One of the most ubiquitous and essential providers of services worldwide, the information and telecommunications industry supplies the infrastructure, hardware, and services for voice, data, and video transmission to government, commercial, and consumer customers. Businesses in this space include telecommunications (wired and wireless) companies, cable and internet service providers, and major software firms, who together provide the transmission, access, networking, and reception capabilities required to operate an intricately connected ecosystem that powers the global connection of people and distribution and sharing of information. As a result, the value and potential impact of information and telecommunications industry HR teams on those businesses cannot be overstated.

Understanding the information and telecommunications industry

Companies in the industry can generally be segmented into three primary groupings, separated by their placement in the value chain. That said, the lines have blurred considerably, as many of the largest organizations offer blended (or “bundled”) services and products. The primary segments include:

• Telecommunications services are provided by companies that offer wired and wireless telecommunications and telephone services, cable and fiber-optic connections, networks, satellite, and voice over internet protocol (VoIP).
• Telecommunications equipment manufacturing and servicing companies produce and service essential infrastructure devices and lines for transmission and reception, such as coaxial and fiber-optic cabling, routers, switching equipment, towers, and digital and satellite antennas and dishes. 
• Information and communications technology (ICT) services providers provide managed IT services that integrate the data processing, network monitoring and management, cybersecurity, software development, and cloud computing services for information and telecommunications firms 

Deloitte estimates that the industry generates $1.6 trillion in revenue in the U.S. and $3.1 trillion globally. It accounts for between 5.5% and 10% of the nation’s GDP, depending on which industry segments are included in the calculation, but has an even greater impact, given its contribution to the quality and experience of modern life, particularly in more advanced nations and economies worldwide.

A note: related but separate, the technology, media, and telecommunications (TMT) industry refers to a broader investment and business sector that encompasses IT, digital content, and communications; the content creation and distribution part of the industry is not included in this segment (information and telecommunications).

Major industry trends and advances

The information and telecommunications industry has become one of the most dynamic and changing across the globe since its upending due to 1) the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and 2) the associated introduction of the World Wide Web/Internet. The Telecom Act reduced government regulation and the barriers to market entry for smaller, innovative companies, while the latter supported the expansion of access to new digital information and entertainment sources barriers to market entry by smaller, innovative companies, while the latter supported the expansion of access to new sources of digital information and entertainment. 

Since that time, the industry has used that freedom to offer a convergence of those services (phone, internet, video), which has driven a substantial need for integration with technology companies to provide associated ICT services. In turn, the pace of technological advances has exploded over the years. Consider, for example, those representing the dominant trends in the current environment:

Broadband capacity

With a seemingly unlimited appetite for faster speeds and lower latency (delay) among institutional and consumer customers alike, the expansion of 5G (with 6G already in development) offers higher speeds and greater transmission bandwidth to satisfy increasing demand. As AI and data centers, digitally enabled and autonomous vehicles, streaming video and interactive entertainment, and the number and types of personal mobile devices and applications grow, expanding capacity is a top priority.

AI and machine learning (ML)

The pressure to adopt these advanced digital capabilities is enormous, as profit margins shrink and system availability and latency directly affect the value delivered to customers and customer satisfaction with company services. The applications are being developed and installed to optimize network management and loads, identify (and help rectify) system downtime, technical faults, and other failures, and support predictive maintenance planning and alerts. It is being deployed to identify cost-control opportunities, productivity issues, and to support and deliver intelligent customer service.

Infrastructure expansion

Rapid AI adoption and massive corporate investments in AI data centers are requiring major increases in transmission and interconnection line capacities. When combined with the expansion of broadband capacity, the pressure to deploy higher-capacity fiber-optic cabling, satellite technologies, and wireless transmission capabilities is creating an enormous industry-wide demand for supporting infrastructure growth. Interestingly, PwC reports that the U.S. lags China in fiber-optic penetration growth by a factor of 4X, and others point to the aging U.S. communications infrastructure as putting the critical healthcare, utilities, transportation, and public safety operations infrastructure at risk.

Market growth and profitability declines

Despite rising demand for services, connectivity is becoming commoditized even as customer satisfaction erodes. In fact, Deloitte warns that the industry will most likely experience low growth with just reasonable profit margins. The opportunities appear to lie in broader business-to-business technology services (cloud, cybersecurity, and the Internet of Things) that require greater ICT expertise and investment in infrastructure. The need for capital to make those investments will remain a challenge for many small-to-medium-sized industry players.

Key information and telecommunications industry HR challenges

The challenges facing information and telecommunications industry HR leaders and teams stem from ongoing technological advances that must be balanced against the management, integration, and maintenance of multiple layers of older technologies. Consider, for example the presence of overhead phone lines that remain in place in older neighborhoods and rural communities alongside the buried coaxial cable and newer fiber optic cables, that operate at the same time with satellite dishes, antennas, and receivers—all of which transmit and receive wired and wireless content (voice, data, video) and services to homes, businesses, cars, mobile phones, and embedded or wearable devices (watches, fitness and sports trackers, medical sensors, portable GPSs). 

