People will continue to move around the globe in search of better or different opportunities. However, we’ve seen a significant change in talent mobility even in the past years. Companies are opting to hire more and more remote software developers, as working from home becomes the new norm.
The balance of power in the supply/demand equation is continuing to shift in favour of skilled candidates. Almost all companies focus some of their recruitment effort on attracting candidates internationally. But 90% of companies are focused on the 10% of candidates who will relocate. And the desire to relocate seems to be diminishing in many countries that traditionally fed talent to our shores.
Why hire developers remotely?
Ads for software developers in Spain are up almost 70% since this time last year. Many of the developers who moved to Ireland and the UK in recent years will return for good jobs in their home countries. It’s human nature to do so. Very few Polish developers are moving to Ireland and Northern Europeans in general are as unlikely as ever to migrate.
90% of skilled workers don’t want to relocate. Many of them will work remotely.
Is this bad news for Irish companies building local dev teams? No. The magnitude of the change is unlikely to have a major impact on hiring in the short term. There’s still plenty of local candidates to shuffle between companies and with tenures of employment shortening in the tech sector careers pages and recruiters will remain busy.
But there is an opportunity for 10% of the companies who are progressive enough to hire remote software developers. They can fish from a massive talent pool. 90% of skilled workers don’t want to relocate. Many of them would gladly remote work for your company. Embracing remote work has its challenges but it’s one of the last real talent acquisition opportunities.
Google and its tech giant peers in Dublin have a certain drawing power that smaller companies or companies located outside of Dublin just don’t have. It’s those companies that stand most to gain from remote work if they embrace it.
Battling time zones can be softened by keeping core hours, Scrum meetings can be held on Hangouts
The best software developers understand that they can work from wherever they want. Many of the best software companies acknowledge this and are building remote teams. One of the best examples is Automattic, the creator of WordPress. The company is “location agnostic” with hundreds of developers spread globally. Scrapinghub, one of Cork’s best (but least known) software companies has over 100 employees spread across dozens of different cities.
Battling time zones can be softened by keeping core hours, Scrum meetings can be held on Hangouts, and at this stage the thought of broadband not being ubiquitous seems strange. Sure there are challenges but remote work is definitely growing fast and looks like a pretty fundamental change.
Hire Remote Teams with Zartis
We’ve started to work with companies building completely remote teams. It’s not going to work for every company, unless there is room to change and adjust to new working styles. On balance, we believe it’s the right thing to do. With teams across 10+ countries and 30+ nationalities, we have been setting up remote teams as the main part of our business.
With our IT Staff Augmentation Services, you can grow your team size in no time and with almost no operational hassle. If you’re interested in learning more about how remote workers can benefit your team please feel free to email us at sayhello@zartis.com
