The Talent Vacuum
Waging war for the knowledge worker

As seen in: Arizona Business Magazine - Aug/Sept 2007

By Kerry Duff

There is no doubt about it right now is a great time to work in the knowledge industry. Highly skilled professionals are in huge demand, jobs are plentiful and compensation is 20 percent to 30 percent higher than the average wage across all industries. Yet one big problem exists: There is not enough talent in Arizona or other parts of the country to fill the jobs available.

“Security IT professionals and those trained in the core components of the IT world such as application development, database management and systems engineers are in extreme demand. The need for talent is at an all time high,” says Todd Bankofier, vice president and general manager for Ensynch, a provider of IT talent, IT infrastructure services and data center managed services. “At Ensynch we recruit for ourselves and 80 different companies across Arizona, and we have to look under every rock for talent. Two or three years ago tech pros looked around for new horizons, but today they’re being lured away with better compensation, offers to continue training and better corporate cultures.”

Joan Dawson, human resource director at Mobility Electronics in Scottsdale, a developer of universal power adapters for portable computers and mobile electronic devices, says they work closely with an outside recruitment firm to overcome hiring challenges and on a number of occasions have worked with Arizona State University to recruit engineers. They also have an excellent in-house referral program and offer excellent benefits such as a 401k program with employee match, medical benefits with leading healthcare providers, long and short-term disability, life insurance, online training and education, etc., all for free to attract and retain highly skilled employees.

“Our recruitment challenges are similar to other tech companies in Arizona,” adds Dawson. “If our recruitment firm can’t find local talent, they go right to the companies that have the talent we’re looking for and find candidates who don’t know they are candidates. We also bring to the table excellent technology and many people come aboard because it’s interesting and they find it exciting.”

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