By the end of 2024, there will be 28.7 million software developers in the world, up from 23 million in 2018, and growing. However, despite the growing number of developers, many believe that software development is the most heavily impacted area hit by skills shortages.
“Finding qualified candidates and keeping up with ongoing technological advancements [is a real challenge]” according to Jim Cassidy, CEO of Code Institute. “The evolving nature of technology often exceeds traditional education and training programs, creating a disconnect between the skills employers demand and the qualifications candidates hold.”
Fiverr Enterprise is a Freelancer Management System (FMS) that provides a curated IT and tech talent pool, helping you hire the best people, at the right cost, and at the right time.
Keep reading to learn about improving your process for software developer hiring.
This is part of a series of articles about Talent Management.
Learn more in our detailed guide to hr compliance.
Learn more in our detailed guide to talent management practices.
What are Software Developers?
Software developers design specific programs, applications and computer systems. You may hear the term software developer used interchangeably with software engineer. However, a software engineer usually works on wider architectural needs or designs larger software systems, while a software developer tends to focus on specific applications and projects. You can think of software development as a subset of software engineering.
Importance of Hiring Skilled Software Developers in IT and Tech Companies
For an IT or a tech company, your software developers are right on the front lines, building and maintaining your products and solutions or those of your clients. They need a wide range of skills, all of which are equally important.
For example, software developers will start by analyzing customer needs and designing programs to meet those challenges – so they often need to be good with customers and creative problem solvers. At the same time, they need the hands-on technical skills to outline the code, test and build the programs. While a lot of the job is iterative and exciting, there are also routine and repetitive tasks involved such as the maintenance and documentation to keep software performing at its best.
Without hiring skilled software developers, poor performance at any of these stages can open up huge business risk.
The Process of Hiring Software Developers
Software developers regularly specialize in certain niche areas. For example, you may need a software developer who specializes in IoT, VR/AR, mobile, or AI. Rather than hire a whole team of full-time employees who may not be utilized if the right project doesn’t appear, many IT companies are increasingly looking to work with freelance software developers.
This gives them the flexibility to scale up and down quickly with the right talent at the right time. There are four discrete steps to work through.
- Sourcing Candidates: Many companies are moving away from using staffing agencies, due to the high costs, and the limited pool of unvetted talent. Tech marketplaces can be a good place to find freelancers, if companies can find a way to sift through the sheer number of 5* profiles and find the right skills.
- Screening and Evaluating Candidates: Once you have your shortlist, think about how you’re going to vet them. This could involve getting references, checking they have the right experience and qualifications, and important items like ensuring they can compliantly work for your company.
- Interview Process: Best practices are to interview at least 3 potential software developers before making the final call. An interview is your opportunity to ask candidates to complete a skills test, and get a vibe for if they are going to be a good cultural fit and if they are the right person for the client you have in mind.
- Onboarding and Integration: You’ve found the right freelancer – don’t let them get away! Make sure you can onboard them quickly, including giving them permissions and access to the right systems, and collecting documentation and signatures for compliance, tax, and payments.
Successful Strategies for Software Developer Hiring With Fiverr Enterprise
Fiverr Enterprise provides an IT talent pool of varied tech talent, curated especially for you – one place where you can gain instant access to your own carefully vetted Dev & IT talent, including software developers with a wide range of skills, all of whom are ready-to-hire and able to meet your business requirements.
Hire any tech expertise, eliminate resource uncertainty, reduce hiring costs and maintain a consistent and quality workforce. Our SaaS solution enables you to confidently take on more projects, knowing you have a dedicated talent pool that’s always available.
With Fiverr Enterprise, you’ll be able to:
- Ramp up quickly with on-demand talent
- Reduce your bench spend, making every worker billable
- Ensure you have access to a variety of top quality software development skills
As a result, when embarking on software development hiring, you can use Fiverr Enterprise’ Freelance Management System (FMS) to:
- Forecast more efficiently: Forecasting is a huge part of running an IT services company. With an on-demand talent pool, you know how much a project is going to cost from the start, and you can guarantee you’ll deliver on a client’s timelines – even before you hire for the role.
- Meet deadlines with ease: Instead of hoping your network knows the right software developer for the task at hand, you can pick a freelancer from a talent pool that’s global and available. Pre-vetted talent means you don’t have to worry about quality, and can just hire instantly.
- Reduce the cost of talent acquisition: An internal bench of software development expertise is expensive, and so is relying on a niche staffing agency. Eliminate the bench and lean on direct relationships with freelance talent, and you can save hiring for when you know you can bill.
- Simplify talent management: Instead of maintaining multiple relationships with different staffing agencies, source, hire and manage all of your talent from one FMS. If prices or availability changes, it’s all updated in the system and shared across teams and departments.
- Build relationships for the long-term: Keep the party going with software developers you’ve worked with (and loved) in the past, so you never lose a contact who you trust and who is a great fit for your culture and clients. No agency standing in the middle, it’s just you and your workers.
- Make more money: With a ready pool of software developers and any other tech talent you might need at your fingertips, you never need to hesitate before you say yes to a new project. Your business can scale in line with demand, knowing your costs are kept to a minimum.
Speak to one of our workforce experts to learn how to drive more business growth with the right IT team.