Paul Flaharty (Robert Half)

Hi everyone. I'm Paul Flaharty. I work for Robert Half. We're a talent solutions and consulting firm, and I oversee their technology talent solutions business in the southwestern United States. And I'm based in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles has 262 days of sunshine a year. And this is a data point that became relevant to me last December when I was purchasing a new home.

Over the course of our inspections, it was brought to my attention that our roof was nearing the end of its useful life. And so two options were presented to me at that time. Option one: more labor- and time-intensive, more workers, more thorough oversight — and, as you could imagine, more cost. Option two: prioritize speed and low cost over quality. Patch obvious holes, essentially create a minimum viable product.

So I elected for option two. As you might imagine, the business — AKA my wife — preferred that we prioritize a number of sexier feature enhancements to the home.

Fast forward to February of 2024, the rainiest month in Los Angeles since 1998. I come home from work one day, and upon opening my front door, I hear a squealing sound from upstairs. Imagine my surprise to find my kids literally trying to boogie board down the river of water that's accumulated in my upstairs hallway. They were literally putting the cat on the boogie board and trying to surf the cat down the hallway.

Needless to say, the business was furious.

And I think of this story often in the context of conversations that we have with our customers almost every single day. No budget, cost cutting, can't hire contractors, can't hire — period. We've been asked to do more with less. Sound familiar?

Ultimately, the business starts to demand progress on some key initiatives to remain competitive: AI and ML, data science, BI and analytics, cloud architecture and ops, and tech process automation. But skills gaps can result in delays in meeting milestones and corner cutting, which undermines the quality of work and has a direct impact on business performance and competitive advantage.

So most of your organizations have been deep into digital transformations for years, and part of that process is about eliminating legacy systems, outdated dependencies, and poorly written code — all of which hamper agility, innovation, and create risks and vulnerabilities. In fact, seven out of ten organizations say that tech debt has significantly impacted their ability to innovate.

From what we see, project inertia appears to be easing, and our research shows that 82% of companies that recently placed projects on hold now intend to move forward with them. And from a talent management standpoint, the challenge becomes: how do you support the essential projects like security enhancements at the same time as other resource-intensive initiatives? How do you solve for skills gaps and tech debt from a talent solution standpoint while also building future-forward tech teams?

Well, number one: you can hire and, more importantly, develop high-potential talent. Don't waste time waiting for that perfect candidate. Recruit people who show curiosity and have pursued learning on their own. Offer targeted training to promising candidates, shortening their learning curve.

Number two: embrace a scalable talent model. Supplement with variable-cost contractors. This keeps projects moving, lightens the load for core staff, and it costs less to hire a contractor than it does to have your FTEs continuously rewriting hastily written code.

Number three: create a continuous cycle of learning and development, including job rotations, hackathons and innovation challenges, workshops on trending topics, knowledge sharing, mentoring, and coaching.

And then lastly, it might be obvious, but pay competitively. Our research shows that 92% of tech leaders said that holding onto talent is one of their biggest concerns in the next 12 months. You can't stop your people's phones from ringing, but you can impact the likelihood of them returning that phone call.

And anyone with interest in compensation trends — we release a new free salary guide that comes out next month. Come see me at some point tonight; we'll make sure you get a free copy.

But I would say, in conclusion: learn from my mistakes. Do the job right the first time, have a future-forward talent strategy, and no one in your house will ever have the opportunity to go hallway swimming.

Thank you.