In whose hands should the development be given? How to hire developers in modern circumstances?
There are enough offers in the digital services market. You can trust a freelancer, an in-house department, or employ outsourced specialists. At the same time, it must be remembered that all options will differ not only in costs but also in the approach, the process of organizing work, and hence the result.
When choosing an option, be guided by your goals and budget. And based on these conditions, decide with whom it is more profitable for you to work. And we'll help you figure it out.
Today, we have three main options: freelancer, in-house team, and tech talent marketplace. Let’s discover who to contact and in what situations.
Top 3 ways to hire developers
Freelancer
It is most convenient to work with a freelancer when you have a clear task and criteria for evaluating its implementation. To do this, you better understand the topic in order to find a good performer, set tasks for them, and control the work. Such employees are to be found through Fiverr alternatives.
In a pair of customer + freelancer, the first is the “head”, and the second is the “hands” that perform specific functions. For example, a Ruby on Rails developer should write and maintain reliable code. The freelancer is responsible for their work, and the customer is responsible for the result of the promotion as a whole.
Pros
- Service prices. A freelancer usually charges less than an agency and costs less than an in-house employee in terms of taxes, workplace, and so on. Although there are top specialists, whose services are very expensive, you also have to wait in line.
- Clear communication. You know exactly who to contact with questions, there are no intermediaries.
- Payment for services without additional costs. Usually, the customer pays a certain amount, and the freelancer buys programs, equipment, and training at their own expense.
Cons
- It's hard to find a good performer. For instance, there are a lot of React developers, and you will have to spend time searching and interviewing them. Even recommendations may not work, as each business has its own nuances. It is also desirable to get along with a specialist on the level of values and find a common language with them.
- Breaking deadlines. If you do not take into account freelancers who “disappear from the radar”, force majeure can happen in the life of even the most responsible performer: illness, family problems, and more. In such situations, they will not be able to complete their work on time.
- Difficulties with scaling. Usually, one freelancer possesses a very tiny set of skills. For example, you hired a React Native coder who knows how to build apps and UI components but has no experience working with native modules.
- Freelancer cost recognition issues. Many specialists work outside the legal field without individual entrepreneurs and self-employment and cannot provide documents for accounting. Therefore, you have to figure out how to deal with this issue or find a freelance service provider who works legally. What really matters here is the tax office, which does not have questions.
In-house programmer
Hiring an onsite employee/creating an IT department would work if promotion really requires several different full-time specialists (for example Flutter developers, JavaScript engineers, and Node.js coders at the same time). And the company has finances for its maintenance, which includes not only salaries and technical equipment but also investments in training.
There are cases when with a good level of expertise and funding, your own department will be cooler than a contractor. But there are situations when the decision to hire developers on a remote basis is more profitable.
Pros
- Controllability. Labor relations are a set work schedule, responsibilities, and various levers of management, so employees, even if they are remote, are easier to manage than freelancers.
- No spray. Specialists work on only one project and know all its features quite well.
- Established contacts within the company. Experts of the software development team know who to call to find out the necessary information, and informal relationships usually help to get through bureaucratic moments faster and get results.
Cons
- Expensive. Employees are salaries, taxes, VHI, and other bonuses, plus equipment and programs. There are also costs associated with the lack of talent. So someone from the department should master a new niche. For example, a Java developer learns Python and can drain the budget.
- It takes time to gather specialists. To hire developers, it is necessary to evaluate both professional qualities and how deep a new person will integrate into the developer team.
- Reducing the load does not affect the costs associated with the maintenance of the department. When for some reason there is a pause in the project, you need to pay wages in the same amount.
- Constant training. IT technologies are developing rapidly, new tools and opportunities appear on the market almost every day. Employees are not as motivated as freelancers and outsourced devs to follow trends, so the employer will have to deal with training at their own expense.
Tech talent marketplace
The situations in which it is worth thinking about hiring marketplace-based remote devs can be different, we list the main ones:
- There is no desire or opportunity to invite specialists to the staff.
- It is necessary to reduce the cost of promotion. IT outsourcing is generally cheaper than the maintenance of employees, which includes salaries, taxes, technical support, and training. Plus, if your company is located in Silicon Valley, local specialists are more expensive than, for instance, in the CEE region (like software developers from Poland).
