Salary ranges have to be added to job advertisements

There are contradictory trends in the labour market, with both labour shortages and redundancies - in the tech industry as well - at the same time, what do you think, how will this affect recruitment?

Recruitment is and will always be based on the needs of the business, so there is no way that it will not be affected by the economic changes. For a good few months now, we have been hearing news of more layoffs in the tech industry: a phenomenon that was supposed to be just a temporary turbulence has taken on a life of its own and has affected a wider range of companies in the IT sector in Poland and around the world. Even the biggest giants had to press recruitment pause or, in order to look for savings, terminate cooperation with some team members and, as well as abandon projects. This means that the job market, probably for the first time in many years, has seen significantly more experienced talent looking for new challenges. Until now, industry recruitment of IT experts has been compared to 'looking for unicorns', with organisations having to vie for seniors. It is worth noting that not all companies are slowing down the pace of recruitment; a group of companies has emerged that are beneficiaries of the recent breathlessness in the IT market. Such companies are continuing to hire new specialists at a time when it is faster, easier and cheaper to do so. This approach will enable a competitive advantage when the market starts to grow and most companies start hiring again. So it is definitely worth seizing this moment in the market and prioritising recruitment, as it is difficult to predict how long this state of affairs will continue.

The 'hiring freeze' caused by the bursting of the tech bubble, which had been building up since the pandemic, has affected many companies (even tech giants), however, salaries in IT are still on the rise, and due to redundancies, the number of candidates looking for work has also increased. If we compare January 2022 and 2023, we can see that the medians of both the lower and upper salary ranges have scored an increase of even over a dozen  percents. The number of CVs sent per offer also increased - in January 2023 it was more than double that of the same period in 2022. The non-programmer categories of Agile, Product Management, UX and Business Analyst were the most popular. Recent years have taught us that the IT industry is resilient to market turbulence and the situation will soon stabilise.

It is also worth looking at the bigger picture: according to the European Union and the Digital Compass initiative, the number of people employed in the IT industry will increase from the current 9 million to 20 million by the end of 2030. We see great potential in the increasingly popular fields of AI and machine learning, and we are curious to see the further development of solutions such as ChatGPT or DALL-E.

How does this change the market?

Let's start with the fact that nowadays, candidates become more and more aware of their rights and needs. They expect employers to be respectful, transparent and honest.  We are  talking about the IT industry and generation Z but not only. More and more often we hear from recruiters, both from our clients and from other companies we meet at events, that the rules of the game are changing in this field. So an employer who cares about conscious brand building, about team building, management culture and company’s values cannot remain passive. Something that was once an IT standard only is becoming an everyday occurrence in more and more industries. Increasingly, candidates are talking about the mistakes and unpreparedness of recruiters, but recruiters are also speaking out about problems with candidates. And this is exactly where our mission, at No Fluff Jobs, begins. Since the founding of the company in 2014, we have been driven by one goal: to change the standards of recruitment and promote only specific job offers - any company that wants to publish a job ad on our portal must provide salary ranges and a detailed job description, no fluff, only facts! 

In IT, where will professionals go from here? What should they improve in?

In IT, as in many other industries, there is no stopping development. Employees who focus on reskilling and upskilling will be in a winning position in the long term, especially now with the growing popularity of the AI solutions. Instead of being afraid of artificial intelligence taking over our jobs, we should be afraid of people who learn how to use AI in their daily responsibilities – they are more likely to “take our jobs”. 

In the case of developers, learning about the latest developments in frameworks and libraries is essential in order not to fall "behind". On top of this, the ability to communicate with business owners is in demand all the time - job market researchers have been saying for years that soft skills are becoming increasingly important. It's also a key trait to nurture if you want to land a senior position, particularly a leadership position. Plus, as AI solutions start to come to the fore, the ability to work with these tools will be an important point of development - this already helps save a lot of man-hours for the developer(s) who use such tools on a daily basis.

It seems transparency of wages is getting more important, even on an EU level, you have already been doing that on your website. What do you think how it is going to affect recruitment and talent attraction if it is compulsory?

