The tech industry is incredibly innovative, consistently changing and evolving – but this puts a strain on companies employing people of the right skills. And so, contract work is booming.
External workers can command significant contract wages, outstripping the earnings of fully fledged company employees.
They are versatile and willing to move around and, if they have the right base set of skills, they can prove invaluable to a tech business’ operations.
There’s even an argument that long-term, full-time employees actually benefit from being exposed to contracted experts, allowing them to learn new skills and practices.
Also, the ability to hire short-term staff gives companies savings on their annual balance sheets, knowing they’re not exposed to long-term salaries.
According to new research from Fieldglass, 60pc of enterprises are actually planning to entertain external labour to achieve “critical and corporate” objectives by 2017. Slightly more claim that hiring external workers provides skills needed to execute specialised projects.
When considering an area such as tech, which is consistently hovering around different areas of ‘specialism’ for as much time as years and as little as weeks, it’s clear why this adaptability is key.
“External workers and service firms are being used to fill the widening skills gaps brought on by innovation, and they are contributing to the success of corporate strategies and competitive differentiation,” said Arun Srinivasan of Fieldglass.
“As this trend grows in the coming years, the companies that remain successful will be the ones that have a sound services procurement strategy in place.”
Staff image via Shutterstock
