78% of IT companies have faced talent shortages in the previous year, as these survey results persuade us. Another report says that IT specialists will be especially hard to find within the USA in the first quarter of 2024 — #1 by difficulty compared to all other specialists. Yet, the IT & Data sector is going to plan up to 30% more hires compared to all other domains.

As we step into 2024, outstaffing continues to be one of the game-changers for companies aiming to fill their skill gaps and thrive in a dynamic environment. Let's explore the key IT outstaffing trends shaping the way we assemble global tech teams this year.

Market Conditions Impacting Team Scaling

🌤️ Tech-forward strategies determine the future of IT outstaffing

The future of IT outstaffing is all about adapting to evolving business requirements. In 2024, businesses are turning to outstaffing to tap into specialized skills and remain competitive and innovative. In general, projects related to business automation will be the most popular request for developers.

It’s possible to outline 7 most popular areas where outstaffed teams can bring value to any tech company:

• IoT;

• AI;

• AR/VR;

• CX;

• E-commerce;

• EdTech;

• Blockchain.

🌤️ Cybersecurity takes center stage

In 2024, prioritizing cybersecurity is a crucial IT outstaffing trend. Companies are now scrutinizing their outstaffing partners' security protocols to safeguard sensitive data.

Good outstaffing partners help businesses maintain trust and integrity in business operations. They:

• Provide secure workplaces for outstaffed specialists, including using VDIs when needed;

• Pass security ISO certification annually;

• Stay GDPR-compliant and responsibly process all the clients’, hires specialists’ and projects’ data.

🌤️ Flexible working models blossom

In the turbulent times of the current recession, companies need to be especially flexible when allocating their resources, and most of them know about it. That’s why business leaders audit the performance of their projects more often and update the processes which can slow it down.

The go-to ways to avoid layoffs are:

• Constant rethinking of the team structure;

• Considering outstaffing as a team scaling tool.

• Following IT outstaffing trends to learn all the hiring lifehacks.

Basically, outstaffing could be called a team scaling philosophy. It allows tech teams to collaborate with new teammates as long as needed. For instance, we at Outstaff Your Team offer contracts ranging from 3 months which cover short-term and long-terms goals of our clients.

One can also notice that flexible working conditions are a burning point for discussion. The shift towards remote work, accelerated by the pandemic, continues to influence trends in outstaffing.

Remote work typically:

• Enhances work-life balance;

• Opens the door to a global pool of top talent;

• Cuts office expenses.

It also may reduce the global carbon footprint by 50%.

In this regard, it becomes clear why IT companies look for flexible People Partners able to seamlessly gather teams, irrespective of geographical boundaries.

On contrast, 90% of companies in the world are implementing or going to implement Back-to-office policies, yet workplace experts believe that 2- or 3-day office attendance will dominate over the 5-day according to the article by CNBC. Such companies as Meta and Amazon are among the “office evangelists” as face-to-face interactions make tracking productivity and idea exchange a bit easier. It means that we may see fewer job openings with a full remote schedule. Therefore, companies providing such a schedule can earn respect among the programmers. To address potential drawbacks of remote mode, team leaders can organize diverse remote team-building activities.

Recruiting and Retention Trends in Outstaffing

Our Talent Acquisition team has shared their dos and don’ts, which will be helpful if you are hunting for tech talent in 2024.

📈 Modern recruiters follow their target audience

Traditional talent attraction methods no longer work the way they used to.

❌ Traditional ads on job boards only

✅ Advertising on social networks, like Instagram or YouTube, is now considered a more effective method, especially if you’re looking for Gen Z specialists. Millennials and Gen Z prefer to search for jobs through social networks. 86% of young people use special groups and channels for this.

❌ Template job ads

✅ Currently, you can leverage inclusive ads. Such ads place emphasis on the employer’s readiness to hire specialists of different genders, backgrounds, etc. This involves adjusting the projects and benefits accordingly.

❌ Email

✅ HRs still communicate with candidates via email, but handy messengers and social media are preferable. 98% of text messages sent are read, 45% are responded (compared to only 6% for emails).

❌ Mass mailings on LinkedIn

✅ According to statistics, 79% of candidates use social networks during their job search. However, only 10–15% of specialists open received job offers. It is better to use other social networks for more live communication.

📈 Positive candidate experience strengthens brand reputation

Sounds good, but what makes candidates label their interview experience as positive? What do most candidates expect from the hiring party in 2024?

✅ Easy application. More than 70% of candidates are not ready to apply to a vacancy if they need to spend more than 15 minutes on this application.

✅ Video interview should be considered as the basic, not alternative, interview method nowadays. This solution saves time and money for the company and potential candidates.