- The demand for employees with certain qualifications is temporary. Today’s project requires .NET programmers, but tomorrow’s not.
- The need to scale your business quickly.
- There is no time for training employees and for monitoring their work.
- The need to focus on developing other areas.
- New professional experience from other specialists.
- The required specialists left the staff, and the search for new ones will take time.
- In a huge project, you need to delegate tasks.
- It is necessary to connect and test new tools.
- There is a need to develop the direction, and a high level of competence of specialists in a certain field is needed.
Advantages of working with a tech talent marketplace
- Saving time. You do not need to waste time searching for specialists, their selection, and interviews.
- A specific amount of costs. The customer pays under the contract, and there are no additional costs in the form of taxes, payment for programs, equipment, and training.
- High level of expertise. A dedicated software development team with extensive experience in implementing different projects has much higher expertise than specialists who work only in one area.
- Side view of the project. An employee who is engaged in only one specific project has a high involvement but may “blur” their eyes. Therefore, a specialist from the outside will notice what the regular employee no longer sees.
Drawbacks
The main disadvantage is possible mistakes when choosing a talent supplier, which can lead to loss of money and time.
Why opt for a tech talent marketplace to hire developers?
Now let us showcase why Toptal alternatives are the leading way to find developers.
Reduced costs
Formally, the cost of a working hour for an average full-time coder who works 40 hours a week is cheaper than the marketplace’s services.
Let's also not forget that solving problems by a full-time engineer takes longer since it is impossible to perfectly master all digital tools, plus communication with departments and reporting on the project falls on their shoulders, then the cost of an hour of an employee will increase significantly.
The marketplace is able to keep prices at a certain level due to the competent organization of work. For example, how a well-experienced vendor manages the process:
- a project manager who knows the project thoroughly sets tasks for specialized employees;
- specialists perform work in their field;
- the analyst prepares reports in a form that is convenient for the customer.
At the same time, tasks are solved quickly, as they are typical for narrow specialists. And in case of difficulties, colleagues help, and brainstorming is organized. As a result, the customer only pays only for a workflow.
In addition, the geographical location matters: the optimal solution would be to hire developers from the region of Central and Eastern Europe due to the high quality of their work and, at the same time, low employment costs.
Big talent pool
This is the best way because you can hire developers from a huge proven talent pool. Moreover, you can ask for a selection of the most suitable technical talent for you from thousands of vendor partners (software agencies, tech freelancers/contractors, and recruiters).
You can have either a single developer or a team dedicated to the project, covering the basic needs of the customer:
- analyst,
- marketer,
- designer,
- quality specialist,
- coder.
Each of them works in its own direction. As a result, the customer receives a high-quality product.
Customer engagement
While hiring a team, you’ll have a separate specialist who will control the development process and act as a connecting link between all participants in the development process and the customer.
Teamwork
All development participants in the company are in contact with each other: the UI/UX designer consults with the Python developers, the QA engineer with the designer, etc.
Interchangeability
The marketplace has the opportunity, if necessary, to replace one project participant with another. If one of the participants falls ill, another employee will take over their functions.
The underside of the work
Pre-vetted specialists understand that most projects require improvements. That is why it is so important to immediately write quality code so that any other developer (for example, a new team member) quickly understands the code, and the improvements themselves take less time.
Hire developers through a marketplace!
So, in what cases should you assemble a department, contact a freelancer or a tech talent supplier?
If the project is large and a budget for promotion is allocated, then it makes sense to assemble a team within the company. But be careful when selecting personnel, since it is not so easy to dismiss an employee, even if they do not cope with their duties very well or do not fit into the team.
For small tasks, a freelancer is suitable, but on the condition that there is a specialist on your side who can clearly set the task and monitor its implementation.
The most flexible option is to hire remote developers through a marketplace:
- you can come with both small and large projects,
- order work within your budget,
- hire developers x5 faster,
- pay less,
- free yourself from the screening process, matchmaking, project-specific vetting, etc.,
- get really qualified services (with the right choice of contractor).
TL;DR - dealing with a tech talent marketplace, you’ll build a team of outsourced devs able to create serious and complex technological products with minimal involvement from the customer and which are responsible for all stages of work.
