel that discusses diversity within the organisation helps to create awareness around diversity issues. At the same time, creating a panel of employees with mixed gender makes its comfortable for employees to speak up about gender-related issues.

Nurture potentials

Many women do not continue their careers in technology-related roles due to the glass ceiling that they face. In addition to providing a conducive workplace for employees, organisations need to also provide sufficient opportunities for women in tech roles to expand their careers. This could include implementing a talent management program. Which in specific programmes and internship opportunities are provided to women in tech roles. This provides a platform for women in tech roles to grow and expand their careers, eliminating the glass ceiling that most women face in these roles.

Empower women

Finally, the best way to retain women in tech roles is to provide them with the support that they need. This could include creating a women’s employee resource group as well as mentoring programs to help women with their long-term engagement in tech roles. Likewise, providing flexible work arrangements, generous maternity coverage as well as ease of transition back into the workplace can help to contribute towards retain women in tech roles in the long run.

Why Recruiters Are Seeking Tech Savvy Leaders?

Pairing tech savvy with exceptional foresight and key leadership skills makes a great leader. Today, companies seek leaders that possess more than simply a long list of business accomplishments. They seek business leaders who know how to marry business foresight with strategic IT decisions. Essentially, a tech savvy leader is not expected to know how to build an app. But have the business acumen to turn an app into a lucrative money-making opportunity.

A common trait shared by many founders of the world’s most successful tech companies is that they possess the key tech know-hows. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg started writing software programs even before entering high school. Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom was a self-taught programme. Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Apple’s Steve Jobs… the list goes on. These business leaders posses an in-depth understanding of the technology that their business was build upon.

Having the technical skills as a C-leader certainly poses more advantages as opposed to a CEO with a business-only background. Together with critical leadership traits, it creates the perfect skills set to lead a tech-driven company, and even other non-tech companies as well. Of course, it would come as no surprise that these skills are prized by recruiters who actively pursue candidates with such talents.

However, the challenge lies in looking for these creative thinkers who possess these highly sought- after technical skills. While the chances of finding someone who is C-suite worthy is high, a combination of these in a single candidate is a rarity.

Fortunately, being IT savvy is a skill in which business leaders can learn albeit it is a long journey that requires a lot of hard work and effort. The first step is recognising the need to embrace strategic IT management within the organisation. For some leaders, whose mindsets are strongly embedded in traditional management, identifying the need for strategic IT leadership is already a challenge in itself. Nonetheless, leaders who are keen to step up to meet challenges of the upcoming digital workplace will ultimately reap the benefits for their organisation in the long run.

Similarly, from a recruiter’s point of view. Simply offering lucrative compensation packages and a slew of otherworldly benefits might not necessary have hundreds of applicant beating down the door. Instead, recruiters can reposition their point of view to expand their potential candidate pool. Rather than scouring through LinkedIn profiles. They can look for candidates who possess an insatiable curiosity for what’s next, an innovator’s point of view and the daring to incorporate these two things together.

That being said, finding that elusive tech savvy leader to lead the business organisation is not difficult. Essentially, top leaders can in fact, groom and improve themselves to be the tech savvy leader which the digitally-evolving workplace needs today.

3 Insider Tips On Hiring Software Developers

In the competitive market for talent today coupled with the emergence of key digital roles, the talent pool for tech roles today are extremely scarce. As such, organisations are willing to compensate market premiums for these key roles.

However, this also poses a huge challenge for organisations during recruitment. Given the limited talent pool, how do organisations decide on their hiring strategy? Should they go the traditional route by simply asking questions? Or should they decide whether to hire the candidate based on the results of a coding test?

Here are some insider tips collated from organisations on hiring developers:

Send a coding test

The skills required of a software developer is likely to be vastly different as compared to other roles. As such, a simple face-to-face or pen and paper interview. Unlikely to draw out sufficient insights on the candidate’s coding skills. According to findings from Digital HR Tech, 73% of surveyed candidates take a coding test sent to them. At the same time, more than 90% of these candidates who started on the test are likely to complete them. This suggests that job applicants for software developers are likely to complete an assessment test. Which is aligned with the work that they do.

Customise the coding test

JavaScript, Python, R, C++ – the list of tech software is endless. It is likely that these job applicants have basic proficiency in these tech software. However, what organisations might want to test is whether the candidate is minimally proficient in the basic tech software, such as JavaScript or HTML. Customise the coding test accordingly to the job requirements. Also, testing these job applicants on their basic software knowledge is imperative to sieve out the best candidates.

Give a real-world problem

In addition to testing the candidate on their basic coding skills.  It is important for these software developers to be able to translate their tech software skills into providing solutions for real-world problems. The best way to test their skills application is to throw them a real-world business case to work on. That is likely to provide organisations better insights on who are merely good as basic “Hello World” coding and who are able to apply their skill set to the workplace.