Each of these represents a separate generation of technologies that together require integrated design, development, delivery, and support for businesses, governments, and consumers who increasingly demand seamless, continuous, and immediate access to and delivery from the wide range of devices they own and rely upon.

At the same time, more traditional talent issues face leaders and professionals in information and technology industry HR roles.

Turnover and retention rates

With 24x7 operations, rapid tech changes, tight budgets, and strong competition from tech giants, supporting careers, developing skills, and retaining employees requires agile, competitive, and often role-targeted HR strategies. Although the industry reports relatively reasonable 12-13% annual turnover rates, those most critical to strategic growth plans and advanced technological offerings are staying in place only 1-3 years, with younger (Gen Z, Alpha) jumping to other firms more quickly. Surveys reveal that 33% leave due to boredom and a lack of challenging work, and another 45% leave due to salary concerns, as their peers at large technology companies earn more.

Rapidly growing skills gaps

With the aforementioned trend towards the adoption of newer technologies such as AI, broadband (5G), IoT, and cloud computing, skill gaps are emerging, necessitating continuous employee training and upskilling. The need to adapt to industry changes, digital transformation, and emerging market trends has created enormous pressure on information and telecommunications industry HR teams to produce and deliver learning content, to facilitate employees finding the time to participate in the programming, and to help prepare and support managers to stay abreast of the adoption cycles and plans to ensure they and their workers are prepared prior to implementation.

Managing change and supporting resilience and adaptability

Considering the pace of change that is occurring alongside the need to provide continuous service and support for existing customer technologies and services (24/7), the impacts on employee productivity, motivation, well-being, and organizational culture are substantial. Particularly difficult is managing those across geographically dispersed operations and remote work locations, with a wide range of operations and roles. Managing inevitable resistance to change, along with adaptation fatigue and the side effects of stress, burnout, illness, and injury, requires planning, communication, training, and listening to employees, as well as policies and benefits that support their human-most needs. Information and telecommunications industry HR teams operate under constant pressure to help manage the awareness, acceptance, and adoption of changes across employee levels and functions.

Labor and business competitors

The adoption and application of advanced software, network, data, and video communication technologies means that the competitors are no longer only other information and telecom companies. The competition now includes some of the most admired, valuable, visible, and global technology brand names (e.g., Amazon, Google, Microsoft), which are not only providing competitive services, but also job opportunities at scale – with workforces in the tens of thousands and locations across the globe. Their ability to attract and retain skilled and experienced workers is a formidable barrier for many traditional information and telecommunications companies, much less for small- to medium-sized businesses, all of whose growth and expansion strategies are pinned to expanded services that rely on those same technologies. 

For these reasons, information and telecommunications industry HR leaders must devise and implement robust HR and talent strategies, policies, practices, processes, and programs that address the full range of operational and human issues affecting employees' work, their focus, and their ability to achieve business objectives.

Priority information and telecommunications industry HR solutions

To respond effectively to the rapidly changing technological, industry, and competitive landscape while navigating challenging labor markets, information and telecommunications industry HR leaders must develop strategies that address diverse needs and target high-value solutions that enhance organizational performance stability. To accomplish those ends, certain priority approaches and solutions rise to the top and should be evaluated for their potential ability to accelerate the achievement of an organization's business, operational, and talent objectives.

1. Adopt more advanced HR strategies and cost-effective approaches

Understanding trends and meeting shifting issues head-on requires planning, projection, and HRE agility. The top considerations should include addressing or advancing workforce planning (WFP) capabilities that support staffing projections and future skills gap analyses, providing advance notice of future skill acquisition and development needs, and assessing the staffing impacts of AI and related technology adoption.

A focus by information and telecommunications industry HR teams on improving cost-effectiveness to align with growing demand, but flattened revenue growth by introducing process improvement strategies, such as Lean or Six Sigma, increased automation, and AI-driven support. Furthermore, update the HR operating model and organization structure to enable more flexible, rapidly deployable, consultative, and agile response capabilities across the organization.

2. Enhance critical skills attraction and hiring 

With increasing demand for skilled ICT workers (e.g., network and IT, project planning, network and cybersecurity, and VOIP engineers and specialists) in direct competition with not only technology but also many other industries, the need to create tailored strategies to source, attract, hire, and retain such talent is paramount. Conduct a critical workforce segmentation (CWS) exercise, and develop targeted improvements to the candidate experience specific to the needs of those most strategically important and difficult to source, attract, and hire. 

Use technology such as labor market intelligence (LMI) platforms to locate skilled talent, talent marketplace systems to identify and manage business-aligned career and mobility opportunities with internal talent, and a mixed “6Bs” (buy, build, borrow, bind, bot, bounce) strategy for leveraging and expanding the internal and external talent pools needed to fulfill staffing requirements.

3. Create a continuous development culture and environment 

As skills requirements change due to a combination of rapid technological shifts (e.g., AI, 5G) and associated workflow and task adaptations, along with creeping skills obsolescence, workforce reskilling and upskilling are no longer a nice-to-have. Information and telecommunications industry HR and learning professionals should consider capturing employees' skill and proficiency levels and creating a skill catalog or ontology to store and categorize them. They can become the basis for more targeted learning and development activities and capabilities. Track and recognize/reward employees for new skill acquisition and upgrading, and their managers for encouraging and supporting such development.

