About July 7 2021 Jul 07 2021 by Paul Athy
Staffing Solutions in Technology Across All Industries

Your company is a tech-based business no matter what industry you call home. Perhaps you don’t think of it that way, but today’s reality is that every business – no matter how small or large, no matter what your core mission – relies on technology for everyday function, internal and external. You could be in financial services, insurance, or even education. Technology drives your daily operations and it powers your company’s customer-facing products and services.

This is why it’s so hard to fill tech positions – you aren’t competing for top talent only among industry peers, you’re literally competing with every company out there.

Demand Is Huge, but Supply Is Not

There’s a significant technology labor shortage, especially here in the US. That means competition in recruiting and hiring can be far tougher than competition for sales and customer loyalty. It’s daunting. And it can feel disillusioning. How are you supposed to operate efficiently, grow your business and stay tight with customers if you don’t have a full complement of the right tech people?

You Can’t Seize the Future with Outdated Hiring Practices

You might have the best internal recruiting team possible, but if they’re only considering traditional search methods, you’re automatically cutting close to a third of the tech workforce out of play.

You know that saying about how, if you keep doing the same old thing you’ll get the same old result? It’s not true when it comes to tech staffing. Not anymore. Now, if you’re still recruiting the traditional way, you won’t get any results at all.

“Permanent” Is Passé

Traditional postings for permanent positions will sit there forever. There are precious few, if any, tech folks out there who are actively looking and likely to see your ad, let alone apply for the job.

Some small companies are still focused on hiring permanent employees. They want to retain domain knowledge in-house. Or their culture questions the qualifications of temporary workers. Or their company is heavily invested in an in-house talent acquisition team that may not be experienced in sourcing and hiring contingent labor.

But mid- to large-size companies recognize that there are no permanent employees anymore, in any field. In the technology space the average tenure of a software engineer is 3-5 years. Your supposedly permanent employees are ripe for poaching.

Contingent Is In

Today, you must be open to hiring consultants because, frankly, if you’re not playing in this space, you’re not going to find the tech staff you need. Using contingent expertise enables you go Get Things Done because you can sidestep the problems of supply and demand and get right down to work.

Almost a third of the US-based tech workforce is already working as independent consultants because they prefer it that way – one more reason your traditional job postings will go unheeded.

Who’s working as contingent tech staff? Whomever you need, from technicians to those with highly specialized skills:

  • Architects
  • Database developers
  • Cloud engineers
  • UX/UI designers
  • Agile Coaches
  • Project managers
  • Software engineers
  • Scrum masters

Technology is now so complex we no longer use “IT” to describe the field. Every company needs a broad range of tech know-how, depending on the age and size of your business as well as how tech-forward you currently are. For example, have you fully migrated to the cloud, or are you still making the transition? Good techs are adept at crossing industry lines, applying their knowledge to address your specific needs.

The longer you do without the technology staff you need, the farther behind you slip.

  • Consultants come onboard project by project, whatever timeframe is required, whether that will be weeks or years. Unlike “permanent” employees who could leave at any time if they get a better offer, contract tech staff stick around for the entire life of the project. The average contract is 1-3 years.
  • Using tech consultants is not only faster, it’s more cost-effective with less risk, saving you time and money because you don’t have to deal with payroll, benefits and other HR management.
  • Consultants are scalable. You bring in only as many as you need for a specific purpose. You always have the expertise you need, when you need it, for ongoing operations or special projects.
  • Hiring contingent labor can also be an innovative way to access talent who might consider joining your organization full-time.

Power-4 Makes Flexible Tech Staffing Easy

Businesses have been in a contraction cycle, starting even before the pandemic. But we’ve reached the end of that cycle and everyone is ramping up. You need to hire right now, to fill new positions and augment existing tech staffing. With our extensive technology sourcing expertise and deep networking pool, we can facilitate that. We have the tech staff you need to get busy and up to speed quickly.

Independent consultants align with Power-4 so they can concentrate on doing their work without worrying about their next placement. Our tech experts work for you, but they are on our payroll. We handle all those details, streamlining the process for everyone.

You can:

  • Fill needs right now, no matter how complex, with skilled, experienced tech talent
  • Maintain momentum for operational efficiency, to complete transformational work such as migrating to the cloud, or to pursue innovation to develop new products or services
  • Maximize ROI
That’s powerful technology staffing, the Power-4 way.