Since having left ArcSight, I have been approached by many companies seeking individuals with ArcSight skills, either to recommend people, or to employ me. Unfortunately, these companies use an outdated approach to acquire talent.

The approach used by these companies are, like every other company, quaint. What's the approach? The approach is: ask for current and expected salary. Like many other complex software, ArcSight software (ESM, Logger, Connectors, etc) has a high learning curve, and requires knowledge in several areas, including systems administration, infrastructure security, among others.

It appears that ArcSight, after HP purchased them, have been very successful in persuading companies (at least in Singapore) to purchase their software and/or hardware. However, the talent pool with ArcSight skills (including skills noted above) do not increase.

People with these requirements are likely to have spent many years acquiring these knowledge and skills. As such, the number of these people are small. And they are highly sought after, and are as well, likely to be happy with their jobs.

My advice to these companies is to hire fast learners, those who can quickly acquire the skills necessary, instead of hiring those with the requisite experience. Of course, the other solution is to pay a higher salary. Paying a higher salary is just a quick fix solution, because if someone can be enticed to leave their company for a higher salary to join yours, they can similarly be enticed by other companies to leave your company for a higher salary, and then, your company will be in yet another fix to find someone with the same or better expertise.

I don't claim to have expertise on how to retain talent. After all, I'm not a HR specialist, and many HR specialists have spent their lifetime finding the exact balance of conditions required to retain these talents.

The formula to retain talent hasn't been found yet. It's up to you to figure it out.