93% of businesses are experiencing IT skills gaps, impacting software engineer staffing, AI competencies, and cyber security talent — among many other essential areas of the business.
In response, according to the same IT skills gap report, commissioned by Forbes, almost a third are turning to external sourcing solutions such as consultants and freelancers to meet emergent staffing needs.
To find the right talent, Fiverr Enterprise provides a curated IT talent pool with instant access to carefully vetted Dev & IT talent, that’s ready-to-hire and able to meet your business requirements.
Keep reading to learn smart strategies for software engineer staffing in a time of growing skills gaps.
This article is part of our guide on talent management.
Introduction to Software Engineer Staffing
For IT and tech companies, software engineers are critical members of the team. They manage the architecture, build services and products, set strategy, and come up with creative solutions for customer problems. However, the numbers don’t lie — there aren’t enough developers and engineers to go around. According to IDC, “the global shortage of full-time developers will increase from 1.4 million in 2021 to 4.0 million in 2025, which means that the full-time developer labor force will perform 90.8% capacity in 2021 and 84.9% capacity in 2025.”
In short — software engineer staffing is becoming an immense challenge.
Importance of effective staffing in project success and organizational growth
Without the right people in place, hitting organizational goals is a tall order. If there aren’t enough engineers in the team, progress is much slower, and feature releases can be stalled altogether while engineers and developers work on bug fixes and technical debt.
Ineffective staffing can also hit IT and tech companies hard because of idle resources — almost the exact opposite problem. When you find great talent, you don’t want to lose it, so even when a project winds down, you may find it hard to cut down on that bench spend. After all, new clients and opportunities come up all the time, and you don’t want to have to hesitate before you say yes. But with full-time salaries that don’t equate to billable hours, you’re taking a direct bite out of revenues.
The Process of Recruiting Software Engineers Using an On-demand Talent Strategy
With all of this in mind, it’s no wonder that IT and tech companies are increasingly turning to freelancers and consultants to meet staffing needs. By expanding their search from local, limited talent pools of full-time employees, businesses can gain access to skilled, vetted, highly qualified software engineering talent, on-demand and scalable for specific project needs. There are four discrete stages to the process:
- Assessing Staffing Requirements: First, consider what engineering talent you’re looking for. There may be a specific client project you’re recruiting for, or you might be looking to build a talent pool of highly competitive skills ahead of time.
- Recruitment Strategies: How will you find missing skills? Staffing agencies add an expensive mark-up and have limited talent available, your network might not know the right people, and marketplaces are so crowded, they can feel daunting.
- Candidate Screening and Evaluation: Once you’ve found a sourcing strategy that works — it’s time to ensure you’re hiring intelligently. Be certain freelancers can compliantly work for the business, and that they are the right fit for your brand.
- Onboarding New Hires: You want billable hours starting as quickly as possible, so streamline onboarding any way you can, from getting documentation signed, to getting approvals from Legal, and ensuring easy system access to data and tools.
Challenges in Software Engineer Staffing &
How Fiverr Enterprise Addresses Them
Fiverr Enterprise provides an IT talent pool, curated especially for you — one place where you can gain instant access to your own carefully vetted Dev & IT talent, that’s 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.
Some of the main challenges of accurate and streamlined staffing can be solved by utilizing a Freelancer Management System (FMS), like Fiverr Enterprise. For example:
Forecasting resources effectively: It’s hard to deliver talent to your client quickly without racking up high costs when you rely on full-time software engineers. With freelancers, you get direct access to the talent you trust, and can guarantee you’re delivering on client timelines.
Ramping up faster: Onboarding full-time software engineers can take weeks or months, by which time your clients may have found an alternate solution. Using a FMS means you can instantly hire from a talent pool of vetted, skilled engineers, and never worry about missing a deadline.
Keeping costs under control: Paying high salaries to non-billable workers is a huge challenge for today’s IT businesses. Scale up and down on demand with a Freelancer Management System, and reduce irrelevant resources, bench spend, and talent acquisition fees such as agency markups.
Simplifying administrative overheads: When specialist IT talent is needed, many tech companies turn to niche agencies who can provide specific skills. However, juggling relationships with multiple specialized agencies is a huge headache. A FMS allows you to source, hire and manage from one dashboard.
Retaining long-lasting relationships: One of the misconceptions about working with freelancers is that they are only used for a short-term project, and then forgotten for good. With a FMS, you can continue working with expert talent you’ve hired in the past, and form long-term bonds with those you trust and who fit your culture and ethos.
Say Yes to More Projects by Sourcing With Fiverr Enterprise
Say goodbye to software engineer staffing challenges for good with pre-vetted talent within your budget available on-demand. No more hesitation before you take on that next big project, and a one-way route to maximizing business growth.
Schedule 30-mins with one of our workforce experts to see how it works.