How to recession-proof your company’s digital transformation plans

Uncertain economic times put many companies into spending freezes to navigate through their priorities while trying not to sacrifice productivity. But what happens when an actual recession hits, markets contract and revenue begin to shrink? You still need to update your technology and processes, but recessions make it harder to bring those projects to completion, since they bring threats of cuts to operational budgets and hiring.

 

However, the good news is that there are new ways and new tech to help you approach the overall hiring model and recession-proof your company’s digital transformation. This way, you can keep your business alive and relevant throughout the ups and downs of the market. In this article we will explore how a direct sourcing model is your key to smart hiring.

 

The problem with traditional tech hiring

 

During the last major recession in 2008, it was easier for many companies to simply shelve digital transformation projects until things got better. Not so much now, though: we live in an increasingly digital, virtual world, and companies and facilities alike that cannot keep up will lose revenue and relevance.

 

Unfortunately, the way many companies hire workers when they’re taking on digital transformations is flawed from the beginning. They will usually pay attention to obvious things from the get-go, such as reviewing how much time a project will take, analysing the speed to production, calculating risk level and return on investment. But the two biggest mistakes businesses often make when hiring developers, project managers and other technical roles for a digital transformation are not thinking about the availability of talent until the final steps, and having an unclear idea of both the hard and soft skills needed to complete a project.

 

This leads to hasty hiring decisions and poor recruitment, which can tank a project, drive up costs and leave companies in a bad place financially when a recession hits. Calculating recruitment costs is complex, and each tech hire is expensive enough on its own. According to hiring expert Dr Bradford Smart, the estimated cost of a mis-hired worker that does not work out can be anywhere from five to 27 times that person’s actual salary, depending on their role and leadership level in the organisation.

 

Bad hires can deliver fatal blows to digital transformation projects that could have ultimately kept a company afloat. But what if we made understanding the skills needed for a role, recognising the on-hand talent available and hiring accordingly a critical early step in building every digital transformation project? This is possible, and it can be done through a good direct sourcing program.

 

Direct sourcing recession-proofs your digital transformation

 

In a full direct sourcing program, the employer brand is at the forefront of talent acquisition instead of a staffing provider. Employers engage and interact directly with job candidates, but it’s not simply “DIY hiring”. Ideally, a reputable direct-sourcing partner that works with a given company to implement their program will give them clear data and insight on appropriate compensation in their market and the actual availability of different types of talent.

 

There are many short- and long-term benefits of a direct sourcing program. Right off the bat, it costs 35 per cent less to hire a worker through a direct sourcing program, according to research from Staffing Industry Analysts (SIA). However, the benefits extend beyond immediate savings. The same SIA study shows that companies who use direct sourcing programs are more likely to understand exactly what their talent pool looks like, and develop strong, brand-forward, long-term relationships with potential workers by engaging with them more directly, enabling them to hire faster and smarter down the road.

 

Direct sourcing to restructure prioritisation

 

So how can you use a direct sourcing platform to restructure your digital transformation hiring and recession-proof those projects? Prioritise your projects based on available, highly matched talent. The key is to think of a digital transformation project as a collection of skills needed, identify those skills, understand what skills are in your market and then plan out the project accordingly. As the projects commence, you can then spend the necessary time to build up the future skills needed. In other words, start with the projects where you have ready-to-go talent available to support.

 

Direct sourcing is a gateway to a global talent pool

 

We have covered the cost savings and the key to using available skills to project plan, but also consider what it would mean to have access to an entire world of talent. Not all companies are able to hire outside of their country’s boundaries. When considering a contingent workforce, find a direct sourcing partner that can manage international fulfilment. That way you can evaluate an entirely new pool, and extended pool, of available skills to fast-track project planning and increase speed to hire.

 

SkillGigs is an e-commerce talent marketplace that pairs skilled jobseekers with AI-matched work opportunities. The skilled technology workers on our marketplace have all built out in-depth skill profiles using our patented 3D Resume technology, which makes it easier to understand exactly what they bring to the table. We help our employer clients build a successful direct-sourcing program that hires the best talent by developing a skill density rating per project, clearly mapping out the hard (such as coding languages) and soft skills (proven success managing remote teams, for example) needed to make a digital transformation project successful. Our clients then take that skill density and compare it to the skills possessed by the pre-vetted, qualified candidates in our talent marketplace, and then evaluate what the speed of hiring could be and how quickly they can begin work, and budget accordingly.

 

Conclusion

 

Considering the skills needed and the talent available for your technical projects early in the planning process will save time and money, thereby effectively recession-proofing your digital transformation. The talent is out there – all you need to do is find the right people for the right job. A partner such as SkillGigs can help you hire smart.

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Learn more at SkillGigs.com

 

Kashif Aftab is Founder and CEO of SkillGigs, an e-commerce talent marketplace that pairs skilled healthcare and technology job seekers with AI-matched work opportunities.