Where to look for IT talents: a guide for large companies

Aleksandra Pyrkosz – Business Manager, with 5 years of experience in IT. She started her career as a Recruiter. Currently, she focuses on building relationships with clients and consultants. Her greatest satisfaction in her daily work comes from matching candidates to the current needs of our business partners, which is greatly aided by her previous experience.

With the advancement of technology, IT professionals are still needed in virtually every industry despite the difficult economic climate. Such huge demand, however, led to a major shortage – in January this year it was estimated to be as high as 150,000 employees. This makes it very difficult to find and hire suitable candidates. In the below article I will share some tips on how and where to look for them!

IT workers are worth their weight in gold – what is the current situation in the Polish labour market?

The situation in the IT market is changing rapidly. We are still affected by the aftermath of recent years’ events, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the outbreak of war in Ukraine. On the one hand, threats to the industry include the economic and energy crisis and high inflation rates, but on the other hand, there is a huge opportunity in the increasing adoption of solutions related to artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), Blockchain, Big Data or cyber security.

According to the business climate report published by Statistics Poland in June 2023, the ICT industry, as well as the Finance and Insurance sectors, appear to be in the best shape. For the time being, experts are not forecasting a collapse in the number of orders. While there is no talk of a crisis, a certain slowdown is being observed – in their latest report, Garton Recruitment experts point out that many companies are adopting a more passive attitude.

Until recently, the end of the employee market in the IT sector seemed inevitable. But is this really the case? Not quite. According to studies, following a decline in the second half of 2022, the demand for IT professionals started to rise again. 

In Q1 2023, the Polish IT sector recorded its worst performance in two years. However, experts believe that as the industry is gradually getting used to the volatile situation and the inflation rate is slowly receding, we are already starting to witness a market rebound.

How do you find a qualified IT worker?

According to data from Grafton report, only 30.5% of respondents said they were looking for a job. In practice, the best professionals are either already employed under a contract of employment or are working under a B2B contract. IT talents are high in demand but low in supply. 

Many companies invest in the development of juniors, funding their studies and additional professional training. Various competitions or hackathons (special events, so-called programming marathons) are yet another creative approach to attracting young talents. However, companies may not always have the capacity or resources needed for such projects.

So what do you do if you need an experienced, qualified IT worker right away? One opportunity is when a professional decides to change jobs or starts considering new options – usually motivated by a higher salary. He or she is unlikely to participate in a standard recruitment process, though.

If you are looking for a highly skilled IT professional, then standard job adverts are not enough. In most cases, they will hardly reach their target audience at all, because professionals do not bother to use job posting sites. Typically they are not only difficult to find, but also need to be convinced to join your team. This is why the following approaches may prove effective: 

• An in-house referral system – staff members often know people who could potentially be interested in establishing cooperation and can be approached directly. This is coordinated by HR professionals;
• Headhunting – using the services of an expert headhunter to find and recruit the best candidates, including via LinkedIn;
• Outsourcing of IT engineers – using an external company to provide experienced and suitably qualified staff for a particular task, assignment or project, or for long-term collaboration.

What do IT professionals expect?

Finding a suitable candidate is only half the battle – they still need to be convinced that the job they are being offered is actually attractive. With this in mind, it is useful to know that IT candidates are still mostly interested in:

• Remuneration;
• Remote or hybrid work;
• Flexible working hours;
• Form of employment (with B2B contracts becoming increasingly popular);
• Benefits, such as private health care, gym passes, catering;
• Working on interesting and developmental projects.

Why choose to outsource IT engineers?

Outsourcing of IT engineers is growing in popularity for a number of reasons, not only among large companies. In practice, it represents the most convenient and cost-effective solution.

A referral system, although effective, may not be enough when a larger team of professionals is needed. Candidates found by headhunters, on the other hand, may not always meet the company’s requirements. In both of these cases, ongoing cooperation is also usually necessary, but not always needed.

In large companies, the process of recruiting new IT staff should be as fast and automated as possible. This is why it is best to fully outsource this task to an external company.

The advantages of outsourcing IT engineers include:

• Time savings – the outsourcing company has a considerable database of qualified professionals, which means it can quickly find the best candidate or assemble an entire team;
• Cost savings – there are no expenses related to the acquisition, recruitment or training of an employee;
• Flexibility and scalability – outsourcing partnerships can take various forms and evolve according to current demand;
• Security – an external company makes sure that candidates meet all the relevant requirements; proven specialists mean a lower risk of potential problems and a higher chance of success for the assignment/project.

Are you considering outsourcing IT engineers? Choose experts with many years of experience. With our database of experienced programmers, developers, business analysts and project managers, ITDS can help you quickly find the best people for the job. We are best positioned to help you source the perfect IT talent or assemble a cohesive team ready for action!