✅ Short interview process. 68% of IT specialists consider 2–3 to be the most optimal number of interview stages:

• HR screening (the initial communication with the recruiter);

• Technical interview;

• Final interview (the meeting with the CEO or project manager, during which you can talk about the business, industry trends, and future goals of the company).

Only 10% of respondents indicate that the number of interview stages does not matter if the company is a tech giant or the management offers benefits and tasks in a “not like everyone else” style. The other 90% will refuse to process if you have six rounds of interviews and a test, even if you are Google. Here, we can see the hint about the next insight in our list.

✅ Personalized benefits. Template motivation for all the tech team members does not work. Companies should prepare personal compensation packages for different specialist types and even particular specialists.

✅ Short approval cycle. 23% of applicants lose interest in the company if they do not receive a response within a week after sending a resume or visiting an interview, and another 46% in 2 weeks. In addition, a delayed response is a red flag for the candidate that the company may have a poor management strategy and an immature HR brand.

✅ Detailed feedback. Your brand can stand out from the crowd when your HR team or agency explains the reasons for candidate rejection. Frankly, the majority of companies do not provide such insights, limiting their feedback to polite but vague replies.

✅ Remote mode. Candidates expect to be able to work from home. Hence, it is better to organize the remote mode if your project allows that.

✅ Online onboarding. With remote work and a hybrid schedule, the remote adaptation of team members continues to develop.

✅ Personalized training for newcomers. It’s better to adjust any training program to a certain specialist. Perfect if you could offer a mix of different training formats and include the training modules related to the development of soft skills.

📈 Data-Driven Decision-Making Reduces Turnover Rates

In 2024, any respectable IT outstaffing company should analyze big data in HR to make informed choices about remote teams.

Decisions backed by concrete insights:

• Help attract the matching talent on the first try;

• Foster a more efficient work environment by identifying the areas of improvement.

For instance, our recent review of the recruiting trends has proved that professional education is no longer a decision-making factor for IT hiring. Altogether, by tracking developer’s life cycle, Outstaff Your Team has concluded that different approaches to motivating tech team members work at different stages of their journeys with a company.

Ongoing stats' analysis helps with modifying the hiring and retention strategies like nothing else.

📈 Upskilling for the future is a must-have

Outstaffing is a way to simplify the life of tech team managers. Among the main trends of outstaffing is engaging the specialists who don’t need extra control and can independently upskill when see such a need.

📈 Team’s well-being matters

This outstaffing trend is rather an outstaffing dogma nowadays. Poor communication was spotted as one of the most popular reasons for quitting. The review by Workable says that loneliness at work has become something common in 2023. Such flashy facts cannot go unnoticed.

Beyond the virtual workspace, companies are recognizing the importance of each specialist's well-being. That’s why a lot of them provide mental health support to their teams and rethink their communication frameworks. When it comes to outstaffing, tech businesses opt for People partners who value their company culture and arrange systemic well-being checks with outstaffed team members. Thus, they track specialists’ satisfaction with work as well as professional motivation.

📈 AI in HR is a power to be explored

To make recruiting and retention more productive and personalized, many companies have already started to utilize HR virtual assistants for candidate screening, onboarding, payrolls, and other ops.

❌ Fully manual processing of resumes and candidates

✅ HR virtual assistants actively help in picking the right specialists and handling more effective communication with them. That accelerates the time to hire. Also, AI-based solutions make training programs more personalized.

Yet, you should be careful when implementing them in 2024, as the regulations related to the secure utilization of AI are being actively developed. But we are sure that AI will become secure and take a significant place in the future of outstaffing.

Are You Ready to Stay Ahead of The Competition?

Companies that embrace outstaffing trends are better positioned to navigate the future of work successfully. From tech-forward strategies to prioritizing cybersecurity, fostering a team’s well-being, leveraging data for hiring decisions, and investing in upskilling, all those practices help tech businesses to stay competitive and increase a company’s market cap.

In times when countless agencies provide outstaffing services, it might be challenging to find a reliable shoulder among them all. If you opt for scaling your tech team in 2024, it’s no time to give questionable solutions a try. Businesses need some proven scaling strategies.

So, in the Outstaff Your Team’s client care menu, we’ve gathered full-cycle hiring and retention services spiced up with our 13-year experience. Boost your productivity with us.

FAQ

by Kateryna Balakyreva
on January 16, 2024. Share on LinkedIn Post on Twitter

Kateryna joined the IT industry 3 years ago. Reviewing B2B software and related frameworks, she concluded that the best-in-class programs need well-built teams and started to write about tech teams scaling. Her natural habit to improve texts and search for alternative visions comes from working at the publishing house in early youth.