Finding a good React JS developer can be quite challenging due to the increased demand for the services of technical specialists from businesses striving for digital transformation. They start looking for new opportunities to hire a developer to overcome the shortage. Two of the most widely used options are freelance and outsourcing. In this article, we describe the reasons for the developer shortage and define the pros and cons of each hiring tactic in the context of specific use cases.
The supply and demand for good software engineers have never been as out of sync as it is right now. The ongoing digital transformation of all spheres only further exacerbates this lack of equilibrium. Nowadays, it is hard to imagine a company that can create, deliver, or markets its product efficiently without technology. The speed of digital innovation and ever-changing consumer expectations make technology a part of every organization’s journey.
Market Data
With businesses moving into the tech sector, the IT industry is experiencing a shortage of software engineers to help manage workloads, new technologies, and new ways of working. It led to 1.4M unfilled programming-related jobs while the number of graduates is only 400K a year. Among areas with the greatest need to address potential skill gaps are data analytics, IT, mobile, and web design industries. If the skills gap and the IT talent shortage continue growing simultaneously, it will mean a loss of $162B for the US.
What are the Causes of the Shortage of Software Engineers?
Businesses need IT specialists more than ever before as they automatize more and more of their business processes. There are multiple reasons for the shortage of software developers. Poor education is the primary one. Not many graduates are ready to pursue tech careers, as only 3.2% of schools offer AP computer science courses. However, it is forecasted that 77% of jobs will require technical skills in the next ten years. Educational initiatives and sufficient funding can improve this situation. As an alternative to academic education, big tech companies like Google offer internships and free courses for everyone who wants to start their career in IT. As a result, more people get access to CS courses to develop their tech skills.
Outsourcing Company
Outsourcing is recruiting field experts using an external outsourcing company to perform services. It becomes the company’s duty to find, select, hire, train, and retain personnel.
The client has to do nothing except provide the project details and pay for the services. The services can include support of what is already produced or supplement services lacking in expertise. They also vary depending on the industry they cater to. When hiring an outsourcing development team, you can essentially fill any technical position starting from a developer and ending with project managers, data scientists, and DevOps engineers.
The outsourcing partner will employ several contractors allocated to different clients depending on the specific requirements. They will have (most of the time) regular working hours, participate in the company’s activities, and adhere to a code of conduct. For clients, outsourcing is often a cost-effective move.
Statistics
According to the statistics, 24% of small businesses that outsource at least some of their functions increase efficiency. It allows them to save on resources without sacrificing product quality.
It is also important to note that outsourcing allows businesses to choose a partner anywhere. Most companies go for more economical third-party outsourcing providers. Simply put, the same amount of work with the same quality produced in one city or country differs from one another. For example, if you decide to outsource development to North America, the average software developer hourly rate will be $55, while for Eastern Europe, this will be $20-40. As such, companies continually outsource their operations to nearshore or offshore because the benefits often trump any potential drawbacks.
Seniority level
With all of these being said, here are the advantages and disadvantages that companies and businesses must consider when hiring an outsourcing company.
Pros
Experience
Experience is more about how the team works together based on the projects they have done in the past, rather than the developer’s seniority level. It also includes knowledge of the newest technologies and trends. Outsourcing teams must stay competitive and tech-savvy, investing time and money into their employees’ education and professional development. Therefore, such teams offer businesses unique solutions with a deep focus on cutting-edge technology.
Building software is about writing code and understanding how to manage the process, identifying and eliminating defects in a product, providing a good user experience through design, etc. So by hiring an outsourcing company, you get a full set of specialists ready to support you all along the way.
Broader skillset
Programming relies on a vast number of technologies, frameworks, and libraries. And most of the time, one project combines several of them. One doesn’t need to know everything to be a good and highly professional frontend or backend developer. In outsourcing, you get access to specialists working with different technologies and all experts in their field. They complement each other and provide clients with a perfect match of modern innovations and good quality.
