This is the view of Chris Quin, general manager of Gen-i New Zealand, a speaker at today’s Telecommunications User Association conference on the ICT Skills Shortage.

"With the tightest labour market in history and record low unemployment, the skills shortage is impacting all industry sectors,” says Quin. “However, it is particularly acute in the ICT sector, where a shortage of skilled workers is impacting the ability of all businesses to provide the technologies they need to meet the demands of a changing workforce."

"Generation Y employees increasingly expect that the technologies they use in their personal life are also used in their working life. And as work and home merge, there are increased demands for technologies that allow staff to communicate 24 by 7 and blend work and play. That is placing huge demands on businesses looking to align their ICT with corporate strategy."

Quin explained that as businesses struggle to find the IT staff they need to complete major business improvements, they often resort to short-term techniques to attract people.

"We need to be sensible as an industry, and not just compete by increasing costs such as salaries and related benefits. That just increases the rate of voluntary churn, and will eventually kill off businesses that can’t keep up."

"Our industry requires a new approach with far more imagination, more commitment and more action than we’ve ever seen before,” said Quin. “As a result, we’ve decided to draw a line in the sand – we can’t go on recruiting and managing talent in the old way."

Quin leads one of Australasia’s fastest-growing and innovative ICT services businesses, with pole positions in both marketshare and mindshare (according to IDC).

"We’ve spent the last three years building a capability that spans the technology and telecommunications sectors, offering a truly end-to-end service and capability," explained Quin. "However, as we deliver these new capabilities we have had to source staff for new roles that are hybrids from both worlds."

Managing available resources is also a key focus for Gen-i.

"We have had a number of significant new business wins over the last year, but are careful not to take on more business than we can service. We are managing our pipeline of new business against available resources to ensure we don’t put our people under pressure."

Gen-i has developed a five-pronged approach to managing its people, spanning recruitment, training, partnering, automation and building a strong culture. Quin emphasised the importance of developing a strong leadership and culture to attract and retain the best talent within New Zealand.

"Our client success is largely due to our approach to building strong partnerships, based on honesty, trust, relevance and leadership," said Quin. "We extend that approach into our own organisation by investing in building an awesome community of passionate and inspiring employees."

"The real opportunity is to create an organisation-wide culture of genuinely wanting clients to prefer you."