A New Age of Information Technology in Business
In recent times, there has been an exponential surge in the purchase of digital goods and services. This can be attributed to the emergence of new software companies, the implementation of blockchain technologies, the availability of app stores, and the development of digital assistants powered by artificial intelligence. Furthermore, the advent of software-as-a-service models such as SaaS and IaaS has even encouraged the most traditional businesses to shift their operations to the cloud.
As technology takes on a more significant role for businesses, Human Resources departments are experiencing pressure to find suitable candidates to fill the diminishing talent pool. This puts recruiters in a challenging position, struggling to accommodate the increasing demand for IT professionals. So, how can HR professionals and recruiters bridge this gap? Moreover, how can tech companies guide their current engineers to enhance their skills and prepare them to face the next wave of disruption? These are critical questions that require urgent attention if businesses want their IT departments to be equipped to tackle challenges in the future.
In this article, we will conduct a thorough analysis of the emerging trends that will influence the software development industry in the upcoming years. Additionally, we will offer practical suggestions on how to enhance your recruitment process and improve the competency of your existing development teams. Following these guidelines should enable you to stay competitive in the constantly evolving software engineering landscape.
The Shortage of Software Developers is a Serious Concern
In early 2020, Bloomberg published an article titled “When the American job market heats up, demand for technical expertise boils”. Despite the national unemployment rate of the United States hovering around 4%, only 1.9% of software professionals are actively seeking new job opportunities. As a result, companies aiming to produce successful software products in such circumstances must adopt innovative and proactive approaches to attracting and retaining talented employees.
Simply increasing the salaries of our most skilled developers is not enough to address our concerns; in truth, we are already doing so. With no indication of our dependency on digital technology reducing by 2023, organisations must broaden their horizons beyond conventional qualifications if they seek to draw in fresh talent.
Factors Influencing Developer Interest in New Technologies by 2023
To avoid a dearth of skilled talent, it is crucial to predict future demands. By 2023, companies will be seeking experienced software developers with expertise in, or passion for, the following rapidly expanding niches:
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
As we step into a new decade, it’s time for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to fulfil its promise and demonstrate its full potential. While AI has been a part of the developer’s arsenal for some time now, the genuine power it holds is only starting to become apparent. According to Gartner, a market research firm, the commercial value of AI is forecast to increase dramatically, by up to 70% from 2019 to 2020. Predictions suggest that the AI industry will hit a market value of approximately US$3.9 trillion by 2023. This reflects the enormous potential for growth in AI technology and its capacity to revolutionize our business practices.
Blockchain
The remarkable rise of blockchain initiatives in some of the largest corporate organisations lately has resulted in an extremely competitive market for skilled developers who are scarce in the market. Ignacio De Marco, the CEO of Works, recently contributed an article to VentureBeat in which he noted, “The unprecedented rapidity with which blockchain technology has gained prominence has resulted in a critical shortage of capable professionals, leaving companies struggling even to find individuals with rudimentary blockchain knowledge.”
Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) Usage
Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) are websites that simulate the appearance and functionality of native mobile apps. They are gaining increasing popularity among software developers due to their ability to provide a more seamless user experience while retaining the familiar characteristics of conventional web browsers.
In contrast to traditional mobile applications, Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) can be accessed directly from a user’s mobile browser, quickly adapting to the screen size. What’s more, PWAs provide enhanced security and reliability in comparison to standard applications, making them a desirable choice. We envisage that PWAs will become the norm in the industry soon and that developers who specialize in this area will be in high demand.
Cybersecurity
As full-stack development advances towards the future, the significance of cybersecurity will become more and more apparent. DevOps is taking significant strides in automating security tests into the software development cycle, and enterprises will be compelled to directly integrate security metrics into the coding. Doing so shall ensure prompt detection and resolution of any security flaws in the code introduced inadvertently.
Certain ground-breaking technologies that are currently under development are anticipated to not be market-ready until 2023. To stay abreast of these latest advancements, it is imperative for firms to either procure new developer talent or upskill their current teams.
What’s My Stack? The Hottest Programming Languages and Skills of 2019
Ensure your development teams stay abreast of the latest technologies and support them with an environment to collaborate and achieve success.
Being in the software development sector, one of the most fiercely-contested industries in the UK, it’s crucial to be aware of the newest technologies and trends. Failing to do so may result in your company falling behind its competitors and losing out on its competitive advantage. Consequently, continuous learning is imperative to remain pertinent in this constantly-evolving industry.
Listed below are some of the most in-demand programming languages and skills sought after by developers in 2019.
Automation
With the progression of technology, specialists in the field are progressively availing automation to improve their productivity, efficiency, and the quality of their code. It remains crucial for them to concentrate on developing clean, error-free code since modern programming employing machine learning is facilitating seamless integration of best practices into the framework automatically.
R
R is a programming language originally founded on statistical analysis and offers developers and analysts access to statistical procedures that had been missing from their toolkit for the previous ten years. This introduces possibilities for fresh methods of scrutinizing customer data and identifying novel patterns and trends. It is thus logical to anticipate that this language will gain increasing popularity in the future.
Java 8
It is reasonable to predict that Java 8 will have the most notable impact of any Java update in history by this time next year. Despite having employed Java for several years, as reported by Teach Beacon, the latest version is significantly more efficient, error-free, and up-to-date. Therefore, Java 8 is expected to make a substantial impact on the sphere of software development.
We firmly believe that Swift is likely to supersede Objective C in the not-too-distant future. This is owing to Swift eliminating obsolete conventions such as header files, leading to a faster project development. Hence, if you seek to employ an iPhone developer in the upcoming year, it would be advantageous to consider Swift 4, an open-source program that is more accessible and up-to-date, doing away with inefficient processes that can hinder software creation.
