COVID19 can be directly credited for growing and diversifying the technology space at an exponential rate and as a result the skillset of many employees and teams have had to adapt, writes Kevin Liebenberg, Developer at Biz Dev.
Developers are one such group of professionals who have been affected and have had to re-evaluate their skillsets to meet new demands.
The approach of a one size fits all no longer can apply to developers. Instead, organisations are having to evaluate the resources they require for a project and then attract and employ these team members. Each project is different and with it the culture of the team or organisation and the skillset required. Now more than ever organisations are needing to focus on how they go about attracting the right team members with the required skills and who will fit into the existing company culture and environment.
Every project needs the right balance of senior and junior team members, specialists and generalists and a balance of personalities. This is not always an easy task and coupling this with the current unstable economic environment has seen stakeholders realising that contractor and development for hire teams are well worth the premium.
Whether to augment existing teams, build a new product, essential skills transfers or to fulfil a specific task, these specialists are starting to occupy a much greater share of the market for all maturities of organisations, start-ups, growing and established businesses that are looking to keep up with the rapid digital expansion.
On the other side of the coin stakeholders are finding value in properly understanding the goals of the organisation long-term while ensuring that training and upskilling is organisation wide to enable a natural technology growth and competency on all levels, allowing employees to grow into specialised positions that they have aspired to. In an agile world where requirements and timelines are changing as quickly as load-shedding levels, the value of the generalist who is able to learn, adapt and solve problems must be noted.
At the same time, realising that technology is not just a small part of operations and the skills need to be shared across levels, especially management and stakeholders.
There is immense value in having technology specialists who understand your business and industry on board. Individuals who understand their role and the industry they are working in are more likely to propose ideas or introduce concepts that not only benefit the organisation but bring value to customers – considering the business, industry and customers.