You’ve just gotten the go-ahead to move on a potentially lucrative new project. However, as a hiring manager, you’re in a challenging position. You’re tasked with assembling one of the best software development teams your company has ever seen. And they need to be productive right out of the gate! It’s an assignment that has you wondering: what makes one team successful and efficient, while another team struggles to get the job done?
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If you’re ready to hire a team of developers, you may want to get comfortable because according to IT World, the average time between that initial job posting and hiring date is 35 days — but that only applies to a typical software developer who’s hired for a very basic position. If you require a developer with specialized skills, as is often the case, your hiring timeframe could be weeks longer.
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When dealing with staff augmentation contracts, you need to work with a qualified attorney who can clearly articulate the terms of the relationships the contracts codify. Temporary onsite tech staff can be privy to sensitive data, processes and technology. So you must protect your intellectual property, proprietary technology and company interests as a whole.
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According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost of hiring a new employee is $4,129, although this does not account for onboarding and training costs, which can be quite significant. In fact, the cost of hiring new staff was higher for more complex, higher-paying positions. This means that it’s fair to surmise that the hiring costs for a IT and tech positions are significantly higher.
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Just a few years ago, there was a major disparity between the average pay rate for IT professionals in the U.S. and other parts of the world, such as India. This economic environment made it possible for many companies to outsource their tech projects to overseas companies for a price that was significantly less than what they would pay local talent.
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With competition for top software developer talent growing fiercer all the time, you might consider using a local IT staffing agency to streamline your search. Local staffing agencies often excel at some aspects of recruiting, but using them comes with at least one important caveat.
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Within three years, there will be a million more computing jobs than eligible applicants, according to Code.org estimates. This means top software developers and engineers will continue to be in high demand. They’ll be awash in opportunities and offers, and can take their pick. This causes hiring managers to try and find new ways to get their attention. How can they hire top software engineers on a startup budget? How can they find them on any budget? Companies, regardless of size, have P&L considerations. So how can you land enterprise talent in a competitive market while ensuring you get the best possible value?
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With an estimated 20 million software developers worldwide (as of 2017) and over 250 programming languages and countless specialties, it’s easy to see how difficult it could be for a hiring manager to find the right person for the job.
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Companies usually hesitate to share information about their developers’ demographics, but it’s clear that diverse, multifaceted and multicultural teams tend to be more successful. In fact, McKinsey researchers found that the most diverse companies were 35% more likely to surpass industry medians and averages in terms of performance.
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In 2016, 43% of employed Americans reported that they worked remotely at least part of the time. That’s according to a 2016 Gallup poll of over 15,000 people, and these figures represent a 4% increase over 2012’s figures. The work-at-home figure was even higher in the tech industry, where 57% of workers indicated they worked remotely on a regular basis.
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The blended workforce is the workforce of today, particularly in the tech industry. Forbes reported that as of November 2016, 93% of companies had a blended staff of contractors/freelancers, temporary talent and permanent, long-term employees. This has resulted in a renewed focus on the importance of employee integration, which is essential for maximizing productivity.
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In today’s tech-centric world, many jobs are performed remotely. According to GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com, 3.7 million Americans hold a position that allows for remote work. A survey of Fortune 1000 companies revealed that this trend is even more widespread on a global level, with workers working remotely as much as 50 to 60 percent of the time.
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A 2014 IDC study revealed that there were 18.5 million developers worldwide, with about 11 million considered professionals and 7.5 million calling themselves hobbyists. Now, three years later, there are millions more. Evans Data Corporation pegged 2017’s figure at 21 million, though many speculate that the actual number could be much larger. What’s more, there are over 250 programming languages, with new languages being developed on a continual basis.
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A recent meeting with your software development team leaders left you feeling a bit discouraged. You learned that while you have some very talented developers, most of these individuals are specialists. Specialists tend to have a very narrow range of expertise. For you, this scenario results in low skill redundancy and skill gaps that create major challenges for your team. Now, your team leaders are struggling to coordinate expertise, and the few individuals who are more versatile are getting overworked.
