The talent war is something leaders have become accustomed to for years… particularly for leaders of technology, innovation, and transformation.

Just consider that 89% of hiring managers lack confidence they will need to meet their company’s tech hiring goals this year. What’s more, hiring for tech roles takes an average of seven weeks (source).

There are so many things affecting the ease and pace at which leaders can hire for technical roles. A few that top the list…

Tech skill sets needed today may be completely different than what’s needed tomorrow

Tech expertise might be needed for a moment in time but not enough to justify a full-time role

Continued turnover makes it hard to focus on roles needed in the future, versus immediate back-filling

Multiple brands are competing for access to top technical talent

It’s a big reason that Gartner named “quiet hiring” as one of the top hiring trends for 2023. Quiet hiring, at the simplest level, is about organizations focusing on acquiring new skill sets, talents, and expertise without having to hire full-time employees. From increasing internal talent mobility to upskilling existing employees to tapping the gig and consulting economy, quiet hiring is emerging as a strategy for organizational-wide flexible and scalable workforce solutions.

It’s an approach that might be new for functions like operations, sales, product, etc., but an approach that has been tried and true for technology, engineering, and innovation leaders for quite some time.

The technology and IT consulting space continues to grow year after year. In fact, according to market research, the IT consulting industry in the US is the 1st ranked Professional, Scientific and Technical Services industry by market size, and the 19th largest in the US. Whether technology leaders are looking to grow by tapping Consultant specialization in emerging trends like software engineering, data and advanced analytics, AI/ML, cloud, IoT, etc., they have become comfortable scaling their workforces beyond just full-time employee adds.

With Gartner dubbing “quiet hiring” as a top strategic trend for 2023, a light is shed on the importance of organizations adopting workforce scaling strategies… particularly those that have worked so well in the tech space for decades. After all, as businesses grapple with increasing employee burnout and bandwidth constraints, approaches like “quiet hiring” allow teams to scale up and down fast, ensuring they have access to the talent they need at the moment they need it most.

When existing internal talent cannot fulfill organizational needs, turning to Consultant or gig workers not only saves companies time, money, and resources but also creates the ability to:

• Immediately access and bring on specific, hyper-specialized expertise
• Increase team bandwidth when there are competing priorities or urgent projects without having to hire a full-time employee
• Gain fresh perspective from outside talent joining an existing team

So, is a workforce scaling strategy something your team should consider? What approach might make sense for your team? And where do you believe you might need the extra consultant firepower most?

As you think about where your team might need immediate expertise or bandwidth lift, here are a few questions to consider:

• Is our team missing core milestones or deadlines?
• Are “lights on” activities winning out against “strategic” initiatives?
• Has our employee quit rate surged in recent weeks/months?
• Are team mistakes and missteps happening more regularly?
• Are our best people being overburdened by more and more tasks?
• Do we lack a skill set or specific expertise to complete an important initiative ahead?

Your answers may pinpoint the first place a quiet hiring, consultant-based strategy might make sense for your business and/or team.

 

For more than 20+ years, SQA Group has helped organizations drive forward their most important projects involving data and analytics, accelerated software engineering, and tech-powered innovation via Consultant firepower.

Ready to scale your team with consultants? Click here to learn more and start building your team today.