Tech Talent war: Remote work is your secret weapon

The pandemic has accelerated adoption of technology by manifold and this has resulted in a surge in demand for tech professionals across the globe

It is the engineering talent that builds and runs the internet infrastructure, ecommerce, messaging apps, social media, video calling that we have become so used to using during the pandemic. Increased demand for these service means — software developers, data analysts, AI/ML engineers, DevOps engineers etc. are in high demand. Globally, 43% of organizations say they plan to increase headcounts over the next six months, according to a study by McKinsey.

It is getting increasingly difficult to get tech candidates into interview rooms

And employees are listening to these Siren calls and plan to seek new roles. Many HR managers expect about 10% of their workforce to quit after Covid-19 restrictions are fully lifted. And according to a Microsoft study, 40% of people are planning to leave their current employer. Cognizant technologies experienced a staggering attrition rate of 31% in the last quarter. This signals to high churn in the job market.

It is well document that the demand — supply gap for tech talent has been widening well before the 2020 but as sudden spike in demand means the supply has not been able to keep up and the gap has further widened.

Vacancy signs are going up across many firms

To attract this scare resource companies have been trying out different strategies. Some instances of the unique things firms are doing are:

1. Indian fintech start-up BharatPe valued at $2.5 B recently announced it would be offering new tech joiners with BMW bikes and will host the entire tech team in Dubai for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup from Oct 17- Nov 14, 2021
2. JBS USA, the country’s largest meatpacker, began offering to pay for college degrees for its 66,000 workers as well as one child per employee
3. Applebee’s is seeking to hire 10,000 people this summer and announced last month that it would hand out vouchers for a free appetizer to anyone who scheduled an interview. Hoping for 10,000 applicants, the restaurant chain got 40,000 as a result of the offer
4. Omni Hotels & Resorts is offering free stays at some of its properties for new hires
5. An Indian IT firm took out a front page newspaper advertisement for its vacancies in the tech team for software developers and solution architects. That slot is generally taken up by consumer products but the times are changing and the advertising for tech jobs must adapt

Now that we have established that the tech talent war is heating up companies need to tackle the problem by acknowledging the evolving trends. Not everyone has the recourses of a tech giant like Facebook or Google to lure tech talent with fat pay check and a host of other perks. It is by offering remote work can the firms continue to attract tech talent. This is your secret weapon.

Fully 29% of employees say they are likely to switch jobs if their employers require them to work onsite all the time, according to a McKinsey study. But many people will still want a mix of places to work — and the autonomy to make those choices. Flexibility in their work location and the ability to dictate where they work will certainly be significant factors for employees considering staying with their current employer or joining a new organization

Tech talent has been working remotely for more than a year and have gotten used to the arrangement. Remote work does come with its set of challenges for tech professionals but the majority are in favor of remote working. It’s hard to expect people to want to go back to a 9–5 office day. Remote work is not a suitable option for all sections of employees but tech team have been able to successfully work remotely due to the presence of many virtual tools and low physical infrastructure proximity requirements.

Companies are sweetening the remote work proposition by offering perks like home office stipends, co-working allowances, home delivery services, wellness day holidays etc.

Case Study — Amazon Vs Microsoft in Seattle

“The challenge is not only on the cloud but also on the streets”

Amazon announced in March that most of its 60,000 corporate workers in the Seattle would return to the office by fall, some employees were angry. A few threatened to quit. At the same time, Microsoft, headquartered in nearby Redmond provided employees the ability work remotely, in office or in a hybrid arrangement

Amazon later fearing losing talent to their rival said it now plans to allow two days of remote work thus going back on earlier policy of “office centric culture is our baseline,”.

As of now, Microsoft says when offices fully open in September, employees can work from home half the time, no questions asked. Additional time can be arranged with a manager, which is also true at Amazon. Even after Amazon’s policy upgrade, an important difference remains. Remote days at Microsoft are employee determined, Amazon’s, by management.

Some smaller companies like the Seattle-based real estate website Zillow one-upped a lot of competitors with its fully flexible remote work policy for its tech team— thus gaining a hiring advantage.

What happened in Seattle is an interesting case study in how remote work is being leveraged by firms to attract and retain tech talent

Conclusion

Fully remote work may not be the right solution for you but giving freedom to employees will definitely add more weight to your proposition. It is important to develop a hiring strategy with the role in mind — how critical the function is for your business, what is the infrastructure requirement etc. That being said remote work could help you in scaling your tech teams. It will benefit you by allowing you to hire from a substantially larger talent pool and also provide the employees with the freedom they value.

Listen to the corporatexplainers podcast