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The rapid growth of the tech industry has made recruiting and hiring software developers increasingly difficult. For every one developer who’s available to work, there are five open positions. There are also dozens of unique programming languages and tech specialties to consider. Evaluating a software developer’s skill set and talents can be a real challenge. The popularity of agile development has made the practice far more collaborative than it was in the past. Collaborativity has benefits, but is also makes it a bit less likely that a developer can take true ownership of a project. So projects listed on developer resumes may not be accurately representative of their talents. Plus, the fast-evolving nature of this field means that work samples are of limited use. Standards change dramatically and quickly. This represents an added layer of complexity for talent acquisition.
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Are you maintaining a local focus for your recruiting efforts? If so, you could be missing out on the many benefits that are associated with hiring the best person for the position—regardless of their location. In fact, there’s a good chance that you’re reducing your prospective talent pool from millions to just a dozen or less. As of late 2016, there were about 12 million mobile developers worldwide, with that figure expected to rise to 14 million in 2020. However, the local developer population in any given location may be quite limited. When compared to the global population, local candidates’ collective skill set may pale by comparison.
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You’ve recently received a wave of calls from prospective clients, and your company is suddenly faced with more work than it can complete in a timely manner. Outsourcing isn’t a viable option because the project is sensitive in nature and requires collaboration with a couple of in-house experts. Instead, you’re considering calling in a team of developers to work on-site with your team (aka insourcing). You’re confident this will be an effective solution, but there’s a problem. You need strict confidentiality, and you’re nervous because on-site talent would have access to lots of sensitive information. If that information got into your competitors’ hands, it could ruin your business!
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You’ve come to the end of the interview and you realize that this candidate is “The One.” So you make a formal job offer, seal the deal and walk away feeling very positive. You traveled down a long and expensive road to get to this point, as you spent weeks screening and interviewing candidates. You had no idea that just six weeks down the road, your company would part ways with this software developer because it just wasn’t a good fit. This developer was accustomed to working in a large team, so when placed in a small group, he felt uncomfortable. He was stifled by the close collaboration and in the end, he simply couldn’t adjust.
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The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act – or HIPAA – is one of the most common healthcare technology concerns due to the strict and far-reaching nature of these regulations.
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So you’ve crafted a job description, and you’re receiving a flood of software developer resumes. Nearly all seem to have great qualifications in a range of different areas. You’re just not sure which qualifications are essential for your exact tech project. All you know is that you absolutely cannot hire the wrong developer because you know that this carries a tremendous cost, both in money and morale. Zappos CEO once said that bad hires had cost the business an estimated $100 million, while a prominent recruiter estimates the average cost of onboarding alone at $240,000 per person.
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On average, there are five open job positions for every one software developer in search of a position, which means that finding a developer is a very difficult task. Finding the perfect developer? Well, that’s even more challenging! In fact, in the United States, the average timeframe for finding a developer — any developer — is 35 days; that is, if you’re not selective. This 35-day time frame seems to apply to a typical developer for any run-of-the-mill project. But most companies have projects that require specific expertise, requiring a far more selective vetting process. Therefore, it’s conceivable that your search could take weeks longer. That just won’t cut it if you’ve got a fast-approaching deadline. And many companies don’t need a permanent employee; they may only require the developer for a single project. Many businesses consider temporary staffing services, but some have concerns that there may be a lag in terms of ramp-up time and actual productivity from an otherwise unknown talent.
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Your company’s sales team has been in overdrive and they’ve just landed a series of new contracts. This is great news, but it also means that you need to hire new tech staff to satisfy your clients’ needs. But you’ve noticed that the software developer hiring process can be very inefficient. A common issue is that new hires are slow to get up to speed, and you need a tech team that runs at close to maximum efficiency from the start. This is where temporary staff can be extremely beneficial to your company. Temporary staff are chosen through a hiring process designed to ensure you get the best results as soon as they start.
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How does staff augmentation compare to managed services, and how do these staffing models impact your tech and software development projects?
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The cost of unfilled tech jobs is significant, with American companies seeing a $20.1 billion dollar per year ding to their collective bottom line. That’s according to a 2017 study performed by Glassdoor, which hints at major opportunity costs and other financial implications that affect top line revenue and profitability as a result of insufficient staffing resources.
