A survey of 418 hiring managers published this week by the Linux Foundation found 59% of respondents changed or revised their technical hiring plans for 2023 because of economic uncertainty. Among those organizations, the primary strategy for addressing these concerns was to freeze hiring (34%), followed by a focus on hiring to address specific skills requirements (32%) and staff reductions (13%).

Conducted by Linux Foundation Training & Certification and Linux Foundation Research to coincide with the Open Source Summit North America conference, the survey found 30% of respondents worked for organizations that froze hiring, while another 8% reduced headcount. Another 6% opted to do both, the survey found.

In contrast, a total of 44% said they planned to increase their hiring of technical talent, with another 12% reporting that they would still be hiring even if they had frozen some hiring or reduced headcount.

The survey revealed that organizations are looking to add technical staff with experience in cloud/container technologies (50%), cybersecurity (50%), artificial intelligence/machine learning (46%), database and data management (37%) and advanced analytics and data science (37%). The most acute need for technical expertise is in the areas of augmented reality/virtual reality, AI/ML, blockchain, continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) and DevOps and Kubernetes, the report found.

Anna Hermansen, ecosystem manager for Linux Foundation Research, said in addition to looking to recruit talent, it’s also apparent more organizations are investing in training to fill gaps, with 70% of respondents reporting they invest in training whenever a new technology is introduced. Investments in upskilling often enable organizations to add critical capabilities faster than finding and then vetting potential candidates, she noted. Well over half of respondents (58%) worked for organizations that sought training for their existing employees when they were unable to find suitable technical candidates, the survey found. Only 38% of respondents said they would rely on consultants to fill those gaps.

Upskilling, however, is not a panacea. While 55% of organizations agreed that upskilling could help, there is often a need to backfill positions and 47% of respondents said upskilling takes too long or is ineffective at training for complex roles.

In comparison, 48% or respondents said it would take more than three months to fill a technical position, with nearly two-thirds (64%) also noting recruitment is costly and time-consuming and often does not lead to the right candidate. A full 84% agreed there is a need for a streamlined way to recruit new technical staff with proven skills and 64% said that onboarding takes valuable internal resources away from other critical projects for too long.

The survey also found that 38% of organizations lost up to 10% of their new hires within four to six months, with nearly one out of three new hires, on average, departing within six months of being onboarded.

There’s no doubt that an uncertain economic outlook is adding more stress to already-flawed recruitment processes. The challenge and the opportunity is determining whether to focus on recruiting top talent versus growing a farm team that will be able to step up to handle more complex tasks. It’s not a question of choosing between those approaches as much as it is striking the right balance between them.