How Much It Costs to Recruit a Developer

How much are you spending to recruit developers? 

The talent shortage in the IT and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) world means hiring developers is going to cost you even more than you might expect.

As we’ve mentioned before, there are currently 3 million more STEM jobs available than STEM workers to fill them, and 13 STEM jobs posted online for every one STEM worker. This could be why 75% of businesses report that finding talent to fill important IT positions is a challenge.  

This chasm between available positions and available talent is why more time and money goes into hiring for these positions than any other.  

The Hiring Problem in Numbers 

According to the Society for Human Resource Management, it can take an average of 42 days to fill a new position and cost $4,129 per hire. 

When it comes to recruiting developers, that number skyrockets to:  

  • $22,562  using in-house recruitment 
  • $31,970 using agency recruitment 
  • Over $60,000 in case of contractor cover or productivity loss 

Let’s use a Senior Software Engineer as an example. According to PayScale, the average annual salary of said engineer in the US is $110,193.  

That means that: 

  • An agency fee would cost $24,242 (22% of salary on average) 
  • In house recruitment would cost $13,223 (12% of salary on average) 
  • A hybrid solution would cost $18,732 (17% of salary on average)  

This isn’t taking into consideration the productivity loss due to the recruitment process, CV reviews, interviewing, etc. which can cost up to $8,454 in management time. And all of these costs obviously begin to multiply the more team members you plan to add.  

Your Options

So, what can you and your business do to get these costs down, while ensuring you’re hiring the right developer? 

Build a talent-sourcing pipeline. 

Such a pipeline can help you both attract qualified candidates from external markets and create your own qualified candidates from your internal workforce. 

At the Software Guild, we use a three-tiered system to help you accomplish this: recruit, develop, and retain. 

  1. Recruit: Attract talent from the marketplace and transition incumbent workers from IT and other departments to in-demand technical positions. 
  2. Develop: Provide up-to-date training in a variety of technologies including Java, .NET/C#, data science, and more for student skill levels from beginner to advanced. 
  3. Retain: Identify technology needs and develop a system to fill roles, creating a pathway for professional development to keep employees engaged, their skills current, and increase retention.  

If you partner with us, we’ll provide you with a relevant, flexible, and affordable system that’s customized to your organization’s needs, providing you with a long-term plan for professional development that appeals to technology workers. 

The Bottom Line 

Ultimately, we can help: 

  • Lower the cost of talent acquisition and onboarding 
  • Provide college credit 
  • Identify talent within and outside the organization 
  • Increase job satisfaction 
  • Increase retention 
  • Make the company more attractive to external candidates 
  • Increase diversity by offering professional development opportunities to nontraditional, incumbent workers 

Ready to learn more? Check out how our system works, as well as applicable modalities and course schedules here.