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You’ve heard the scary stats and figures surrounding IT and tech projects. You know that on average, the typical tech project sees a 45 percent cost overrun, while taking 7 percent longer than expected. And at the end of the day, the average project delivers 56 percent less value than originally anticipated.
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Your company has invested a significant sum of money and countless man hours into the creation and implementation of an enterprise software application. The goal is to streamline your company’s operations while increasing productivity and improving your bottom line. You called in a team of tech experts to help implement the app. But they left before your in-house tech team had a chance to ask about maintenance and updates.
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iTech was founded in 2003 to transform the IT staffing services industry in the United States. We offer end-to-end IT solutions and the quality of our staffing services is well-represented by our 95% customer retention rate. To deliver the greatest value, our technology experts work to recruit the best candidates for your short-term or long-term tech needs.
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When you dive into a new project, you expect that that project will go according to plan, remaining on time and on budget. But the reality is very different, with a vast majority of tech projects seeing delays and budget overruns. According to a 2016 study by The Standish Group, less than one-third of the projects performed in a one-year timeframe were completed on time and on budget. Another study revealed that 17 percent of tech projects go awry to the degree that they threaten the company’s very existence.
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With an estimated 18.2 million software developers on the planet, you’d think it would be fairly easy to find just one who possesses the requisite skill set. But it’s a task that is much easier said than done and you’re not alone. Hiring software developers, IT experts and other tech professionals can pose major challenges although once you identify those roadblocks, you’ll be better positioned to overcome them.
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You’ve spent hundreds on paid job listings. You also invested numerous hours in reviewing resumes, performing interviews and testing candidates. With over 18 million software developers worldwide (as of 2017), it’s perplexing to think that it would be such a challenge to find just a couple who mesh well with your existing team! Despite your efforts, to date your search has been fruitless and the bottom line is that you just don’t have time for this.
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You’ve just been alerted that two of your lead developers — a married couple with a brand new baby boy — will be taking a two-month leave. What’s more, one of your other developers recently left the company and you haven’t had time to backfill that position and today a huge development project got dropped on in your lap. It was a project that you just couldn’t decline. Completing the job with a full staff would be challenging; completing it without several key players will be near-impossible.
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You’ve invested lots of resources in developing a talented team of software developers, but a recent company merger generated several new (and urgent!) tech projects that surpass what your in-house resources can handle. In short, it’s just not humanly possible for your tech team to address everything in a timely manner. But here’s the dilemma: you don’t need to expand your tech team on a long-term basis, so new hires aren’t the solution. And temporary staff can be very hit-or-miss in terms of their skill level, productivity and overall effectiveness. You could outsource the project, but you’ve had some bad experiences with this in the past, so you’re very hesitant to do so again.
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It took a while, but finally, you’ve developed a software development dream team. You have great interpersonal dynamics and your group is well-balanced in terms of skills and abilities. But then, in a twist of fate, came the car accident that left one colleague out of work for six weeks. And next week, another colleague departs for two weeks to tend to her sick child. In short, your once-perfect tech team now has some major holes and you’re in a position where you’re at serious risk of seeing some major timeline overruns.
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You’ve just received a very disappointing report from your HR head: your newest developer just quit. And really, it’s not unexpected news because this individual just wasn’t pulling his weight. But what’s odd is that this developer was incredibly qualified, with an Ivy league education, years of relevant experience, a killer resume, a broad skill set, and glowing references. In theory, this person should have been the ideal fit! You even went out of your way to ensure that your company met his salary and benefits requirements. So what gives? How could the “perfect†person turn out to be so wrong?
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Keeping pace with the latest technology is a huge challenge. Who knew that the latest and greatest tech could be outdated in a matter of months? Well, it’s a well-known fact that the tech industry will see some very rapid and dramatic advancements in the coming years. Some sources have predicted that the demand for technology gadgets and goods could triple in the ten-year period between 2016 and 2026. It’s evident that the tech industry is rapidly evolving, but few consider precisely why this is the case. What’s fueling the unprecedented growth in the tech sphere? Well, it appears to be a combination of several factors. By understanding the root causes, you’ll gain a much better understanding of where we’re headed in the coming years.
