Thoughts on Navigating an Uncertain Hiring Market
Hired revealed the results from their 2022 State of Tech Salaries survey.
Hired revealed the results from their 2022 State of Tech Salaries survey.
Average of 60 Days to Hire
For the United States, this is an average of more than one week longer to hire compared to 2021. Hired.com notes that this could be as much on the companies hiring as individuals potentially dragging their feet to look at other offers.
Overall 60 days to hire an engineer is insane. That’s at least two months of lost productivity.
Especially if the hire is a backfill, that’s a quarter of the year you lose the output of that individual. If your company can afford to hold out this long, great, but take a critical eye on your process and understand where your constraints lie.
Get Your Salaries In Order
With record levels of inflation and a hot job market, merit increases are becoming more critical than ever. From the survey, 50.8% of individuals expected a salary increase of 10%+ in the next 6 months.
Of that 50%, 2 out of 5 expected a 20%+ salary increase. Overwhelmingly, two-thirds of individuals noted that if they expected a raise and did not receive one, they would begin looking elsewhere.
It falls in line with what we’ve heard elsewhere in the industry and has been true for years. Those that are currently with a company are likely to garner smaller increases than if they look elsewhere.
Think carefully about how you’re approaching merit increases this year and take care of the folks that are making your business hum.
Loose Restrictions Opening New Markets
As the United States loosens restrictions on gambling within states, Sports Betting has taken off faster than a Nick Chubb touchdown.
Remote salaries within the Sports & Sports Betting world took the largest jump in 2022 with an increase of 21.30%. Taking a look at a few of the bigger players in the space, and with the release of Caesar’s Sportsbook, it’s not surprising why we see this jump.
Caesar’s Sportsbook — 674 employees — “expect us to spend over $1 billion in the next (two and a half) years to build our customer base”
FanDuel — 2,337 employees — $14bn valuation
DraftKings — 3,620 employees — $7.25bn valuation
Really any company with a presence in the sports world is likely to turn toward Sports Betting in the next few years, so don’t be surprised when more spin up.
With Insurance salaries continuing to rise (and having worked at an insurance company), I’d expect this to taper off by 2025. If we’ve learned anything from Root, it’s that you can’t undercut sustainably and make it into the public market successfully.
Remote Is Here To Stay
When offices began opening up at the beginning of 2022, there was a lot of discussion around what companies would force in-office work. As you can see below, that discussion became a defining factor for candidates, with a sharp jump in “only open to remote.”
The other takeaway is that folks have generally made up their mind with what sort of company they want to work for. Both have their pros and cons, but get real with yourself and your company about why you are choosing remote or in-office.
This additional chart shows that only 2% of individuals would actively choose to be in the office in the upcoming year.
Make smart decisions when choosing what kind of model in which your company will operate. Choosing incorrectly could severely limit the talent pool you can swim in.
Butts In Seats is a Thing of the Past
Hopefully, you already know this, but clocking in and out for tech jobs should never be used. Fire all of your command and control managers and value outcomes over output.
When we say “flexible work schedule,” it could mean many things, but generally it’s the ability to work when it suits the individual best. Maintaining core hours is key for keeping some structure, but outside of that, remote companies should understand how to communicate async and invest in flexibility.
Paid time off is another area to encourage for all of your employees. I recently experienced this joy by deleting Slack and completely disconnecting.
Having PTO available is not enough though. Leaders and managers should actively encourage PTO and push their individuals to take time away to refresh and recharge.
Final Thoughts
“Do individuals want to be remote,” is no longer a question. It’s fact. If you’re teetering on whether or not to allow remote work, take the plunge and make it happen.
While some companies are toying with a 4-day work week, it’s become more obvious than ever that individuals crave flexibility when it comes to work. It’s a scary concept for managers, but we have to figure out a way to make it work, lest we be left in the dust.
You can read the full report by downloading it at Hired.com. I am not affiliated with them at all, I just enjoyed their collection of data and the different points I was able to extract.
There are a lot of great takeaways, but it would be interesting to dig deeper into why people feel strongly about remote work. It can be inferred that it allows a deeper sense of flexibility, but I’m curious about what you think might also contribute.