Managing the skills gap: to hire or not to hire?

The MSP sector currently finds itself in a difficult situation: While the industry is growing, many are finding it increasingly hard to hire skilled techs quickly enough to fill their increasing knowledge gaps.

We frequently hear from our partners that there just aren’t enough skilled techs in the market, and things are moving too quickly. This is particularly true in security, but it’s certainly not limited to that area. It’s also really hard to find senior engineers; most don’t want to leave the companies they’ve been with for years. And if any are looking to move, you’ll pay a hefty premium in today’s market.

The past 18 to 24 months have really changed the IT job market. The people out there looking for new roles are demanding more money and flexibility (many want to continue to work remotely). Not every business can afford or manage these terms. And, they’re not feasible, certainly in terms of some of the salaries people are asking for.

I’ve heard of service providers in the UK that have almost doubled their salary offerings for needed hires now that they’re going back to the office—and people coming in are asking for double that. And other firms are hiring them. This is not sustainable for businesses in the long term.

So how can MSPs navigate the current market without breaking the bank and undermining their business model? I see businesses approaching this in three different ways, and there’s something every MSP business, however big or small, can learn here.

Training

We all know training takes time, and time is often in short supply, particularly these days. However, it does represent the best route. Nobody wants to hire the wrong person—it can be a hugely expensive mistake, even in an employers’ market. With training you keep your best staff and bridge the knowledge gaps.

But you need to rethink your approach to training. You’ve got to figure out how to find time to actually let your techs learn; it’s only going to make your business better. You certainly can’t do everything internally—you don’t have the time and resources. So look to your vendors to help. A good vendor should be invested in helping your business succeed, and can support you with everything from delivering their own training to hooking you up with your industry peers to find out what are they doing. This can help you understand what sort of training your teams truly need.

Realistically, you should be investing in training your techs on an ongoing basis.

Automation

One partner I talked to recently told me he’d just lost his main RMM champion. While he had a small team managing this function, this was his key person. So, they decided to examine his daily duties and automate as many as possible, and then train another team member to be the new champion.

This approach can give you a much deeper understanding of your business, via your platforms, tools, and all of your software. Is it just running, or can you tweak it to improve the efficiency of all of your techs? Of course, this doesn’t have to just be for your RMM: It could be any piece of software your business uses that helps monitor and manage data to improve efficiency.

For years Gartner has talked about the digitalization of the worker. And that should be a serious consideration before you hire people—can you alleviate the problem with software or automation? For example, our MarketBuilder program automates some of your marketing. Do you need to hire a marketing person, or do you want to try this first? While MarketBuilder isn’t specifically about techs, you get the picture. Certainly, if you’re a smaller MSP, something like MarketBuilder can help you better spend your time helping your customers. This doesn’t mean we’re going to automate people out of a job, though. You’re not replacing people—you’re augmenting your team with software.

Automation doesn’t mean you’ll never hire anyone again. What it does mean is that when you do hire, you hire who you really need, not who you think you need.

Looking outside your company

Partnering is another great way to quickly fill a skills gap. Find a complementary business that has some slack as well as the skill set you need, and strike a deal. We’ve talked about this with respect to MSPs teaming up with MSSPs to help deliver security, but realistically you could do this with any skills if you needed to fill in your service offering quickly.

Also, your approach depends on where you are in your growth and maturity cycle. I know some MSPs that are looking to acquire other MSPs to help them bridge a skills gap—buying the skill sets they need rather than hiring them. This might be a bit extreme for some, but if you want to scale rapidly and efficiently, it could put you on a path to the growth you need.

With the changes and challenges we currently face as a sector, a skills gap is inevitable. However, looking at the problem in a different way can help you through without getting dragged into expensive hires that may not be what your business needs.