Time
Timing plays one of the biggest roles when developing a project. Whether you plan to build new software or redo the existing one, deadlines are something that you need to consider and follow if you don’t want to lose money. With outsourcing, you save time on recruiting and onboarding programmers. It also cuts the time for team formation since an outsourcing company provides all needed specialists, and you don’t need to look for additional ones. As a result, the overall time for development, including the time-to-market, is reduced.
Risk management
One of the most widespread fears regarding outsourcing is to let the project slide. In reality, outsourcing gives you way more control over the project than any freelancer. You can set up regular meetings with an outsourcing team where you can discuss updates or do timely follow-ups. Moreover, outsourcing teams have a project manager responsible for planning, organizing, and directing the completion of the project, ensuring your project is on time, on budget, and within scope. They are experienced in managing many projects and strive to communicate effectively for project success.
Use cases
Reason 1
We have already mentioned that outsourcing will match your business if you need a team of developers due to a lack of in-house specialists. For example, you want to scale, but all your employees are fully-loaded, so you need to connect additional staff to keep the project growing. Or if you are starting a new one that happens to require more specialists than you currently have or you don’t have any developers in your team, and now you want to integrate technology into the workflow. Hiring many developers can take up to 2-3 months, and sometimes a company can’t wait for so long. In such cases, outsourcing can help.
Reason 2
Another common reason is when you lack expertise within the company, and you need to widen your skillset. Maybe you want to start a new project on an unfamiliar stack, or your old projects have grown, and you want to implement new technologies into it, or your website needs a redesign. Still, your developers don’t have the experience to pull it off. It will be much more cost-effective for you to outsource the development part to achieve your goals and not get bogged down with risky experiments and amateur mistakes.
Recommendations to Companies Who Want to Hire Outsourcing Teams
After such a detailed comparison of two options, you should have a complete picture of what to choose depending on your business goals and project requirements. There can be questions if everything is more or less clear with hiring a freelancer with the outsourcing team. Based on our experience, we want to share some recommendations that may well improve your hiring chances.
Be ready to pay more. Good specialists are not cheap.
If you’re not paying the market rate, then you’re going to struggle. The competition for good developers is higher than ever, and they do not sit for a long time without a project. You will have to pay for an experienced team. Don’t fool yourself if you are offered a large development team that is now available and ready to take on your project. Most likely, a company could not sell it anywhere, and it will eventually cost you even more than a few highly-qualified (and expensive) developers
Clarify project requirements
Simply put, the more carefully requirements are formulated, the easier it will be for the team to meet them. The project team has to know what they are building, why they are building it, and what to expect at the end. You can make up requirements yourself, or an outsourcing company can do paid research. They will define product features and all possible business and technical specifics needed to start the development process. As a result, even if you decide not to continue working with a company that made a discovery, you will get deeper elaborated requirements for a future vendor and a clear vision of where the project should move.
Don’t spend too much time on the vendor evaluation process.
Offer fast and offer well.
Before starting the outsourcing vendor selection process, define evaluation criteria. If most of them meet, don’t hang around; get to the details fast and direct. While you doubt or look for someone cheaper, good developers will probably interview elsewhere. The delay may cost you a vendor.
If you see that your vision and the vision of a potential partner are not similar, don’t waste your and their time discussing cooperation that won’t happen. A qualified team that looks in the same direction as you is the key to success.
Be ready to offer more freedom.
You will have more chances to hire a good development team if you allow at least a degree of flexibility into your workflow, like remote working and flexible working hours. With video conferencing, corporate messengers, and other tools that simplify the working process and allow you to cooperate successfully even at a distance, you will still control the process and communicate effectively with your team.
Encourage new tech usage.
While you are an expert in a specific domain, developers are experts in the tech area. Specialists in outsourcing companies are doing their best to keep on top of the latest innovations in this field. They can recommend the most suitable and relevant solution for your business. Provide an outsourcing partner with more initiative in tech stack choice to get a competitive product that keeps up with the time.
Conclusion
The IT industry is changing rapidly, and more and more companies are undergoing digital transformation. With this, a great challenge of developer shortage appears for companies, especially small ones, looking for experienced specialists with the right skill set. Hiring a software outsourcing company can be a way out.
A react js development company will be a perfect match for complex business challenges that require a diverse team with various skills.
