If you’re understaffed and struggling to find candidates with specific skills to meet your business’s cybersecurity needs, then you’re in the right place. Your goal is to hire more cybersecurity professionals so you can keep your business’s digital assets safe. In this article, we’ll share practical business solutions you can implement to combat the impact of the current cybersecurity workforce shortage on your business.
Expand Your Talent Pool
One of the best ways to find the right personnel in this cybersecurity talent shortage is to expand your talent pool. Here are a few ways you can expand your talent pool; you may realize that your HR department has been limiting its search.
Partner With Programs and Colleges
To get top talent at a lower cost, look for recent cybersecurity graduates who have completed a program, or received a certificate or degree. The best way to do this is to partner with the program or college directly. Many educational institutions will even help you promote job openings for you because they want to prove that their programs lead to quick job acquisition.
You can partner with local or online programs and colleges directly and ask how they can help you hire the cybersecurity talent you need.
Hire Retired Cybersecurity Professionals
Depending on your business’s needs, you may be able to hire retired cybersecurity professionals to fill a few roles in your organization. Typically, retired professionals may be more cost-effective than current professionals because they need fewer benefits and may want to work part-time.
Retired professionals are great mentors, trainers, teachers, and leaders in your IT department. They can help team members with less cybersecurity experience become valuable assets to your organization.
Hire Those With Potential
The typical approach to hiring for cybersecurity roles is to look for the best of the best with the highest education and most experience – but that can really diminish your talent pool and zap your cybersecurity staff budget.
Instead, focus on hiring those with potential. Rather than focusing on applicants who hold degrees, search for applicants who either have cybersecurity experience or are trainable.
Also consider those who are outside of the technology field. Having someone on the cybersecurity team who has a different perspective can help your entire team better serve your other employees and the organization as a whole. Again, a willingness to learn is critical for these hires.
Hire Internally
Have you considered hiring a cybersecurity role from within your organization? Anyone with an interest and aptitude for cybersecurity can take on the role with the right training and leadership.
Foster Diversity
According to the (ISC)² Innovation Through Inclusion: The Multicultural Cybersecurity Workforce study, people of color make up 26% of the cybersecurity workforce, of which only 17% are women. (ISC)² also states that the salary discrepancy between caucasian males and females of color is $9K. These statistics make it clear why fostering diversity in your organization – especially in cybersecurity roles – is so important.
Hiring a diverse workforce begins with getting rid of any bias your company already has, including racial, ethnic, and gender biases in your hiring processes and company culture. Review your entire hiring process, from your job postings to how you review resumes. Is there any inherent bias? Then review your company culture. Do women and minorities feel comfortable in your office or online office? Check your attrition rate by race and gender – is it higher for women and people of color? If so, bring the topic to the company leaders to address the problem.
Improve Your Operations
Hiring the right cybersecurity talent extends beyond the HR department. Taking the time to improve your business operations can help with your recruitment efforts.
Educate Your HR Department on Cybersecurity Needs
Sometimes the HR department doesn’t understand what the cybersecurity team needs. Having unclear objectives can lead the HR department to pass over quality candidates and choose those who end up being a poor fit.
This calls for educating your HR department on your cybersecurity needs so they can hire effectively. Simply going over the requirements you have, the skills the new hires need, and what you’re willing to train can help the HR department find you the personnel you need.
Develop a Career Path for Cybersecurity Professionals
Sometimes the problem isn’t in finding the right talent, but in hiring them and retaining them.
Developing a career path and clearly laying out growth plans for cybersecurity personnel can help you retain those employees. This works well because many cybersecurity professionals leave a job to earn more money or expand their skillset somewhere else.
Share the Cybersecurity Burden With All Employees
Your business’s cybersecurity posture is not just up to your cybersecurity team – it’s up to every end user, including leaders, employees, and shareholders. Setting up training processes for all end users can help relieve the burden your cybersecurity team feels, which might reduce burnout and increase retention.
Rethink Your Tech
Cyber threats don’t care about the cybersecurity talent gap. Maybe the answer to your talent shortage is the technology you use.
Standardize and Automate Security Processes
Automating security processes is a great way to relieve your current cybersecurity team of repetitive tasks so they can focus on more important efforts. There are many processes you can automate, including:
- Threat detection and mitigation using endpoint security, penetration testing, and antivirus software
- Network traffic using network monitoring software
- Security audits using security analytics software
Automating these processes can also help you standardize them, which enables you to increase efficiency and reduce waste.
Choose Tools that Empower Users
According to this Dark Reading article, the primary problem related to the cybersecurity workforce shortage isn’t the talent itself, but rather the technology companies use in their daily activities.
The author says that if businesses begin to utilize tools that are accessible to the average user, they can increase their cybersecurity posture and efficiency company-wide while leaving the big details to the cybersecurity team.
Consider the tools your employees currently use. Are they user-friendly? Or do they require a lot of training? If you can, consider searching for more user-friendly tools for your users.
Outsource to CyberFort Advisors
If your security team is struggling to keep up with your company demands and your HR department is struggling to find cybersecurity talent, outsource your security needs to CyberFort Advisors. We customize the best email security, network security, desktop security, and cloud security solutions for each business we work with. Learn more about CyberFort Black.