Kansas City has been generating a lot of buzz on becoming America’s most entrepreneurial city, but talent shortages and innovation challenges may be getting in the way. According to KCNext, the home for Kansas City’s technology industry, more than 2,000 technology jobs remain unfilled. In order to solve this talent shortage, we need to be able to attract high quality talent to the Kansas City Metro, but how?
According to KCNext’s website, “In order to sustain the growth potential and global competitiveness of Kansas City tech companies, our region’s tech workforce must also continue to grow.” KCNext works to promote Kansas City as a leading destination for technology companies and professionals through different programs and tactics like Chute.
Chute is a tool powered by KCnext to help Kansas City employers source technology talent from across the nation. It highlights Kansas City’s culture as well as different company profiles. It’s a way for technology professionals to get a feel for what it’s like to live in Kansas City or work for a specific company before even clicking the word “Apply.”
Kansas City software development company, Twentyseven Global, joins in the tech talent recruitment effort. Steve Roatch, CEO and president of Twentyseven Global, said, “Twentyseven Global helps mitigate IT skills and shortages by providing access to hard to find talent. For example, we have skilled Microsoft.Net software development resources in our offshore team in Vietnam. We lead these teams by skilled project managers, consultants and architects on our local team.”
The tech talent shortage isn’t the only thing preventing Kansas City from becoming America’s most entrepreneurial city. According to an article written by Adam Arredondo, co-founder of the Kansas City Startup Village, being “Kansas City nice” could be hindering innovation.
Arredondo says, “Often, when I go to meetings with Kansas City leaders, it almost seems accepted that the real conversations happen in the parking lot afterwards, not in the meeting we just finished. This is a huge problem. We sit in meetings and bite our tongue in order to keep everyone happy, but we’re just hurting ourselves in the long run.”
There needs to be a change, Kansas City. If we want to continue to grow into America’s most entrepreneurial city we can’t be afraid to challenge ideas or voice opinions. Isn’t that what innovation is all about?
To read Arredondo’s full article click here.
