Mythbusted: Developers are willing to work on-site for the right offer
As more companies shift to hybrid, it’s unclear if talent is willing to follow. Finding potential team members open to office work feels like hunting for unicorns. Our data shows that remote is the preference among tech talent, but more than two-thirds are open to on-site roles.
A RTO shift means more companies are looking for on-site team members
Over the past 12 months, we’ve seen more South African tech companies begin a slow return to office (RTO). During this time, 17% of developers saw their policy change away from being fully remote.
We can see this playing out on the OfferZen marketplace: more than two thirds of open tech positions on OfferZen have a hybrid work or in-office policy.
Despite this slow RTO shift, developers still have a clear preference for some form of remote work. That’s led to a belief that it’s becoming almost impossible to find candidates who are open to working on-site permanently.
So, is there any truth to this? Taking a closer look at the data shows that there are candidates who will work on-site for the right offer.
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Devs are willing to work on-site for the right offer
Despite their strong preference for remote, the majority of developers are open to working on-site. In fact, nearly 70% of candidates on OfferZen are open to office-based positions.
What’s more, there’s no difference in preference between the country’s major tech hubs, namely Johannesburg and Cape Town. That means you’ll find candidates who are open to working on-site irrespective of where you’re based.
🚀 Make compelling cases and realistic recruitment strategies with reliable data. Download our South African Tech Talent Insights Report to get exclusive access to OfferZen’s proprietary data drawing from over 60 000 tech profiles to help you:
Backend Developer | Laravel Specialist
4moI think that a lot of the nuance here is in the leverage one has when looking for work. I.e. how much are these results potentially skewed by those who are open to onsite, just to increase their odds of finding a job in a tough market? What's the ranked preference here? Secondarily it's also a balancing act. Onsite might be the compromise for a role that pays the best and uses your ideal tech stack, or remote may be preferable even at lower pay.