In autumn 2022 we launched a nationwide campaign “Respect yourself”. We wanted to go beyond the IT bubble and promote the idea of transparency and respect in relations with employers among professionally active people. The response to the campaign surprised us - the topic of disclosed salary was picked up by the media (430 press headlines), and there was an uproar in the world of social media: information about the campaign reached a total of 3 million recipients.

We have certainly not said the last word. You can be sure that there will still be plenty of talk about salary ranges and we will keep on educating the market about the importance of transparency and respectful recruitment processes.  Fortunately, more and more people are postulating: "salary rangers are our right, not a privilege", so the trend will only grow stronger.

How important it is to understand and know the needs of your recruitment target, for example, to specialize in a field or occupational group as you do?

Although we still mostly hear about the IT industry in the context of high salaries, for professionals in this sector, independence and flexible working hours are equally important factors. This is why they are willing to choose the so-called freelance life and work with several entities at the same time. They point to the B2B contract as the preferred form of employment enabling this mode of work. Such a model of professional life also makes it possible to combine work and travel (work-cation trips). Others go a step further and become digital nomads. There is definitely a change in the current perception of the work model, and it is worth observing how polygamous careers and so-called 'GIGers' fare. The companies need to be up to date with how the potential employees perceive a desired and friendly work environment and what they need in order to join an organization. For instance, if the workation trend is picking up, you need to offer remote work. What’s more, nowadays candidates want to identify with the company they work for and experience self-growth. Therefore, while posting a job ad you must include information about ongoing projects, career paths and company’s values. 

What do you think a really good job ad should look like considering all the circumstances?

It’s not what I think, it’s what candidates are looking for in a job ad - right? It’s about knowing your audience, listening to their needs and answering it. Sometimes HR people tend to forget that a simple job ad is also a very strong communication point with candidates (building your brand, employer brand). You have to be aware first who you are looking for and second what she/ he needs, what drives them in everyday work life, what is important to them. 

So we recommend you to:

• Read reports 

• Analyse data. 

• Prepare brief before posting anything.

• Think about who you would like to invite to the team. 

• Think about the right partners who will help you find the right candidate with the rights skills and experience. 

• Then prepare a job offer and make it life. 

But also, do not forget about:

1. Posting transparent job offers with pay ranges.

2. Offering remote work (if possible).

3. Considering candidates' preferences regarding the form of the first contact.

4. Being as specific as possible in the first conversation.

5. Preparing yourself substantively and stay up to date with technical knowledge.

6. Always giving feedback to the candidates.

7. Keeping to the deadlines you promise the candidate.

8. Giving candidates a chance to provide feedback about the recruitment process.

9. Searching for additional sources of candidates (Juniors, candidates from the CEE region).

10. Taking care of the people who are already on board.

Beyond those already mentioned, how much will AI disrupt the tech industry and jobs?

AI professionals and specialists can expect some of the highest salaries in the industry. Data from No Fluff Jobs' 'IT job market in 2022' report shows that AI ranked third in terms of salary on offer last year in Poland. In Hungary, the salary range of AI was between 1.826.000 and 2.435.000 HUF for senior/expert category in the first half of 2023, which is 19,44% higher than in 2022. The percentage of all ads in this category on No Fluff Jobs alone increased by 14% over the year.

Does this mean AI is going to take away our jobs? Not necessarily. Rather, we should be talking about a change in the scope of tasks in certain positions, e.g. those related to content creation or graphics. For example, the already very popular ChatGPT is already able to write a 'cold email' itself to convince a potential customer to buy our product. This will make the work of salespeople much more efficient. Likewise, those writing content on a variety of topics will give the AI the guidelines for an article, rather than looking for inspiration on the internet, and it will construct the text itself. I suspect that some time from now we will no longer be using search engines, but will be asking specific questions of the AI system, which will give us a precise and comprehensive answer. 

The development of automation and AI (e.g. the recently popular ChatGPT, Midjourney or the DALL-E text image generator) will require so-called reskilling or upskilling of male and female employees, i.e. changing or upgrading their skills. In 2019, McKinsey experts estimated that AI and automation could replace as many as 30 per cent of jobs worldwide by 2030. And data from the World Economic Forum adds that 12 million more jobs will emerge than disappear by 2025 thanks to automation. This is why it is worth investing in developing and improving your digital competences, as quite soon they may prove to be essential for working or even functioning in society.