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Summary Results | June 2022

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Trends in Technology Talent Acquisition

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SURVEY SUMMARY

Between April and June 2022, Gatepoint Research invited selected executives to participate in a survey themed Trends in Technology Talent Acquisition.

Candidates from several industries were invited via email and 93 executives have participated to date.

Management levels represented are all senior decision-makers: 13% hold the title CxO or are VPs, 31% are directors, and 15% are senior departmental or global managers, and 15% are functional managers.

 

100% of responders participated voluntarily; none were engaged using telemarketing.

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Summary Results | June 2022

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EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

  • How effective is your current ability to acquire software engineers and developers? Are you confident your talent acquisition team can hire for your future technical team needs?

  • What challenges do you face in acquiring technology personnel? What are your talent acquisition strategies?

  • What are you doing to improve your acquisition of technology talent? Are you evaluating your strategies?

While overall unemployment is at an incredibly low rate, technical employment was even lower—below 2% in early 2022. High demand and competition among hiring organizations has led to a tremendous increase in candidate leverage, with salaries, benefits, and perks skyrocketing. Hiring from within seems reasonable, but attrition rates have increased as embedded talent throw their hats in the hiring ring. Are companies changing their technical talent acquisition strategies to keep up?

This survey asks respondents to report:

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Summary Results | June 2022

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There is room for improvement when it comes to successfully acquiring software professionals. More than half of those surveyed rate their ability to do so as less than effective.

How effective is your current ability to acquire software engineers and developers?

(Rate 1 to 5: 1=Not at all effective, 5 = Very effective)

1

Not at all effective

   Very Effective

2

3

4

5

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Summary Results | June 2022

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When you think about the capability for your organization to source software development resources, how do you feel?

Two thirds of respondents are"excited:" or "confident" about sourcing dev resources, but a significant 31% say they are worried.

Empty text

Excited

Confident

Worried

Copyright ©2022 Gatepoint Research. All rights reserved. This report is the sole property of Gatepoint Research and may not be used, reproduced or redistributed in any form including, but not limited to, print & digital form without express written consent of Gatepoint Research.

Summary Results | June 2022

Uninterested

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What have your most successful tactics been for the acquisition of technology talent for your organization?

Hiring from within and training internally are the most successful tactics for the majority of those surveyed. Alternatively, 33% acquire technical talent through an RPO partner, and 28% use a staff augmentation partner. The minority (12% to 15%) supplement technical staff using more specialized or niche hiring/training/placement partners.

Internal Hiring

Internal Hiring + Internal Training

Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) Partner(s)

Medium/Large Multi-Disciplinary Staff Augmentation Partner(s)

Utilization of Systems Integrator Partner(s)

Internal Hiring + Training Partner(s)

Boutique/Small Specialized Staff Augmentation Partner(s)

Hire - Train - Place Partner(s)

Other

Copyright ©2022 Gatepoint Research. All rights reserved. This report is the sole property of Gatepoint Research and may not be used, reproduced or redistributed in any form including, but not limited to, print & digital form without express written consent of Gatepoint Research.

Summary Results | June 2022

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What are the day-to-day challenges that you experience when attempting to acquire technology personnel?

The technology talent pool has shrunk, creating the most commonly cited acquisition problem. Nearly half struggle with increased salary demands or low-quality candidates. Two more recent issues; candidates want to work from home (37%) and it's hard to retain talent (34%).

Lack of candidates

Can't keep up with pace of salary increases

Low-quality candidates

Candidates attracted to remote work vs. onsite

High attrition rate

Long, resource-intensive onboarding of new hires

"Exciting" tech/brand/location companies

are attracting the talent

Internal and 3rd party partners not meeting needs

Missed hiring goals for business-critical projects

Other

Copyright ©2022 Gatepoint Research. All rights reserved. This report is the sole property of Gatepoint Research and may not be used, reproduced or redistributed in any form including, but not limited to, print & digital form without express written consent of Gatepoint Research.

Summary Results | June 2022

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Copyright ©2020 Gatepoint Research. All rights reserved. This report is the sole property of Gatepoint Research and may not be used, reproduced or redistributed in any form including, but not limited to, print & digital form without express written consent of Gatepoint Research.

Copyright ©2020 Gatepoint Research. All rights reserved. This report is the sole property of Gatepoint Research and may not be used, reproduced or redistributed in any form including, but not limited to, print & digital form without express written consent of Gatepoint Research.

Summary Results | April  2020

Working remotely, de rigueur during the pandemic, has become the new normal for 77% of respondents, allowing them to hire from a much wider candidate pool than just their local geography.

Since the start of the pandemic, and on an ongoing basis, have you turned to a more remote model in which you have been more willing to hire from non-local areas?

Unsure

No

Yes

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Summary Results | June 2022

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If you have been hiring from non-local areas, how successful have these efforts been?

82% of those surveyed have had success hiring non-locally, but most (55%) only qualify those efforts as "moderately successful".

Empty text

Successful

Hiring local

only

Unsuccessful

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Summary Results | June 2022

Moderately successful

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What are your key initiatives when it comes to improving your acquisition of technology talent?

Work from home options are included in 65% of respondents' technical talent acquisition initiatives, followed by salary (55%) and/or compensation (49%) increases.

Most respondents are missing an the opportunity to work with partners who specialize in finding, training, and placing technology talent.

Allowing remote and work-from-home options

Increasing salary

Increasing equity/bonus compensation

Increasing development/training opportunities

Reduced workweek or flex work

Increased workplace perks & benefits

Partnering with candidate screening providers

Partnering with training/bootcamp providers

Partnering with hire-train-deploy providers

to acquire custom-trained tech teams

Other

Copyright ©2022 Gatepoint Research. All rights reserved. This report is the sole property of Gatepoint Research and may not be used, reproduced or redistributed in any form including, but not limited to, print & digital form without express written consent of Gatepoint Research.

Summary Results | June 2022

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When do you plan to reevaluate your current technology talent acquisition strategy?

56% of respondents are either currently evaluating or plan to evaluate their technology talent acquisition strategy within the year.

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Summary Results | June 2022

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What is your role when considering your organization’s technology talent acquisition strategy?

Those responding to this survey are strategic decision makers, influencers, or users and other specialists.

Empty text

Decision maker

User

Influencer

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Summary Results | June 2022

Other

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JOB

LEVEL

44% of survey respondents hold director or executive-level positions in their organization.

CxO

VP

Director

Senior

Manager

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Summary Results | June 2022

Manager

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Smoothstack builds the custom high-performance technology teams that organizations need to transform our world for the better. Smoothstack hires aspiring software, cloud, and data engineers as W-2 employees prior to upskilling them to client specification in an immersive training program designed to ensure they are ready to work on day 1. A trusted partner with large public, private, and government organizations, Smoothstack delivers top-notch talent, low project turnover, high predictability, and reliability through proprietary selection and immersive training. 

Copyright ©2022 Gatepoint Research. All rights reserved. This report is the sole property of Gatepoint Research and may not be used, reproduced or redistributed in any form including, but not limited to, print & digital form without express written consent of Gatepoint Research.

Summary Results | June 2022