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Have you ever waited months for a hire that ultimately didn’t work out? Or watched critical projects stall because your technical team was incomplete? If you answered yes, you’re not alone. The tech talent shortage is real, and IT managers face an increasingly competitive market to attract and retain good professionals.
According to the “State of Software Engineers” study (2024), 78% of companies consider the lack of qualified talent the biggest obstacle to their digital transformation projects. The average time to fill a software engineer position increased from 42 days in 2020 to 66 days in 2024. Meanwhile, projects don’t wait.
This article will show the importance of having professionals like software engineers on your team and how the hiring model matters to solve problems strategically. Check it out!
Why does your company need software engineers?
Digital transformation is currently a basic requirement to stay active in the market. Companies that can develop and evolve their digital products quickly gain an advantage over the competition.
Experienced software engineers bring three immediate benefits to the business. First, they accelerate the launch of new products and features. Professionals who have faced similar challenges know how to avoid common pitfalls and propose more efficient solutions from the start.
Second, technical quality improves significantly. Well-written, scalable code with fewer bugs reduces maintenance costs and increases user satisfaction. A report from the Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ Report 2023) estimated that poor-quality software costs American companies $2.41 trillion per year. Investing in good professionals is actually cost-saving.
Third, when you have a robust technical team handling execution, leaders can dedicate energy to understanding the market, listening to customers, and defining the product’s next steps.
The main challenges when hiring software engineers
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Time-consuming recruitment
Opening a position, advertising it, screening resumes, conducting technical interviews, validating references… The traditional recruitment process consumes time and resources.
The cost is even higher when the hire doesn’t work out. On average, a failed hire can cost up to 5 times the professional’s annual salary, considering lost time, rework, and impact on team morale.
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Technical and behavioral fit
How do you know if the candidate truly masters the technologies they claim to know? Technical tests help. Still, assessing depth of knowledge and ability to solve complex problems requires experience and time.
Soft skills are equally important. A technically brilliant engineer without communication or teamwork skills can create more problems than solutions. Balancing these two dimensions in the evaluation is difficult and requires structured processes.
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Onboarding
A professional takes, on average, 3 to 6 months to reach full productivity, according to data from “Employee Onboarding Statistics” (2024). During this time, critical projects remain paralyzed.
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Talent management and retention
The technology market has one of the highest turnover rates among all areas. Tech professionals change jobs, on average, every 2.5 years.
Retaining good engineers requires continuous investment in development, a clear career plan, and a stimulating environment. For many companies, especially mid-sized ones, this structure represents a considerable operational and financial challenge.
Hiring models: full-time employment vs. staff augmentation
There are two main paths to having software engineers on your team: traditional full-time employment or strategic allocation of professionals and squads.
Full-time employment makes sense when you need people 100% dedicated to the company’s core business, with a long-term vision and building a strong internal culture. The advantages include complete control over the professional, deep alignment with the company’s vision, and building internal knowledge.
On the other hand, the disadvantages are well-known: time-consuming recruitment process, high fixed costs (salary, benefits, taxes, infrastructure), full responsibility for people management, and difficulty adjusting the team according to project demand.
Strategic allocation of professionals offers flexibility. You get quick access to technically validated specialists, can scale or reduce the team according to current needs, and share management with a specialized partner. Costs are more predictable, and the company doesn’t bear employment taxes.
NextAge, for example, works with agile squads that arrive aligned and productive from day one.
NextAge and staff augmentation
What if you could skip all the bureaucratic and risky parts of hiring and have direct access to validated professionals ready to produce?
NextAge’s staff augmentation model was designed precisely to solve the problems you just read about. Here’s how it works in practice.
First, all professionals undergo rigorous technical and behavioral validation before being allocated. Productivity starts on day 1.
Second, management doesn’t fall entirely on your shoulders. NextAge maintains continuous internal management of allocated professionals, ensuring cultural alignment, constant technical evolution, and support throughout the entire partnership. If any adjustment is needed, you have a partner working together to resolve it, not a vendor who disappears after the contract is signed.
Third, you gain flexibility. Need to scale the team to accelerate a delivery? No problem. Did the project scope change and you need a different specialization? We adjust. The model was designed to keep pace with your business, without bureaucratic roadblocks.
NextAge also works with proprietary methodologies, such as NextFlow AI, which enhances developers’ work with Artificial Intelligence, accelerating deliveries and reducing rework. Its professionals are not only technically capable, they work with tools that multiply productivity.
If you need experienced software engineers without going through months of recruitment, validation, and onboarding, it’s worth learning about staff augmentation model.
Hire staff augmentation, scale fast
Hiring software engineers is not just an operational decision. It’s a strategic choice that directly impacts growth speed, product quality, and the company’s market competitiveness.
The challenges exist: time-consuming recruitment, complex validation, high costs, and difficulty in retention. The good news is you don’t have to face all this alone.
NextAge is ready to discuss your specific challenge and show how staff augmentation can accelerate your projects without the headaches of traditional hiring.
Want to meet high-performance professionals ready to join your team? Contact NextAge and discover how we can help your company scale with quality and agility.