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We’ve all been there. You’re hyper-focused to the point where you lose all sense of time. In fact, you glance at the clock and you’re shocked to realize that six hours have elapsed. It only felt like an hour—two tops. You’ve been totally oblivious to the people and things around you too. While you were coding, your co-workers totally rearranged their cubicles and it would seem your phone rang a few times too…how did you fail to notice that? Well, it’s actually pretty simple: you were in “the zone.†Your co-workers could’ve re-routed a Mardi Gras parade through the office and you probably wouldn’t have noticed unless someone tripped on your power cord.
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You’ve just read through the specs for your team’s newest project, but you are completely and utterly befuddled because the scope is so incredibly vague and potentially nebulous. To say there’s room for interpretation is putting it mildly, as Nostradamus’ quatrains are more clear-cut and straightforward than these specifications. You’re left with far more questions than answers and that’s a bad place to be—especially since those specs are intended to serve as a precise roadmap for this software development project.
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Your business has just landed a huge account. It’s an incredible project that could deliver a major boost to your company’s image. But there’s a big problem: one of your lead developers is on maternity leave, another two just recently retired and your most versatile developer has taken a six-week leave of absence. This has left your development team stretched very thin and now you’re faced with the time-consuming and costly task of finding some temporary employees. You simply cannot drop the ball on this new project.
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You sit down at your computer and your heart starts to race. You hold your breath as you hit the “refresh†button to check your email. You’re positive that you’re going to get another nasty email from a very challenging client… it’s not a matter of if but when. This client hired your firm to create a website and mobile app. But this project has encountered delay after delay. You’re late, and they’re not happy.
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In many fields and professions, recruiters and HR professionals routinely request work samples; samples that are representative of the individual’s skill and abilities. But the reality is that this approach just doesn’t work for most segments of today’s tech industry.
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You interviewed dozens of candidates in your search for the right talent. Through the many interviews and work trials, there was one individual who clearly stood out. This applicant blew the competition out of the water in terms of qualifications and skill. Yet today, your new hire is struggling to stay afloat after just a few weeks on the job.
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Your software project started out on a smooth path, with a reasonable budget and timeline, but over time, things changed. The scope evolved in some dramatic ways, so now the budget and timeline no longer suit the original endeavor. This is what sits at the core of scope creep. It’s a stealthy process that tends to go unnoticed. Even more frustrating: it could have been avoided in the first place. But to prevent scope creep, it’s vital that you understand its primary causes. Only then can you implement measures that will streamline operations, while preventing uncontrolled shifts impacting nearly every aspect of your project.
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Operations can quite literally grind to a halt in the six-week period between Thanksgiving and the New Year holiday. The problem is two-pronged. You have workers taking time off for holiday travel. You also have a phenomenon known as “Christmas creep,“ whereby workers—Millennials in particular—tend to lose focus during the holiday season. Cyber Monday alone is credited with spurring a $450 million loss across all industries (and that’s a conservative estimate, as it assumes just 15 minutes of on-the-job virtual shopping.)
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In February of 2014, Gartner made a prediction: within two years, the IT industry would see a movement to abandon traditional ERP supersystems in favor of a hybrid postmodern approach. This new strategy represents a shift away from the massive ERP suite in favor of a hybrid arrangement that blends cloud-based services and smaller, task-specific, in-house applications. Gartner predicts that by 2018, up to 90 percent of companies will still lack a solid postmodern implementation strategy.
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In 2015, more than 1,100,000 developers were making, on average, more than $100,000 each in one of the fastest growing industries in the country. It’s no secret that software development is one of today’s most sought after job markets. Companies like Microsoft are going to great lengths to attract top software developer talent, offering their employees everything from dodgeball club memberships to unlimited snacks and on-campus XBox hubs. But don’t let this high market demand keep you from making the most informed decision when recruiting prospective talent.
