In the past two years, companies had to face unusual challenges. Everyone had to adjust in the face of the sudden shift to virtual settings and travel restrictions. From food to the technical recruiting industry, companies had to find ways to keep working.
After all, there are two things that people always need: eating and attracting new talent. As the food industry increased takeaway services, IT staffing improved its processes for remote hiring. After experiencing quarantines and remote work for so long, new IT hiring trends are coming up even in a post-pandemic scenario – besides Netflix and Chill trends.
Here are the most popular trend related to IT staffing and remote recruitment
What Is IT Staffing?
In short, IT staffing means hiring top professionals in software development through an agency. The positions you can fill include:
- Cloud computing engineers
- Frontend and Backend experts
- Computer network specialists
- System engineers
- Computer support specialists
- Helpdesk support
- Database administrators
IT staffing provides a candidate pool based on your needs, whether for a permanent contract or a temporary fill-in. This type of service supports your hiring process when filling a position that requires a specific skill set or level of expertise. If you lack a technical background, an IT staffing strategy can help you identify a candidate with the exact tech skills you need and the personality that best fits your team.
When we talk about IT staffing trends, we refer to the transformation of the tech recruitment industry. Here are 6 trend for this year and upcoming future!
What Are The Tech Hiring And IT Staffing Trends for 2021?
1. Contingent vs. Permanent Contracts
Being a couple of years into the pandemic, most businesses faced new challenges due to the sudden shift to remote work and uncertainty related to workplaces. Employees had to readjust to work from home. While employers had to fill different positions to improve their systems while working remotely. Following this global shift, we can see two rising trends in the IT hiring industry.
Firstly, some businesses are moving towards contingent contacts. According to Gartner’s survey, 32% of companies and organizations replace full-time employees with contingent workers. After the pandemic, most positions require short-term operations and flexibility. And companies opt for contingent labor and short-term contracts as a cost-saving measure. Following this trend, IT staffing and agencies created hiring processes specialized in these types of roles.
Secondly, companies are opting for permanent remote contacts. According to Agile’s analysis, numerous IT businesses prefer full-time employment and permanent positions. Hybrid and remote solutions guarantee flexibility and long-term collaboration, avoiding training and hiring costs. In this case, companies rely on technical recruitment to find long-term employees. The aim is to create a stable team and guarantee continuity to their development processes.
What to do as an employer:
These two opposite trends mean that companies have to meet two different demands. In one case, businesses may need to cope with isolated issues related to their IT processes. For example, external support to implement security systems transiting from a physical to a virtual office. Or, you need to improve your database and data collection for your eCommerce. In both cases, you can opt for a freelance or contingent contract. Your new hire will deal with an existing team and work on specific elements of your development project.
In the second case, you need someone to manage your project with continuity. You are launching an app for your startup or managing employees’ data for an international company. For these types of roles, full-time positions are preferable. First, writing code means that new hires will spend time understanding the previous programmer’s style. Second, introducing new developers to other departments takes time and team effort. If you need continuity, the second trend is a better option. Both contingent contracts and permanent positions are growing trends in the IT industry. And you can choose the one that suits best your business.
2. Demand for IT Security
In June 2020, Netwrix’s survey found 38% of CIOs and IT directors plan to invest in security training – almost 20% more than before the pandemic. Furthermore, many CEOs (31%) prefer to train their IT staff rather than hire new people (unless they need very specialized skills). With the rise of remote work, organizations prioritize upskilling their current workforce, or adding high-specialized candidates, for their cyber-security needs.
What to do as an employer:
Cybersecurity is the top priority for employers. Security roles involve security operations; support engineers; analysts: threat vulnerability engineers; information security officers; network security techs; and cyber defense experts. When you can, hire a trainer and upskill your existing dev team. If you need to hire any of these roles, expect a competitive market. In this case, hiring a freelancer or temporary contract is a risk. The demand is constantly increasing, and recruiting IT professionals is challenging. Offering a remote full-time position allows you to guarantee a fair degree of flexibility for them while building a long-term relationship for you.
