Hiring Tech Talent: Is your company stuck in the slow lane?

Hiring top tech talent today isn’t just about finding the right person, it’s about securing them before your competitors do. Whether you're looking for software engineers for a startup, IT specialists for large corporations and government, or embedded engineers for cutting-edge electronics, one thing is clear; if you move too slow, you lose.

Right now, the average time to hire a tech professional in the U.S. is 41 days, while in Europe, it drags out to 62 days according to Workable. That’s a real problem when the best candidates are typically on the market for just 10 days. Tech hiring moves at lightning speed, and yet many companies are still stuck in slow, outdated processes.

Why Are Some Companies So Slow?

Startups and high-growth tech companies understand speed. They use platform-based hiring, global talent marketplaces, and direct sourcing to cut down hiring time. In contrast, large corporations often have too many stakeholders, rigid HR policies, and multi-step approvals that slow everything down. In corporate IT and electronics engineering, it’s common to see hiring decisions drag out for months, leading to missed opportunities and skyrocketing costs.

And let’s talk about cost, hiring isn’t cheap. In the U.S., the average cost per tech hire is almost $5,000, and considerably more in Europe, due to longer hiring processes. Not to mention the indirect cost of additional hiring time and delayed project.

The Changing Landscape: Freelancers, EoR, and Direct Platform Hiring

The way companies hire is also shifting. In the U.S., 35% of workers are freelancing according to FinancesOnline, giving companies access to talent without long-term commitments. More businesses are also turning to Employer of Record (EoR) services, which allow them to hire the best global talent quickly and easily and very cost effectively, without needing a business presence in the country of hire. This model has been booming in the US in recent years while Europe has been slow off the mark. ?

And then there’s the rise of platform-based hiring, where companies skip traditional recruitment agencies altogether, using a range of data-driven, AI, marketplace and SaaS based tools to source, vet, and onboard candidates in a fraction of the time. This is particularly clear in industries like electronics engineering and embedded systems, where talent shortages are even more extreme.

Big Corporations Struggle—Startups and SMEs Move Fast

One of the biggest hiring challenges is bureaucracy. Large companies tend to have too many decision-makers, long contract negotiations, and a reluctance to embrace new hiring methods. It’s not unusual for a corporate IT department to take six months to hire a cybersecurity specialist—by which time, that person has already been snapped up by three different startups.

Meanwhile, startups and SMEs skip the red tape. They move quickly, make hiring decisions in days, and use modern hiring platforms to find and onboard the best talent at record speed. That’s a huge advantage in today’s job market.

The Future of Hiring is Fast, Global, and Digital

The reliance on external recruiters, slow interview processes, and local talent pools are dying out. The companies winning the fight for top tech talent are the ones embracing the new, fast, direct, digital and network based hiring platforms.?

So, the question is: Is your company adapting to this new hiring reality, or are you still stuck in the slow lane?