Impactful options for more targeted, efficient, and effective delivery include:

• Technical certifications such as those from Cisco, CompTIA, or FCC licenses.
• Create bootcamps for rapid skill development at scale.
• Embrace the offering, use, and sharing of learning “chunks” (short videos, articles, guides), and measure for use/adoption/ratings with LMS-embedded micro surveys and APIs.
• Leverage AI-generated learning program and development path recommendations based on what the highest performers and the most skilled employees use.
• Use project assignments, cross-functional teams, and temporary deployments to resolve issues, cross-pollinate expertise and methods, and leverage the power of peer and experiential learning.
  
  

4. Implement and broaden knowledge management 

Develop or enhance a knowledge management (KM) strategy, technology platform(s), and communication program to retain, document, share, and preserve expertise in older technologies still in use, and to explain how they can be integrated with new, emerging, or advanced capabilities. Encourage peer-to- peer support, coaching, and education with communities of practice, document sharing sites, and collaboration platforms (Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace, Notion, Asana), as well as an “expert locator” or employee directory capability with searchable employee profiles including their skills and proficiencies, critical experiences, and so on.

5. Evaluate and enhance employee experience (EX)

Employee engagement and retention levels can be raised significantly by establishing a focus on employee experience as an employee value proposition (EVP) differentiator that supports and drives the aspired culture. Leverage process improvement, employee-centered design, and related approaches and techniques to engage workers in identifying pain points and streamlined solutions that make their work days and work environments easier to navigate.

6. Embrace and upgrade employee retention

Maintaining a stable, long-tenured employee base is driven by several well-established approaches and priorities, starting with company culture. Whether operating in a mature, long-established company or a small-to-medium (SMB) company, information and telecommunications industry HR leaders should be looking for ways to adapt to competitive and (generational) labor market demands for elevated skill development, greater autonomy, coaching, development, and advancement. As such, creating flexible work (time and place) policies, compensation, and classification programs that emphasize advancement and development, and employee wellness and well-being (physical, psychological, and financial) can have a major impact on employee retention.

Similarly, managerial effectiveness presents a major opportunity to enhance employee retention, engagement, performance, and productivity. With line manager behavior, actions, and decision-making accounting for 70% of employee engagement scores, this cannot be overstated: they are a significant driver of the longevity of the most valued and critically skilled employees. Of equal importance is the development of formal employee listening strategies and capabilities that ensure a continuous “finger on the pulse” of the workforce, and the associated needs, pain points, and improvement opportunities. This also points to the need and value of using such insights and information to enable data-driven decision-making that leverages HR analytics as an early-warning beacon and to inform decisions about workforce trends and behaviors.

7. Exploit long-standing expertise in contract workers

The well-established and widespread use of contractors by information and telecommunications industry HR and operations teams to supplement capability gaps and address talent shortages should be leveraged more extensively to address human capability shortcomings. This means leaning into and formally expanding an existing network of experts and subcontractors, using vendor management software (VMS) and candidate relationship management (CRM) platforms (typically used by recruiting teams) to identify, manage, and maintain contact with future project workers. 

HR teams can work with talent acquisition or recruiting teams that may have lower hiring volumes to proactively identify, engage, and expand the talent pool of potential contractors for current or future work. Current state shortages in job opportunities for entry-level network engineers, programmers, software or systems integrators, and cybersecurity specialists can be leveraged to meet short-term requirements. Implement seamless onboarding and performance tracking for these workers, and develop processes and plans to foster a more unified culture with their full-time peers without violating any employment or co-employment laws and regulations.

Relevant Practices & Tools

Advanced HR Strategy Practices to Plan for Delivery of Impactful HR Services and Support. >

Advanced HR Strategy is a refined approach to planning long-term HR priorities. It involves increased specificity of plans and goals around key employee groupings and uses detailed workforce data and projections to clarify the needs and trends impacting those groups... more »

Developing a Winning Talent Strategy to Identify Key Capabilities and the Most Appropriate Workforce Mix. >

A talent strategy defines the talent needs and associated objectives necessary to meet top business goals. It is both an integral part of the HR strategic plan and a direct informer of the talent management strategy and planning process... more »

Assessing Current and Future Skills-based Requirements and Gaps to be Filled. >

Bringing workforce planning into a skills-based level of assessment requires cataloging the skills required by the positions to be included, identifying the availability of those skills in the current workforce, determining future needs, and creating a gap analysis to reveal the requirements for subsequent skills acquisition and development... more »

Using Human-Centered Design to Build Employee and Customer-Focused Innovation Initiatives. >

Human-centered design is an approach to innovation that grounds any initiative (service, program, or product) in real human needs by engaging the end-users in the design process... more »

The Voice of the Employee (VOE) Worksheet: Capture Feedback to Identify Recurring Friction and Convert Insights into Targeted Improvements. >

The Voice of the Employee (VOE) Worksheet is used to capture employee feedback at the moment an experience occurs, rather than relying on delayed or aggregated surveys... more »