For several years now, the technology industry has been experiencing a “developer drought”.
There are currently nowhere near enough developers with qualifications and experience on the market. Being a developer is not usually classed as an entry-level role, which only adds to the struggle for companies looking for competent and experienced developers.
Ways it’s affecting businesses
If organizations are unable to hire the developers they need, they could become stagnant and suffer reduced performance. Without skilled talent to fill these necessary roles, businesses may have to put progression on hold.
This could be incredibly frustrating for business owners who have a ground-breaking idea but no employees to enact it. Depleted talent pools may also lead to less qualified developers receiving the role, leaving them to perform the role without sufficient expertise.
With the lack of developers, the cost of recruitment will continue to rise
The longer employees need to spend looking for new talent, the more time and money they will spend on resources and the work of HR teams. Employers may also see the financial strain in the form of incentives.
With a smaller talent pool, employers need to be more competitive to attract those who have the skills. Those companies lucky enough to already have skilled developers on their roster will need to work hard to keep them.
With ample opportunities out there, it may mean incentives for those already in employment. As a result of this, smaller businesses with less capital will struggle to compete with big businesses.
Here are a few ways you could tackle the ‘Developer Drought’
Your first port of call should be to look into alternative solutions. As this lack of developers doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon, businesses need to look for new and creative solutions. Consider outsourcing to an automation platform.
With companies offering 24×7 security and operations centers, incident management, auditor engagement, application health monitoring, integrating application deployments into a CI/CD framework, and assistance with containerization, your developers or creators can work on building applications without having to worry about the nitty-gritty.
No-code options mean whoever is working on your application won’t need to be able to write complex code, or you could outsource your DevOps to places like DuploCloud.
Another way to tackle this crisis could be to hire additional freelancers. This could be a suitable option for some businesses. Although this is not a long-term solution, freelancers could help solve this shortage temporarily.
If your company is experiencing seasonal demands using job boards could be the best option.
Another way to avoid the dreaded drought is to invest in training for your existing employees. Perhaps employees in other sectors who are keen to expand their knowledge base and learn a new role.
Although it may seem timely, employees that have received in-house training are more likely to remain loyal to the company.
However you choose to combat the lack of experienced developers in the talent pool right now, it’s an important issue to consider for the health and future of your company.