Building an ecosystem for developers in Cyprus is a work in progress. With nearly 2,000 developer positions open at the time of writing, many Cyprus tech companies are always concerned about completing projects.
Talent development is key to any industry today, but there is no royal road to engaging with developers and convincing them to join up.
The need to create a competitive offer is obviously paramount, and more and more companies are ramping up salaries, adding perquisites, and finding new ways to offer benefits. Competition is very tough, but some employers are emerging with successful strategies.
Panayiotis Thrasyvoulou explains how this is all changing in Cyprus
Why do we need more software developers in Cyprus?
“I guess the primary reason is because we have a lot of companies, but not enough people. “There are a lot of companies nowadays relocating to Cyprus to take advantage of tax benefits, fast-track approval mechanisms and other incentives. There is an ecosystem which Cyprus is starting to build, but we are not there yet.
How does the demand for developers break down?
The sector can be segmented into various parts: We have the gaming companies, fintech, communications, business services, etc. So depending on the area, they have different needs. We especially see a need for backend, frontend and full stack developers. The specific needs most in demand are usually the ones related to REACT, Java, C plus plus, and Android iOS, just to name a few. Software developers are actually needed for almost every type of programming.
How are Cyprus tech companies responding to the need?
Cyprus companies are making significant efforts to recruit. There are more than 700 vacancies being advertised currently for these positions. And there is a lot of activity in what we call the hidden labor market – much goes by word of mouth behind the scenes. So we may assume that there are at least three times as many positions available. This is an indication that there are huge needs in the market. It’s not clear that the companies are prepared to provide specific job-related, on-the-job training to get developers ready on time. I’m talking about the people who are being sourced within the company or locally, and this is the reason why companies go looking for them abroad. Another reason why companies are very active abroad is because of the fact that many companies have built their systems in foreign languages, by transferring their home infrastructure to Cyprus during their relocation.
We’ve got Israeli and Eastern European companies which are in software development, gaming, and some in financial services. And we’ve got increased activity from Lebanon and the Arab world nowadays for various companies involved in that sector. There is increased activity going on nowadays with the new fast-track scheme of the government, where the company can bring in specialists as needed (with certain quotas applied), depending on the company’s turnover… But eventually, Cyprus will need more qualified people sourced from within the island, and then we’ll start looking for people in the local labour market, that’s for sure.”
Can Cyprus companies offer what developers want? After all, they can go anywhere in the world?
“This is an issue, actually. The first thing that we saw was the explosion of the packages on offer. So we see exceptionally high packages being offered to lower-grade staff. And the first reaction was an intuitive move by the companies to raise salaries. However, we see that not all companies are prepared to provide a holistic employee experience, which will retain developers on staff. The problem is that developers may apply for the money, at first, but they usually leave for other reasons. We see, and this is a paradox, salaries being raised quickly, but we also see higher voluntary turnover rates.” Some developers particularly want to work on interesting projects in their own field. “Cyprus companies are innovative, and very wellpositioned to provide that if they also design the necessary infrastructure, performance management systems and their cultural transformation initiatives. A big part of these systems has to do with work design as well, which is in essence the things these people are assigned to do and the opportunities they have to deploy their skills and learn new ones. In the financial services industry, we see that, because they’re fast paced operating in a very demanding and rapidly-changing environment, we need companies to understand the need to transform, and to invest in cultural transformation. They must do this if they are to retain the talents that they find. Also, they need to gauge their learning and development functions to onboard people quickly, because the only way to secure their sourcing needs is to hire developers, maybe from other fields, but also cross-train and upskill them to do exactly what the company wants. And, because they cannot always find exactly what they want, they need to invest in their training, in activities like induction training, and on-the-job training.”
Can you describe the cultural transformation that needs to be effected?
“When we talk about culture, essentially, we talk about the assumptions people make about how things work, about beliefs about what to expect when working in a given organisation. Sometimes, because of the fast-paced nature of the work, and because of pre-established norms, people tend to assume that if you pay more money, employees are obligated to reciprocate, but that’s not the right dynamic. Companies must invest more in appreciating and developing their talent. And then we’ll always have a certain degree of voluntary turnover, engaged people who come to a point in their career where they leave. This means that companies need to create pipelines, and not just rely on a single intervention, but create an ongoing process. They will still lose some people, but not as many, and they will tend to lose people who most probably are not among the highest performing or the most committed people.”
There are specific considerations for companies that seek developers?
There are also requirements in terms of the language in which they’re programming and the agile way as they call it, methodology when they’re working on projects. These are the major requests we have from the forex sector. But what is needed goes beyond specific programming skills.
“What I notice is that employers need to do more in terms of training and development. It’s not always just about the specific programming language and the specific area of software development that they need to have. It’s also about the soft skills, and this is where a lot of the employers are underperforming. It’s also about remote collaboration, it’s about cost effective coordination, by being an effective team member. It’s also about collaborating and creating products with diverse teams, meaning people who are full-time on-site, people who are contractors, freelancers, part timers, remote, employees, etc. It’s also about providing those skills to be able to collaborate efficiently and create products and services in a timely and effective manner. This can be a problem. People do possess the skills to do the job, but they cannot do it because they lack related collaboration and coordination skills. Often, these are challenges that line managers have, that product managers and team leaders have. Nowadays, even the team members, the entry-level jobs require these soft skills. This includes empathy as well, being able to put yourself into the other person’s shoes, including those of your end user, which is usually an internal department. So to empathize and imagine how the end user will feel by using the things you create is critical. Those employers who meet this challenge have seen a great deal of improvement in reduced voluntary turnover rates, higher employee retention, less attrition, and higher engagement scores.
What is the role of government in bringing more developers to Cyprus?
We have come a long way, but there is still some way to go. The government has initiated this Fast- Track Approval process registering companies to operate in Cyprus in seven days. There have been some initial challenges, because you understand that it’s a complex network of various government agencies that must coordinate. Invest Cyprus has played an important role in bringing all these parties together and in making them more efficient. Yet, there are still challenges remaining with regards to some bureaucracy involved in those processes. There is still a long way to go with regards to simplifying processes for registering companies for applying for migration permits for relocating, for registering with the tax authorities and social insurance. And The government has yet to provide incentives in terms of the overall tax infrastructure incentives for ‘digital nomads,’ (freelance developers who contract with employers all over the world, and who move from one country to another. In Greece, for example, companies are able to relocate and repatriate high-level developers in this way, and the government provides strong incentives.” Thrasyvoulou points out that the challenge is broader than just that of expanding the ICT sector. “We are not there yet. However, this is not only related to the ICT sector, but also to a general trend regarding the future of work in Cyprus, we see that every sector nowadays tries to build up their competencies and their capabilities in this area, because many sectors will require those areas of expertise to compete better in the future. And so we see increased activity in other sectors as well. And this affects the ICT sector indirectly and directly because of the fact that it creates more competition.”
