A Team is More Than a Group of Individuals: Lessons from 10 Years of Tech Recruitment.
During my 10 years in Technical Recruitment, I worked with organisations of all sizes to help them hire Software Engineers. Along the way, I learned a thing or two about growing technical teams and now that I’ve now joined ClearSky Logic as Business Development Director and am on the other side of the fence, I thought I’d share some of my wisdom (!).
Here’s why sometimes growing an internal team of Engineers isn’t always the answer or isn’t the only answer.
I think we sometimes put “growing the team” on a bit of a pedestal. Often, “headcount” is seen as a measure of success but it is a fairly crude way to measure growth or success. “Bums on seats” won’t build the best product or please your internal stakeholders or external customers (even if it is in the “five-year plan” you shared with the CFO…).
There is absolutely no shame in calling in the specialists and using external expertise when appropriate. Perhaps there’s a stigma attached to not doing it yourself? My first boss in Recruitment used to counter prospective clients’ insistence that they didn’t need external help by pointing out that you could do your own accounting (“it’s just spreadsheets”) or be your own Lawyer (“it’s just letter-writing”). But you don’t because these are specialist skills and the cost of getting it wrong is just too high. Why should your technology be any different?
I can’t think of many businesses (if any) where the daily running of the organisation and everything you do isn’t likely to be underpinned by technology. So, why wouldn’t you call in the experts to get the foundations of your business right?
Probably one of the main things I learned during my time as a Technical Recruiter is that hiring technical talent is incredibly difficult (I wouldn’t have had a job if it wasn’t!):
Hiring is time-consuming
Searching through your network, briefing Recruiters, reviewing CVs, interviewing, and providing feedback - all take time away from your day job.
Hiring is expensive
Recruiting is costly in terms of time invested. Using a good Recruiter is also expensive.
You’ll face stiff competition
A recent Scotland IS study showed that the majority of Scottish companies are forecasting growth in 2024 (click here to read the study). This is great news, but it also means that you’ll be competing with the majority of companies to hire from a relatively small pool of talent. You probably back your company culture and you may have the deep pockets to compete on salaries or maybe you’re really flexible and offer remote working but it will still be tough!
Forming a team (as opposed to a group of individuals) takes time and can fail
Building great products is about more than talent or technical expertise. The best Engineering happens with strong collaboration; Software Development is a team sport. Maybe you overcome all the challenges I’ve covered (time, cost, competition) and you hire yourself a dynamite team of Engineers and experts. Amazing. BUT it is going to take time for this newly minted group of individuals to become a team. Building relationships takes time. ClearSky Logic are the Special Ops team for Software Development and our squad model means that when you work with us you are provided with a mission-ready squad that already works together as a unit.
There are times when growing your team makes sense but there are also times when it makes more sense to call for reinforcements!
If you’re battling business problems solo or trying to hire your way out of your predicament, why not have a chat and see if ClearSky Logic can help?
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