Since the advent of cloud platforms, businesses have been able to significantly lower spending on their IT stack. Here’s how to halve your AWS talent acquisition costs, in 3 easy steps.
The tech sector already faced the highest turnover rate of any industry, thanks in part to the tight labor market and the stress levels involved in many IT roles. Turnover isn’t cheap to begin with—experts say that replacing a technical employee can cost businesses up to 150% of the role’s salary. But the attrition issue, just like talent attraction, has grown more significant over the past two years. As cloud adoption has increased exponentially, countless new roles have been created for AWS professionals to choose from.
According to the most recent Careers and Hiring Guide: AWS Edition from Jefferson Frank, almost two-thirds of AWS professionals had been given a pay rise since 2020: almost half of these respondents received a salary bump without a promotion. When asked why they had experienced a raise, 44% stated that increased demand for AWS professionals had upped their market value and their employer was trying to retain them.
For many businesses, rising costs are prohibiting them from achieving their digital transformation goals. Despite this, no organization should miss out on the opportunities that cloud technology can offer because they’re priced out of the talent market. This is why we’ve put together a few strategies employers can use to make AWS talent acquisition a little more affordable.
How to halve the cost of your AWS talent acquisition pipeline
1. Think about what you can offer (not just how much you can pay)
The easiest way for an employer to lure valuable professionals into new roles is to offer them more money. In the case of many in-demand AWS roles, the kind of money it would be impossible to say no to. But if throwing cash at the problem isn’t an option, that doesn’t have to mean you’re out of the race. The way we view our working lives and what we want out of them has been evolving for some time, but the rise of remote work and the difficulties created by the pandemic have sped up this evolution enormously. These progressive new attitudes to work are especially prominent among newer generations joining the workforce, making aligning your culture to them vital for long-term talent acquisition success.
A recent study found that seven in ten tech employees in the US are considering leaving their jobs in the next year. A massive 78% of those workers stated that workplace changes triggered by the pandemic are their major motivation for quitting. But other top reasons for leaving included limited career progression, lack of flexible and remote working options, and feeling underappreciated. In the same report, 91% of tech workers stated that they wanted their employers to offer more training and upskilling opportunities.
Another study discovered that 88% of knowledge workers look for complete flexibility in their hours and location when looking for a new role. Clearly, salary isn’t the only factor in creating job satisfaction. Today’s professionals want to do work that matters. They want to be learning and growing constantly. And they want the autonomy to work in a way that suits them. This fact presents a great opportunity for potential employers, and taking advantage of that opportunity means investing time and effort into your employer brand.
Our advice? Work out your strengths as an employer; what unique perks or experiences can you offer that someone might value more than a fat stack of cash? Find your selling points, and lean on them in your recruitment drive. And if you can offer remote and flexible working options, do. No matter how you feel about remote working, it’s here to stay, and it’s becoming a new standard for valuable candidates. Those who fail to adapt to it risk missing out on talent.
2. Stop looking for talent in the same places as your competitors
When you want to source AWS talent, where’s the first place you look? LinkedIn? Job boards? Great: so does everyone else.
The first problem with this strategy is that you’re seeking specialist talent through a broad and generic channel. There are no guarantees that you’ll find the niche AWS skills you need simply by searching on major, cross-industry job boards. The fact is that AWS professionals are so in-demand that anyone not actively seeking a new role will probably keep a low profile online, just so they’re not constantly bombarded with offers. Recruiting passive candidates is a far more effective, but admittedly trickier, way to hire.
The second issue is that if you do find a candidate through these channels, you won’t be the only one vying for their attention. By going after the most visible and easy-to-find candidates, you’re competing for the loyalty of the same group of AWS professionals that every other business is. And you’re very likely going to end up paying over the odds.
Of course, the core issue at play here is once again supply and demand. Scarcity breeds value, so the long-term solution to reducing AWS hiring costs is to create more talent. That may sound as naive as someone suggesting we fix economic problems by printing more money, but it’s not as big an ask as you might think. In recent years, as the impact of the cloud talent shortage rippled around the globe, talent creation firms began working on a fix.
Today, there are a host of specialist companies dedicated to creating new AWS professionals, whether by partnering with colleges and universities to support budding technologists, helping organizations develop “returnship” and back-to-work programs to get tech talent back into the workforce, or cross-training those with transferable skills into the world of AWS.
So, instead of fighting over the same candidates (at least until they burn out or retire), think outside the box and look at alternative sources that yield enormous potential for your ongoing talent pipeline.
3. Reduce your reliance on third-party contractors
Upskilling employees is an ongoing commitment that requires investment. But in the long run, it’s an investment that will pay dividends; not least because you won’t have to fork out for contractors to plug skills gaps quite so often. There will always be cases where you need outside knowledge to get the job done. But thinking about the bigger picture rather than short-term (and high cost) quick fixes like bringing in contractors will fortify your talent acquisition efforts in a number of ways.
As we touched on earlier, the vast majority of tech professionals want to be constantly sharpening their skills, so developing your in-house team’s knowledge will not only mean relying less on costly outside contractors, but it’s also likely to help with retention. Providing valuable, practical training to your employees helps your business, and keeps staff engaged and motivated. It’s a real win-win.
Make sure your AWS professionals always have something new to get their teeth into. Pay for certifications, give them time to study for exams, and most importantly, catch up with them regularly about what they’d like to learn more about, and align their ambitions with business goals for maximum benefit.
Paying for your employees to get AWS-certified is a great (and relatively inexpensive way) to grow knowledge and skills within your team, and keep your employees engaged and motivated. 48% of AWS professionals surveyed for the Jefferson Frank Careers and Hiring Guide: AWS Edition said that their employer contributed towards the cost of their AWS certifications, while a further 11% said their employer covered some of the cost.
How talent creation programs can reduce hiring costs
With talent creation schemes like Revolent, you can have the AWS talent you need working your projects fast, and on a flexible, low-cost basis. We source the most ambitious, passionate tech professionals—all of whom have at least two years of experience in the IT industry—and cross-train them into AWS roles. Hiring through Revolent is far more cost-effective than traditional recruitment, and unlike other talent creation schemes that involve fresh graduates or interns, our Revols are trained entirely on our end, meaning you get the benefit of their knowledge, drive, and soft skills without the overheads involved in keeping their skills up to date.
