Full-time or Contractual Salesforce Developers: Whom to Hire?

Salesforce is a powerful CRM platform used by over 150,000 businesses to manage customer relationships effectively. It holds a 23% share of the CRM applications market, more than its top 4 competitors combined.

To implement Salesforce or customize your org, you need a skilled development team. However, an important decision you need to make is whether to hire developers full-time or on a contract basis.

This blog outlines the pros and cons of both options and will help you make an informed decision. We’ve also included a few scenarios where either option makes more sense. Let’s dive in.

Full-time Salesforce Developers: Pros & Cons

Full-time developers are employees of your organization who either work at your premises or remotely. They are on payroll and entitled to benefits such as health insurance, social security, and paid vacations.

Pros

Improved collaboration: Collaborating with a full-time developer present on-site is easy and efficient. You can communicate in real-time, clarify requirements, and solve issues promptly.

Even if the full-time developer works remotely, you can still benefit from increased productivity. This is because remote developers can customize their workspace for better comfort and reduced distractions.

Increase familiarity: Full-time developers solely work on your projects and thus develop a deep understanding of your business needs. This enables them to be more efficient and effective at their work.

In addition, they also become familiar with your team dynamics and organizational culture. This familiarity allows better collaboration and teamwork.

Enhanced confidentiality: If your business deals with sensitive information, hiring a full-time (on-site) developer is more logical.

Here are some ways to safeguard confidential information:

• After hiring the candidate, have them sign confidentiality agreements.
• Provide your equipment, and have them leave it in the office after work hours.
• Closely monitor their access to computers, networks, and other company resources.

Cons

Higher costs: Hiring full-time developers is expensive. Along with salaries, you also incur benefit expenses like health insurance, social security, and paid vacations. If the developer works on-site, you also incur office space and equipment expenses.

Salesforce Ben’s Career and Hiring Guide 2022-23 shows how much Salesforce Developers earn in different regions of the world. Here are the results of the survey:

In addition, due to the high demand for Salesforce expertise, you may find employees frequently leaving for better opportunities. This may cause project delays, and hiring a new developer would require additional time and costs.

Limited flexibility: As a business, you may experience high or low workloads. During slower periods, keeping developers fully engaged can be challenging. You may need to assign tasks that may not best utilize their skillset.

If you need to downsize the team, you may have to serve notice periods and pay severance.

During higher workloads, scaling up the team can also be challenging. Finding skilled developers who are interested in joining your team is time-consuming. This is due to the constant evolution and high demand for Salesforce expertise.

When to Hire Full-time Developers?

• Hire full-time developers if you already have an in-house Salesforce team and need additional resources for the long term.
• Hire full-time (on-site) developers if you deal with sensitive information. You can closely monitor their access to computers, networks, and other resources.

Contractual Salesforce Developers: Pros and Cons

Contractual developers are professionals you hire on contract, as and when needed. It could be for a project or a specified duration. They usually work remotely and charge an hourly rate.

Pros

Better scalability & flexibility: When you hire developers on contract, it is either for a project or a specified duration. You sign a contract and only pay for the billable hours. This allows excellent flexibility.

You can quickly scale up or downsize your team as per requirements. Once the project is complete, you’re not obligated to retain the developers.

Cost-effective: When you hire developers on contract, you maintain time sheets and only pay for the billable hours. There are no salary, benefits, office space or equipment costs.

In addition, you can also benefit from lower rates in certain countries. As discussed earlier, the typical hourly rate of hiring a Salesforce developer in the USA is $127.50.

However, if you outsource Salesforce development team to India, you can reduce your IT spending by up to 30%.

For more information, you can read our recent blog outlining the cost of hiring Salesforce remote developers in the USA.

Specialized expertise: By hiring developers on contact, you can leverage the specialized Salesforce expertise that may be unavailable in your internal team.

You also have access to global developers who can bring diverse perspectives and new ideas to your team. This can foster innovation and creative problem-solving in your organization.

Cons

Limited oversight: The only concern with hiring developers on a contract is your limited oversight over their work. You cannot closely monitor their access to your organization’s resources.

However, you can sign confidentiality agreements and provide your own equipment to overcome this limitation.

When to Hire Contractual Developers?

• Hire contractual developers when you want to implement Salesforce but lack in-house technical expertise.
• Hire contractual developers to save time on hiring and leverage the expertise of an experienced team.

Conclusion

There you have it, a detailed guide outlining the pros and cons of hiring full-time and contractual developers.

While hiring full-time developers allows better collaboration, contractual remote development teams are the new norm. Their flexibility, expertise, and cost-effectiveness are unmatched in today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape.

If you’re looking to hire Salesforce developers on contract, collaborating with a Salesforce consulting partner like Cyntexa can help you save time and money.

Instead of spending time on the hiring process, you can share the roles you’re hiring for, and we will provide you with profiles of pre-vetted developers. You can interview them and choose the ones that fit your team and project.

Schedule a call with a consultant at Cyntexa today.