Working with status holders in the IT-industry.

Companies and organisations cannot find enough IT professionals, status holders cannot find jobs. Both problems can cancel each other out.

Challenges, opportunities and best practices

Companies and organizations cannot find enough IT professionals. At the same time, there are many status holders who cannot find a job. In this article, you can read how both problems can solve each other. And also how you can achieve other goals as a company or organization, such as your SROI obligations.

Companies and organizations cannot find enough IT professionals. At the same time, there are many status holders who cannot find a job. In this article, you can read how both problems can solve each other. And also how you can achieve other goals as a company or organization, such as your SROI obligations.

Shortage of IT professionals hinders growth

The shortage of IT professionals has been significant for years. This not only affects the ICT sector, but also other sectors that want to (further) digitalize. For the ICT sector, the shortage of personnel is a major growth obstacle, economists from ING, among others, conclude. In this sector, a large part of the core activities remain labor-intensive. Think, for example, of programming or implementing new systems.

Status holders and work

Asylum seekers become status holders as soon as they receive a residence permit. Between 2014 and 2022, 215 thousand residence permits were issued. More than half of these were for Syrians and 16 percent for Eritreans.

It appears to be difficult for these groups to find a job in the Netherlands. More than half of the status holders who received a residence permit in 2014 did not have a job last year, CBS concluded in April 2023. Most status holders, if they work at all, have flexible contracts and work in the temporary employment sector or the hospitality industry.

Despite efforts by the government and many companies and organizations, it is therefore only possible to create a suitable match on the labor market to a limited extent. That is a shame, because many status holders can immediately add value to companies and organizations. Sometimes a short training course is required first. At Motopp, status holders are (re)trained as IT professionals in a short period of time. We have done this more than 250 times now.

Overcoming every language challenge

Before companies and organisations decide to work with status holders, such as our software developers, there are often concerns about possible language barriers.

At Motopp, we have seen that these can be overcome. The selected talents of Motopp receive additional language support and are professionally introduced to the Dutch work culture. After the onboarding phase, they are intensively coached by our organisation for a year.

We believe it is important that this is addressed properly and we also see that companies want to do this, because they want to be a responsible employer.

Really put an inclusive HR policy with status holders into practice

Many companies and organisations indicate that they find it important to have an inclusive HR policy. In practice, there is still a lot to be gained in this regard at many companies and organisations.

As far as Motopp is concerned, a truly inclusive HR policy can only be achieved if a company or organisation also has room for status holders. The way this is dealt with varies considerably.

Research shows that status holders can mainly be found in smaller organisations, with difficult to fill vacancies and organisations that focus on diversity. Support on the work floor is seen as an important factor by a potential employer. Language and education are also considered important factors. It is also noticeable that companies are more likely to hire status holders if they know other examples of companies and organisations that do this. Companies and organisations that hire status holders (therefore) also have an exemplary function for other companies.

With status holders as IT professionals, you can achieve SROI and SDG goals

Social return, also known as SROI, is an approach to create more employment for people who are at a distance from the labour market. Government organisations include an SROI obligation in tenders. This means that the organisation that wins the tender must spend a certain percentage of the contract sum on the implementation of SROI. One of the ways to meet this obligation is to hire status holders, which strengthens their employment position. When you use Motopp as an organization, you fulfill your SROI obligation (partly, depending on the contract amount).

Working with status holders also fits in perfectly with the efforts to achieve the United Nations’ SDG (Sustainable Development Goals). Motopp endorses the goals and is happy to help ensure that status holders have equal opportunities.

Lessons from practice

Standing up for status holders. That is what we at Motopp have been doing successfully since its foundation. We give motivated and highly educated status holders the opportunity to