3. Remote Interviewing
One of the most recent trends in the recruitment world is remote interviewing. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, most companies virtualized their hiring process to respect lockdown restrictions. According to Walters people recruiter reports, 67% increased their video interviews processes. And 63% of human resource managers daily used video interviewing recently. Finally, 13% of hiring managers plan to rely on remote video interviews. And now, 16% of companies exclusively hire with remote models.
What to do as an employer:
Virtual interviewing is more common than ever. If you need to hire a developer or a new member, you cannot underestimate the importance of virtual interviewing and onboarding. Video calls are the first step to seeing how a candidate interacts remotely with other team members. Arrange different stages of interviews. And make sure to have other team members participate. So, you can have a glimpse of how they will work together and other members to ask project-related questions.
4. Candidate Experience
After the shift to remote work, companies are aware of employee turnover and the importance of allowing a better work-life balance. So, most employers accelerate programs to help their employees train and upskill to grow within the company. As a result, a better work-life balance and training are a part of the benefits for most companies.
What to do as an employer:
Did you know that US remote employees (40%) were more likely to be promoted as managers in the past year? Hiring full-time remote positions in a virtual setting help to grow a dynamic team. Having more flexibility, people tend to stick with their job positions. As an employer, you can provide courses and training to upskill and build a solid team. Onboarding new employees takes time and resources. So, an existing team facilitates the process and guarantees you continuity on a running project.
5. Diversity & Inclusion
After the Black Lives Matter and gender protest like Me Too, diversity and inclusion are top priorities for employers and employees. According to a Clutch.co survey, 23% of managers saw increased productivity thanks to a diverse workforce. In addition, an inclusive team has 18% more chance to attract better talent and improve the brand image (14%). For this reason, IT staffing is increasingly presenting candidates from more diverse backgrounds, especially in remote settings.
What to do as an employer:
With remote job positions, you can build an international and multicultural team. Not only can you benefit from different time zones to have an ongoing service. Also, you can diversify your team for a sustainable and inclusive work environment. And you can use professional technical recruitment to hire in specific geographical areas based on the skills you need.
6. AI & Analytics
After the pandemic, the HR world is adapting to AI systems and analytics to find candidates. Analytics has become a daily tool to select talent. And AI systems are at the core of most recruitment processes like screening CV. More specifically, AI and analytics provide recruiters metrics to facilitate the source of hire; offer acceptance rate; cost per hire; vacancy cost; and so on. Finally, recruitment chatbots help recruiters engage candidates worldwide.
What to do as an employer:
AI processes cannot replace humans, but they can help you target and speed up the processes. Or help you find your target audience using search engine optimization or marketing analysis. These automated processes are a tool to improve your business. Also, in this case, building a solid and long-term team is a more suitable option to grow a running project.
How To Prepare Your Company for Tech Hiring Trend
Tech hiring trends change with companies’ demands. Based on what you need, you need to prepare a staffing plan. As a professional tool to analyze your staffing needs, it’s the best way to understand which trend to follow for your company.
Here are the steps you have to follow to build your IT plan:
- Roadmap staffing needs: As we mentioned initially, both contingent and permanent remote staffing can be a suitable solution. Based on your goals, you can opt for one solution or the other. Keep in mind that you want the most talented candidate and money on the hiring/onboarding process.
- Reorganize team structure: Based on your team structure, prepare everything you need to introduce the new hire, distributing tasks and workload.
- Precise job descriptions: To attract the right candidate, you must write a clear and concise job description. Besides a list of requirements, examine your company culture and focus on your mission. You want to attract someone passionate about what you are doing, especially hiring a long-term remote position.
Hire With DistantJob
IT staffing is an effective industry to find talented candidates that fit your company’s needs. And following IT staffing trends and professional technical recruitment can help find talented candidates worldwide.
Or, you can hire through us! We offer global IT staffing services, which means we target specific candidates to bring you the most talented IT professionals. Our HR follows the whole process and ensures a long and stable relationship. If you still have questions, just contact us!
