IT in Demand

In Demand – Has lockdown inspired new reasons to hire talented IT contractors?

Over the past few months businesses have faced adapt or survive conditions. Lockdown has tested the best and brightest of us, and many standard operating procedures have been flung out of the window (some with a very slim chance of boomeranging back!).

But business is a beast of perseverance, and through ingenuity, innovation and a few strokes of luck, many have survived the worst of the turbulence – focus now shifts to the rebuild. The UK is settling into a new normal, and consideration of future safeguarding/preparedness will be on the to-do list of any reputable organization.

But this isn’t just about the risk of a second spike or future disaster, it’s about developing the newly realised capabilities available to most businesses. Though many proactive entities have embraced modern approaches to flexi-time, remote accessibility and incorporation of new technology, lockdown has forced the acceleration of a need for flexibility in the common work place.

Upon the announcement of a pause in industry many business owners scrambled to identify any possible resource that meant continuity of trade for the foreseeable future. Employees were asked to work from personal laptops and tablets, databases needed to be remotely accessible, security needed to span further than the internal office mainframe – the first panicked calls were made to the IT heroes of our nation.

To the untrained, IT specialists speak their own range of indecipherable, tech languages – whether it be coding, developing, infrastructure, security or hardware, these highly skilled individuals can make the most difficult IT problems seem trivial and easy to fix. Their contribution to ensuring that businesses could safely operate through Covid-19 is invaluable (and mostly unrecognized). But now that the dust is settling, will the effects of the pandemic fuel the need for skilled IT workers even more?

Our predications and observations say yes. Not only are businesses preparing for another catastrophic interruption somewhere in the future, but many are seeing their operations from a new angle. Firming up security, hardware and accessibility is a double edged sword, on one hand you’re ready to stare down another disaster, and on another you’re able to provide more flexible working conditions for your loyal staff. Video meetings have become the accepted norm – with installation of a small amount of well sourced, high quality tech to your conference room your salesforce may not need to spend long, unproductive hours on the road. Building a more robust range of communication platforms may mean that your customer base has better access support and guidance regardless of your staff’s physical location. And, the more ambitious business owner may even reconsider the expense of having a physical office at all – set up your IT matrix to support consistent, measurable home working and a major outlay of revenue could be eliminated.

None of the above will be possible to achieve without the support of highly skilled IT professionals. At SHC, we’re envisaging a spike in demand for such individuals through the coming 12 months and beyond. If you are an IT worker heading towards a new contract we’d love to hear from you. We would be happy to explain our services and how we may compliment your upcoming busy schedule.