Python
According to the 2023 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Python is the fastest-growing preferred programming language. Its popularity has been bolstered significantly within the blockchain development community, making it an extremely desirable programming language.
Rust
In a recent survey by Stack Overflow Developers, which polled over one hundred thousand programmers, Rust was the language most frequently mentioned. Rust was created to become a viable alternative to C++ and C, and has been gaining in popularity in recent years. The findings of the survey indicate that 2023 may prove to be a pivotal year for Rust.
This collection is far from comprehensive; nevertheless, it adequately showcases the abundance of ongoing developments. If your developers lack the requisite expertise, they may want to contemplate enrolling in training courses to ensure they keep pace with the latest advancements.
Strategies for Coping with the Rising Demand for Developers
With the presently unparalleled demand for developers, it is vital to invest additional time and resources to attract and retain them. To outpace competitors, corporations should mull over partnering with outsourcing firms, adapting their organisational culture to encourage staff retention, and offering training programs to current developers. Such approaches can assist the company in meeting the escalating need for skilled development experts.
Exert extra effort to retain your current workforce.
At Silicon Republic, we are of the opinion that establishing an environment that motivates programmers to achieve their goals is more significant than providing recreational facilities such as a foosball table, Friday happy hours, pool tables, and complimentary vending machines. Employees value transparency, fairness, safety, and a sense of accomplishment.
Developing software can be a challenging and repetitive process, necessitating multiple revisions to achieve the intended outcome. In order to ensure your development team works together productively and efficiently, it is imperative to create an environment that fosters learning and supports making mistakes as part of the journey to creating an improved product. Consider how you can reward your developers, such as providing equitable salaries, encouraging a healthy work-life balance, and promoting creative solutions to problems at hand. By adopting these measures, you can help to motivate and retain your development teams.Invest in educational and growth opportunities.
It is crucial to spend time examining the technologies employed by our present teams and engaging in transparent discussions regarding our developers’ training needs. This will enable us to proactively strategize for the future technology landscape and secure the long-term success of the business. To address any deficits in knowledge and skills, we ought to arrange meetings and courses for our development teams to attend.Engage with the programming community.
Participating in hackathons and meetups as a volunteer is a great way to become more involved in the development community. It is advantageous to devise innovative approaches to promote your business. Furthermore, you may consider sending all members of your development team to these events. If you have fostered a pleasant environment for your developers, they may even collaborate in the hiring process.Revise your hiring strategy.
Recruiters must possess an appreciation of the daily responsibilities of coders to market the position with efficacy. Recruitment is a type of sales, necessitating that recruiters are familiar with the product they are promoting. To guarantee that recruiters maintain a comprehensive understanding of the position and its prerequisites, it is important to establish consistent communication with the recruitment team. This will ensure that they are aware of the organisation’s present and future development requirements.Increase productivity by 100 percent with external assistance.
Recruiting can be likened to a numbers game, similar to sales. Could you achieve greater results if you intensify your efforts to locate new employees? One possible solution is to enlist temporary workers to offer supplementary support to your IT department and bridge any skill gaps. Outsourcing teams are an exceptional approach to boost productivity and address any knowledge deficits in your own organisation.
To counter the current scarcity of developers, companies must be receptive to new partnerships, reconsider established methods, and unleash their creativity.
The Future of Developer Talent
It is improbable that the inclination towards digital commodities will diminish anytime soon; instead, the interconnectivity of these commodities will continue to expand, indicating that there will be an escalating demand for proficiency in product design and management.
Our projections indicate that businesses will adopt one of three courses of action in response to the scarcity of competent personnel in digital technology.
The emerging developer is becoming a paradox.
In the contemporary tech job market, it is insufficient to recruit a programmer who is only proficient in a single programming language. The most desirable candidates possess the capacity to be adaptable and collaborate effectively within a team. As a result, corporations must ensure that they thoroughly assess for soft skills when seeking the ideal candidate, in conjunction with the coding experience and expertise. Decisions should no longer be based exclusively on a developer’s programming skills; soft skills are now imperative.
We anticipate an upsurge in global partnerships.
According to technology publication TechRepublic, the utilisation of outsourcing for software development is set to expand in the forthcoming year. Nonetheless, this will hinge on a company’s capability to evaluate its own resources and staff. If a business lacks the required expertise and capacities to identify a partner that can satisfy its ongoing and anticipated technical necessities, it may need to source external assistance to achieve its desired goals.
Developers open doors of possibility when they change their minds frequently.
Numerous software developers today are employed, although they are often in search of fresh opportunities. According to Stack Overflow, relying on catering services of superior quality to sustain a harmonious team is not feasible. Collaborating with a reliable organisation such as Works can enable your enterprise to progress and help reduce the necessity of frequent developer recruitment.
As technology progresses, the demand for seasoned developers is becoming increasingly critical for businesses. Despite the evident necessity for developers in all industrial sectors, there persists a marked deficit of personnel with the requisite qualifications and competence. This shortfall of developers is likely to become an even more pressing concern since their work is fundamental in nearly all aspects of a company’s operations.
To stay competitive and fulfil their future needs, corporations must adopt a proactive approach and implement innovative methods to their recruitment processes. This is particularly relevant in the present market where there is an unprecedented level of demand and severe shortages of skilled talent. Unfortunately, the current talent pool is unable to keep pace with the rapid advancement in digital technology. Thus, it is crucial that companies have a dynamic and continuously evolving strategy to efficiently recruit and retain developers with requisite abilities and skills.
