Prague, September 12, 2022: A growing number of IT companies are addressing the shortage of IT professionals by recruiting people without the necessary experience and education. They will then teach them all the necessary skills themselves and turn them into much sought-after experts, such as analysts or developers. At Ness Czech, a company that supplies complex ICT solutions, they have an adaptation plan for newcomers and their development, which includes studying in an academy, working under the guidance of mentors and working with a coach.
The demand for IT professionals on the labour market is growing and finding suitable candidates is even harder than before. “The fastest growing demand is for experts with knowledge of the latest technologies and cloud-based solutions. Demand has also increased for DevOps positions and cybersecurity experts. However, it is still the case that the most in-demand IT candidates are experienced Java developers, .Net developers, analysts for enterprise data, testers and team leaders in general,” says Martin Silvička, CEO of Ness Czech, adding that according to various estimates, the Czech labour market lacks up to 30,000 ICT experts. With just under 4,000 ICT graduates leaving universities each year, the situation is not expected to improve anytime soon. Moreover, the employment of graduates on the labour market is limited, as many of them do not have adequate experience and work experience behind them. Therefore, Ness Czech IT company has focused on training its own IT experts. Candidates with no previous experience can join the company, and thanks to a sophisticated training system and adaptation plan, they can train junior BI analysts or Java developers, experts who are still in great demand on the market.
“We normally give graduates with at least a bachelor’s degree a chance, even if they have no previous experience in the field. While the technical focus of the study is still important to us, we also recruit people outside the IT field. For example, a candidate with a longer course from Czechitas had only a technical background, but she did an excellent job in the interview and impressed us,” says Martin Silvička. He says it is important to know the basics, to have completed an adequate course and to be determined to work on yourself. “It always helps candidates without experience in recruitment if they have at least a little work experience in IT, it can be a summer job or a school internship. They already know what it’s like in the workplace. It’s good if they store their projects on GitHub. This will help us gauge what level they are at and what they have worked with before,” adds Martin Silvička.
Focus on newcomers
Newcomers to Ness Czech usually complete an adaptation plan including intensive training during their first year. In the first three months, they focus mainly on technical training, which is essential for their work, as well as on procedural training, which will make it easier for them to find their way around Ness and work with their colleagues. The plan always has a common basis for all newcomers and is furthermore tailored for each individual. The newcomer is assigned a direct supervisor on the day of joining, who sets up the adaptation plan together with the project manager according to the needs of the project. Furthermore, the newcomer is given an experienced senior colleague – a buddy who acts as a mentor and whose task is to facilitate the newcomer’s orientation in the company and in the team, establishing relationships and overall adaptation to the new environment and tasks. Ness Czech also has the possibility of internal coaching, which, as another method, helps not only newcomers in their professional development.
“We also use the shadowing method, where newcomers spend a whole day with experienced colleagues and get to know all the situations. They go with them on projects and are given specific tasks on a daily and weekly basis,” explains Helena Římovská, who is responsible for education and employee care at Ness Czech.
Ness Czech offers new and existing employees the opportunity to obtain professional certifications, mentoring, internal coaching or participation in seminars and lectures. The internal training offer includes dozens of courses for the development of hard and soft skills and is constantly expanding. Courses are also available online. “We mostly cover soft skills within the company, because the basis of our company culture is that we want to transfer know-how internally and we motivate our fellow trainers to do so. We also use and develop competency communities within the company, where colleagues share their experiences and often prepare training or lectures themselves. This way, newcomers not only have a detailed adaptation programme with a clear vision of where they are going, but can also further develop their professional competence,” says Helena Římovská in conclusion.
About Ness Czech and Ness Digital Engineering
Ness Czech, a leading Czech system integrator and part of the international Ness Digital Engineering group, is one of the largest IT service providers in the Czech Republic. Since 1993 it has been a pioneer in the introduction of new technologies and software products. Its most important customers include O2 Czech Republic, Komerční Banka and ČÚZK. Ness Digital Engineering is a global provider of comprehensive information technology solutions and services.
Contact for media
Kamil Pittner, Media Consultant, PRCOM, +420 604 241 482, kamil.pittner@prcom.cz