The long projected wave of technology hiring is finally here in full force. Across the country, there is massive pent up demand in the market following the events of 2020. Organizations are racing to complete delayed initiatives, catch up with new competitors on the market and innovate in order to gain market share and drive revenue after a difficult year.
The COVID-19 pandemic has moved the needle forward in digital transformation in a colossal way. Organizations must innovate today to stay competitive tomorrow as consumer needs and patterns have evolved.
“IT employment is now at historic levels having fully recovered all jobs lost as result of the pandemic,” observed Mark Roberts, CEO of TechServe Alliance. As teams rebuild and project timelines get back on track, a new challenge is emerging for organizations of all types – the race for technology talent.
3 Tech Trends Are Fueling Competition
Historically, the IT labor market has been tight for over a decade, with demand greatly outweighing supply. With lack of internal expertise acting as a major roadblock for organizations looking to accomplish their technology goals, teams are forced to look outwards where competition is fierce.
Right now, the technology industry is faced with three key trends happening simultaneously:
- Organizations that reduced their staff size in order to weather 2020 are adding headcount rapidly.
- Organizations that had to scale back their 2020 project roadmap are cramming these initiatives in this year, along with a myriad of new priorities added for 2021. Roadmaps are heavy.
- Organizations that were able to retain their staff during 2020 are seeing a high volume of turnover as their internal employees are contacted about new roles daily. A recent survey from DICE notes that 48 percent of technology professionals expressed an interest in changing companies this year.
This combination of three distinct situations is causing a volatile churn in the market, a grab for talent across skill sets and new roadblocks for end users, whose roadmaps are increasingly condensed and face heightened executive pressure to deliver.
The Counter Offer War
In addition, organizations are facing a new tech labor trend: The Counter Offer War. Across the workforce, many experts are noting a growing trend dubbed, “The Great Resignation, ” with a record 4 million people quitting their jobs in April alone, according to the Labor Department. Although resignations are flying, so are competing counter offers as organizations desperately work to retain their current teams. At Medix, we have seen the escalated bidding war first-hand, often working through two to three rounds of counter offers before candidates settle on a final acceptance. Salary bloat is emerging as a temporary, but imminent, risk to organizations across industries.
Some organizations aren’t ready to scale their full-time equivalent (FTE) headcount due to uncertainty on the market or are unable to compete with rising temporary wage inflation. For many, greatly increasing fixed costs for the organization year over year simply isn’t possible given the organization’s cash flow.
Consultants Offer a New Kind of Solution
Over the last 18 months, the pandemic response also moved the needle forward in the independent consultant market. As enterprise and boutique consulting firms alike saw a dramatic drop off in sales, high-level, specialized technology professionals were laid off in droves.
Many of these independent consultants took the opportunity to remain independent, joining the gig economy. While this environment has existed for a decade, it is becoming increasingly viable for end-users of all sizes as a cost cutting and results producing methodology to lift their internal initiatives off the ground, especially as the war for tech talent rages through the remainder of 2021.
By adding variable cost resources, organizations are able to accomplish a robust internal roadmap, compete aggressively in their industries and retain control and visibility of their business critical projects, while avoiding the financial risk and retention battle that accompanies FTEs.
Independent consultants could be the silver bullet end users need to keep pace in the race for technology talent.
Are you looking to identify top technology talent for your projects, without being burdened with additional overhead costs? Contact Medix Technology today to learn how we can positively impact your digital transformation projects at 20-40 percent the cost of traditional consulting.
Madison Nordstrom is an Account Executive with Medix Technology in Dallas, Texas, specializing in Enterprise SaaS and Cloud Enablement. Madison and her team partner with end users of all sizes to enable them with the right personnel to complete successful, streamlined and cost effective digital transformation initiatives. Outside of work, Madison loves whipping up new recipes with her fiancé, Dustin, and is a craft queen – often buried under scraps of paper or balls of yarn!
