The twisting plot of the presidential race, cloudier economic data and lower job creation figures have kept economists second-guessing what will happen to the economy and when. Employment is cool across many sectors, and tech is no exception.

Against this backdrop of uncertainty, one of the tech sector’s major growth areas is also making its own jobs obsolete. According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, AI has practically reversed the game for the sector. At one time, programming skills offered a surefire way to get hired, but now demand is not so certain.

Layoffs are being made as tech companies innovate and try new ideas. Being at the bleeding edge of change can sometimes be perilous, as those working on Apple’s now canceled autonomous car discovered. Similarly, it’s estimated that Dell’s global workforce will be reduced by 10% – or 12,500 employees – due to a shift to AI.

As if layoffs and a challenging economic outlook weren’t enough to contend with, the tech sector is also experiencing a distinct lack of candidates for certain skillsets.

The refreshing news is that innovative hiring strategies can help.

Tech recruiting has an advantage over other industries. The sector’s work lends itself to innovative employment arrangements and models, allowing the industry to be creative in securing the talent it needs in the middle of changing obstacles. But to move forward, companies should transform their talent acquisition strategies and the staffing models they use.

Exploring these options will enable businesses to better control the cost of people and overhead. Nimble teams, fractional employment and borderless hiring are three options which tech companies should consider deploying if they aren’t already.

1. Being nimble starts with gearing job descriptions towards competencies, characteristics and soft skills rather than more narrow technical skills, certifications or even traditional four-year college degrees. Fantastic and experienced hires in this sector don’t need to have followed the well-trodden traditional path of their predecessors. Talent should be recruited on the basis that it identifies with the company’s vision, values and culture. The result is a worker who can fulfill the role required and who cares about doing what the business needs. They are nimble because they can carry out diverse IT roles in different domains enabling the organization to fill gaps wherever and whenever it needs.
    
2. Fractional employment models are being deployed for strategic, specialized and leading roles. Offering positions such as chief technology officer (CTO), chief information officer (CIO) and chief information security officer (CISO) on a part-time or project basis enables companies to access top tier skills and leadership without having to commit to supporting someone in that position on a full-time basis.
    
3. The practice of borderless hiring offers employers access to new pools of world leading talent and skills, sometimes at preferential cost. This practice requires specific employment and management techniques — finding, assessing, compliantly engaging and managing global talent is by no means straight-forward, and businesses may find the process too arduous. With the hybrid/remote workforce now a mainstay, leveraging global resources such as an IT staffing agency can be a natural extension to get the talent organizations need.

The concept of rightsizing has been a feature of business management for many years, but these emerging employment models show that getting the workforce right doesn’t have to mean layoffs. Just as new technology requires new thinking, the development of new technology requires new ways of working. Identifying the right talent to work for a company, and finding smart ways to incorporate that talent into the workforce will be crucial for the sector to weather the economic storm, whichever turn it takes next.