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With ubiquitous connectivity and increasingly cheap hardware, digital technology is increase revenue for brick and mortar stores through better customer experiences that result in better retention and greater profit per customer. In a post and video about their consumer insight tool, the SAP® blog mentioned some statistics about one nationwide retailer that used consumer data […]
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Executives from a handful of notable, high-tech companies engaged in a recent panel discussion on the best ways to hire technical talent. Some of the companies represented included VMware, Stripe, and Dropbox. While the tech executives agreed on many hiring tips, they also disagreed about some things. This may have been because their company cultures differed, and they didn’t all have the same priorities. These tips could prove valuable, but every business really needs to develop their own hiring strategy.
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Today, many companies rely upon distributed processing, the cloud, and even mobile devices. Are mainframe computers still a reasonable alternative for business? Actually, many businesses still rely upon a mainframe as the heart of their IT infrastructure. It’s certainly possible to make a case that large central computers may offer tested security and processing powers. Certainly, a lot of businesses made a huge investment in their mainframe hardware and software in the past, and they are not eager to discard it in favor of the latest tech.
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Gemalto and the Ponemon Institute collaborated on a large study of the way that companies use the cloud to store data and run applications. The study’s poll included thousands of companies from all over the world. IT executives responded to this survey with some alarming answers:
The Internet of Things, or IOT, describes all of the connected devices in the world. The IoT keeps growing at a geometrically rapid rate. It’s no longer enough to simply see reports every year or to get five-year forecasts. Forbes took the chance to use a collection of studies to produce a mid-year report on current growth trends. The report also included comments on related technologies that the IoT is likely to depend upon for future growth.
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Plenty of industry studies support the idea that data-driven sales help companies increase revenue. Businesses have been compelled to adapt new technology to keep track of consumer behavior; this includes information about behavior at the company level and even the industry level. Even small businesses have the chance to gather a lot of information, so the task of trying to make it meaningful might seem overwhelming at first. Still, it’s important to recognize the value of data-centered sales practices and know that intuitive and helpful tools are available that can make proper business intelligence and analysis accessible for all types of companies.
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“Business intelligence†is the term used to refer to the process of transforming data into meaningful insights. According to a Boston University infographic, more than half of all professionals believe their own companies need to invest more in this practice. Today’s companies have a strong motivation to increase profits by analyzing information. Thus, 75 percent of companies are expected to adopt some type of business intelligence by 2020. Products like Cognos Analytics from IBM can help many types and sizes of companies turn data into valuable insights.
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This era has been referred to as the Information Age for quite some time. It’s difficult for people who are actually living in a certain age to have a true perspective about where they are when trends change. Did people who lived during the Bronze Age or Industrial Revolution really understand what was happening? At the same time, people who live during these current times may have more perspective because they do have more information. Thus, it’s probably fair to say that we’re only just beginning to enter a truly digital era, but changes are happening really fast.
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It’s not difficult to find statistics about the rapid growth of the IoT and of course, predictions for future growth. It’s less common, however, to find discussions about the dramatic changes the IoT is likely to make in daily life and ordinary business practices. As technology and connections improve, people may be freed from most manual tasks. They can allow their machines to monitor their environment, communicate with each other, and even respond to changes. The real discussion isn’t about the number of connected devices; it’s about the way that the IoT will change the way that people live and work.
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The idea of using information about consumers to help develop marketing campaigns won’t surprise many marketers. Marketing departments have been using surveys, sales data, and information gleaned from competitors since well before the dawn of the Digital Age. What’s revolutionary is the number of new tools that have emerged that can make the process more efficient, accurate, and profitable.
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With the introduction of cloud computing, data-driven analysis, and other technologies, some IT staff might believe that the only constant thing about their profession is that it never stops changing. Because new technologies keep emerging at a blinding rate, most companies have been through many different application migrations. No matter how well technical people plan these migrations, they often find themselves delayed because the new system can’t absorb the old data smoothly.
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Enterprise Apps Today covered a discussion from IBM’s Dave Turek on the future of computer systems architecture. The main focus of his speech centered on the benefits of using data-centric system architecture. One advantage of keeping data at the center of new designs is that it could offer companies a larger competitive advantage than simply using off-the-shelf applications or data analysis tools that every other business in the industry might employ. Instead of having a business force their information to fit a system’s architecture, the architecture should fit the company’s vital information.
