Information technology has become the core driver of growth and transformation in organizations, irrespective of size and industry. This growth, in turn, has led to a surge in IT jobs in the U.S. This growth in the information technology job market has yet to follow a definite pattern. Sometimes, the job market registers unusual growth, which presents both benefits and challenges to hiring organizations. Such was the case in the early 2020s when there was an explosion in IT jobs. Though projections show the IT job growth rate is slowing, the growth in IT jobs will likely occur steadily.
To get a more accurate picture of the IT job growth rate in the U.S., let us refer to the projections made by these leading agencies. Janco Associates, Inc., a management consulting firm, performed a mid-year analysis of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2022. According to the assessment, the firm estimated the previous year’s growth rate of 20,000 IT jobs per month would slow down to 14,000 jobs. Despite this projected decrease in IT jobs, the growth rate is still significant. The Bureau of Labor Statistics also predicts an overall growth rate of 22% in the decade from 2020 to 2030.
Finding Creative IT Staffing Solutions
These numbers indicate that the demand for IT talent will remain high in the foreseeable future. This kind of job climate can add to your difficulties in finding suitable candidates when hiring for your software engineer roles. Your company may need a certain amount of talent but is not yet ready to onboard all of them. You may be trying to balance staying within your hiring budget and attracting the right software engineers to fit your needs.
Thinking creatively and innovatively will help you find the required talent, and collaborating with a reliable IT staffing service often leads to such creative solutions. Going with an IT staffing agency that understands your company’s talent needs in relation to the current IT job market can save you significant time and energy while performing your candidate search. Also, you can maximize your budget during the search.
Here are some innovative solutions that can help you meet your hiring needs in today’s tight IT job market.
1. Adding Talent within Your Budget
Your company is looking for a mid to senior-level DevOps engineer, but hiring talent at this level is beyond your current budget. A viable alternative can be hiring a full-time junior-level engineer at a salary that is within your company’s budget and bringing in a more senior engineer for a three-month contract. By allowing the senior engineer to train the more junior engineer, you can bring in the necessary expertise without crossing your budget.
2. Contract Hires
Hiring contractors reduces a company’s financial risk. Less overhead is involved when you hire talent temporarily through a staffing firm. Within the first three months, companies are likely able to know if the software engineers are a right fit or not for them. If you find they are not the right fit, you can quickly change them without bearing a significant financial burden.
If your company wants to retain an engineer for months or even longer, you can often negotiate this situation with the staffing firm. There is also less risk if it turns out that you need more budget to warrant the engineer’s continuation. Furthermore, if a company has limited the number of full-time hires it can make for the year, then it can always start with new engineers as contractors. Later, the company can hire them full-time once its budget gets renewed.
3. Balance Between Full-Time and Part-Time Workers
You can add to your existing staff by balancing full-time and contract-based talent as per your exact needs. If your company requires a rare skill set, then it may make more sense for you to hire a part-time professional. The right IT staffing firm can assist your company in deciding which talent model works best for you.
For example, if you are building an app, you may need contract talent to build the app architecture for the first few months. Then, you may need to bring in a software engineer to build the app temporarily. Afterwards, you will need support staff on an ongoing full-time basis for app support and maintenance. The staffing model in this situation differs from hiring six full-time employees immediately. Here, you may only need to hire a more senior professional late in the process, and that too, not for the long term. It would be best if you took the time to choose an IT staffing agency that understands your goals well. Accordingly, the agency can partner with you to help you develop your IT staffing per your short-term and long-term software development goals.
4. Make a Few Hires at a Time
You may need to hire a certain number of engineers at a time when the IT job market is moving fast. Tackling the entire hiring process simultaneously in such a situation puts you at risk of losing candidates if your hiring procedure has bottlenecks and candidates must wait.
As an example, your company needs to fill in 20 job positions. You realize that the interview process for all these positions will take a certain amount of time. It would help if you considered interviewing only a minimum number of candidates you can hire right now. This system would require you to pinpoint your company’s specific needs and the roles that will fulfill those needs before you begin your hiring process. Considering these factors can help you avoid shortening the interview process as you try to fill in the roles too quickly.
When hiring in an accelerating job market, you should prioritize hiring a few positions at a time. This is a great way to get these positions filled, and by preparing strategically, you can make sure you get all the hires.
5. Maximize the Interview Process
For an enhanced interview process that leads to exceptional talent, you must ensure that you have the right staff members to conduct the interviews. There are many companies where engineers help with the hiring process, which is excellent for holding peer technical reviews. The scenario involving engineers in the interview process can benefit your company. You need to ensure that the hiring manager is engaged early in the process and responsible for making the final decision. He can identify early on if the candidate is a good fit for your company.
Hiring a significant number of new employees in a relatively short time can be a daunting challenge for your company, especially in a talent market experiencing rapid growth. Here, an established and accomplished IT staffing company can greatly help you. By performing initial screening and vetting of job applicants, the company’s recruiters can make your interview process shorter and more efficient.
Your company may face various challenges in sourcing, hiring, and onboarding IT talent. A reliable and proven IT staffing firm such as Xyber IT can partner with your company to find and develop creative IT solutions that effectively tackle these challenges. Irrespective of IT job market conditions, the firm can help you get the best and right fit IT talent within an appropriate period and with reduced financial risk. So take the first step to collaborate with this seasoned IT staffing agency to get your dream talent onboard without any hassles.
