For as long as I can remember, software engineers and other tech workers have been in high demand, but the competition for qualified candidates has intensified further. The pandemic has created an even more frothy market for high quality tech talent, because nearly every company that survived did so by embracing the digital aspect of its business. Supporting this wave will be a major challenge.
There are simply not nearly enough qualified workers to meet demand. In June there were 365,000 open IT jobs, the most in one month since late 2019 according to CompTIA. Now every industry is fishing in the same too-small pool of talent, one in which employee-empowering norms like remote work and supercharged salaries make it harder than ever to attract and retain the top workers. This Boston Herald article describing experienced tech workers being treated as minor celebrities might not be far off.
It has always been our strategy at Chariot Solutions to employ only the best and brightest software developers and technology consultants. This approach enables us to consistently deliver maximum value to our clients. It is the key to our strong brand, which has kept our firm busy and healthy for over 19 years. But now we are competing against just about every other company, large and small, local and remote, for top technologists.
Fortunately the work we do, primarily software development, lends itself very well to remote situations. Even in normal conditions, a developer can be more productive and efficient when she isn’t required to commute to work every day. For many years, starting long before the pandemic, Chariot Solutions and our clients have leveraged a hybrid working model to get the best results on our projects. Of course that resolve only hardened during the pandemic. What used to be a hybrid workforce became remote-only as part of our commitment to safety.
Thankfully, now many other organizations have realized the benefits of having remote workers. Out of necessity, companies had no choice but to have their employees working offsite. As a result, they learned first-hand that for certain roles remote workers can be even more effective (and happier) than those that come into the office every day.
Encouraged by that success and driven by the realization that the talent crunch will only worsen for the industry at large, we are widening our net. Chariot has now begun recruiting remote-first workers and those from outside the Philadelphia region with a remain-remote option for the first time ever.
We are currently on-boarding a group of new employees, including a few who are fully-remote. We’ve even offered the fully-remote option to existing employees to aid in retention. One of our team members recently decided to move back home to be with family because of childcare needs. Instead of losing a valued member of our own Chariot family, we shifted him to a remote-only role so he could continue his career with us.
Our history of providing flexibility for our employees makes us confident in our ability to succeed with fully remote workers, and we believe this will prove to be a competitive advantage. Our clients know of our success and are turning to us more than ever as a trusted partner and for access to our high-level consultants.
In that way, the pandemic has been a boon for Chariot. More work, more project variety, an ability to recruit even better talent, and a more flexible work environment that caters to employee and client needs.
So, looking ahead, we will maintain our remote work policies and continue to widen our recruiting range. The talent is out there. We just have to look in the right places, and continue to offer challenging, rewarding work.
This post was written by Michael J. Rappaport, CEO and Founder of Chariot Solutions. As we widen our recruiting range, we want to reiterate that we are hiring, and currently have open positions for senior-level software, mobile, and data engineers. Interested in joining our team? Check out our careers page and apply today.