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Some of the best things about the latest version of IBM’s Cognos are the report-authoring features. The platform has a self-service interface that offers business analysts plenty of advantages over comparable tools. Of course, the fairly intuitive and intent-driven system should help even new users produce and edit sophisticated reports quickly. Also, analysts will enjoy the ability to produce their own customized reports without having to wait for an IT staff member to help them out.
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SAP® has opened the doors to its latest AppHaus in California. Silicon Valley seems an ideal location for a facility like this because the company intends to use the AppHaus to foster design-centered thinking. Certainly, that part of California has a reputation as a center for a creative and user-centered approach to design. Company employees, clients, and students may use this new facility to experiment with all sorts of technology and their own ideas. This technology includes robotics, virtual reality, 3D printing, and more.
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Many companies struggle with IT staffing shortages, and recruiting qualified technical people in some areas is likely to remain a problem for the next few years. Indeed, U.S. schools just aren’t cranking out new graduates fast enough to fill demand, as illustrated by these figures:
Well-established tech giants such as Facebook might not have to struggle much to attract and retain technical talent, but most companies don’t have the technical or brand reputation to simply use their company names as a draw for pulling in crowds of eager recruits. If you’ve struggled with IT staffing, you might consider these tips to help with the biggest challenges for IT recruiters.
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What’s next in the field of tech recruiting? IT staffing departments already struggle to find recruits with certain skills. Unemployment rates for technical people have fallen as low as 2 percent in some areas, according to a report by the Society of Human Resource Management, or SHRM. At the same time, the way that software gets developed and maintained is evolving rapidly, so it’s not enough to know which software jobs are tough to fill now; it’s also critical to keep an eye on the future. With this in mind, it might help to consider some IT staffing predictions for the next few years.
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There’s little doubt that the hiring managers in charge of attracting, recruiting and evaluating technical people face many challenges today. In many parts of the U.S., it’s tough to attract qualified talent because competition for top prospects is so intense. After IT hiring managers select recruits to interview, they have to figure out which ones have the skills, aptitude and personality to get the job done and fit in well with the company or even an individual team. Companies that recruit IT staff need to have a good hiring system in place to make sure they are attracting and hiring the right people.
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The UK just voted to leave the European Union. Even though no steps have been taken yet, the impact has already been felt in worldwide markets and in the sinking value of the GBP against other currencies. There’s some talk that a second referendum might be held to confirm the first vote. Still, it’s important to understand how Brexit could change the game for companies that need to hire technical talent.
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Most companies include business growth as one of their primary goals. In fact, some businesses need to grow or risk failure. At the same time, companies have to manage risks in order to grow successfully. The advantage of using an IT staffing firm is that it can help you grow your business by managing many risks, making costs more predictable, and saving time.
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Corporations spend billions to recruit IT staff. According to Forbes, American firms spend $72 billion on recruiting every year, and the worldwide total may top $200 billion. In addition, companies all over the globe have allocated larger and larger portions of this budget to pay IT staffing firms that can help simplify recruiting and control costs. It’s important to understand how difficult IT recruiting has become to see why it is now a specialized field of its own.
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Which IT skills do companies demand the most right now? Computerworld conducted a survey of almost 200 IT executives in 2015. These executives ranked project management behind only software development as a position that their company needed to recruit for. In the previous year’s study, project management hiring only ranked fifth. In addition, the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the demand for IT managers will increase by 15 percent in the next decade.
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Competition between IT staffing companies and corporate IT departments remains fierce in many markets. Also, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that the demand for software developers will continue to increase in the next decade. In fact, almost 200,000 new developer jobs are expected to be listed by American companies by 2024.
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Today’s companies operate in very competitive business environments. No corporate CEO would approve of a badly composed sales letter in an age when global communication travels instantly, and social networks can make mistakes in communication viral news within hours. In most markets, companies also need to compete to attract technical talent, so most employers can’t afford to make mistakes in the hiring process.
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