Technical debt takes many forms—from legacy systems that strain modern infrastructure to custom codebases that are hard to scale. What unites them is their potential to negatively impact business outcomes. More than half (55%) of tech and IT leaders say technical debt is blocking progress on their strategic priorities this year, according to Robert Half’s 2025 Building Future-Forward Tech Teams report.With digital demands rising—from AI and automation to cybersecurity—tech debt is a burden most organizations can’t afford to carry. There is a silver lining to this issue, though: Tech debt reveals where technological change is needed most in your organization to drive innovation and long-term efficiency.Turning tech debt into an opportunity to move the business forward requires aligning the right resources with the right priorities. This post outlines three staffing options that can help your business do exactly that. You may benefit from using one, or all, depending on your specific needs. Before we explore them, let’s take a closer look at technical debt and how it can present both challenges and opportunities for businesses seeking to advance their digital future.
What is technical debt—and why is it a problem?
Read our new report nowTechnical debt refers to the cost of maintaining outdated or suboptimal technology systems and processes, as well as the effort and investment required to improve, upgrade or replace them to support future innovation and scalability. It accumulates when organizations prioritize quick fixes or short-term solutions on tech projects, like software development, over more adaptable and sustainable approaches that take more time or budget to implement.While quick and easy decisions about technology can provide immediate benefits, they often lead to inefficiencies, higher maintenance costs and increased risk over time. For example, legacy code written in outdated programming languages may hinder system updates or integrations. Similarly, relying on antiquated infrastructure can limit scalability and slow down innovation.As our Building Future-Forward Tech Teams report explains, technical debt can become a significant impediment to digital transformation progress, including implementing AI systems, cybersecurity solutions and cloud computing platforms—all of which tech leaders say are top priorities for their teams. And half of the leaders we surveyed for our report said they expect to encounter implementation complexity as they try to move ahead with new projects this year.
Resourcing strategies for addressing technical debt
It’s easy to see technical debt as a backlog of problems: quick fixes, short-term decisions or legacy systems that haven’t kept pace with the business. However, there’s also a strategic side to tech debt. In many cases, those quick decisions helped the organization move fast when speed mattered. The real challenge is knowing when it’s time to pay that debt down—and how to do it without stalling progress.This is where a flexible talent strategy can help. It shortens the path to securing the skilled resources your business needs to tackle technical debt. “Tools alone won’t fix technical debt,” says Ryan Sutton, executive director of Robert Half’s technology practice. “It’s about more than just modernizing outdated systems or rolling out new platforms for AI. To truly tackle tech debt, you need people who not only understand the technology but also the bigger picture—the business goals, interdependencies and long-term strategy that make it all work seamlessly.”That brings us to three options that can help your business address technical debt head-on.
3 Resourcing Strategies for Addressing Tech Debt in Your Organization
Option 1: Support your core team with contract talent
Technical debt is often hardest on internal teams who end up spending too much time patching and propping up old systems instead of building new, more resilient solutions. This heavy burden can often lead to employee burnout—and high-value projects getting pushed to the back burner.Engaging skilled contract talent to support legacy systems frees your core staff to focus on priority initiatives for technology modernization and digital transformation. This is a go-to staffing strategy for many businesses. In fact, according to Robert Half’s research for Building Future-Forward Tech Teams, 65% of tech leaders plan to increase their reliance on contract talent. These resources can bring immediate value to your tech and IT teams without a long-term commitment.Many of these professionals have deep—and hard-to-find—experience with older platforms and programming languages. That’s especially helpful when your organization isn’t ready to sunset a crucial IT system and needs to keep it running efficiently and securely.“Tech modernization and digital transformation projects are riddled with specialized talent shortages,” says Johan van der Walt, managing director, strategy and architecture at global consulting firm Protiviti, a Robert Half subsidiary. “Competition is fierce for professionals who understand how to work with old software but are also experienced in using modern technologies.”How do you know if your business should assign technical debt reduction to your internal team or bring in reinforcements? Evaluate the scale and complexity of your technical debt. If your team has the capacity and institutional knowledge to make meaningful progress, keeping the work in-house may be more efficient, especially if the end goal is long-term sustainability. However, if legacy systems are mission-critical but drain internal capacity, consider engaging contract professionals for support.
Option 2: Bring in specialists for large-scale transformation projects
Some technical debt can’t be addressed incrementally. Instead, it must be dismantled as part of a larger transformation initiative. Maybe your company is migrating to the cloud, integrating new AI systems or preparing for a merger. In those cases, specialized knowledge and extra hands are often essential.That’s when you may need to layer contract talent, technology consultants or even full-time project professionals into your workforce mix, depending on your timeline, budget and longer-term needs. These resources can help you manage everything from code modernization to DevOps pipelines and quality assurance. They don’t just execute tasks—they can help guide overall transformation, including managing change and making sure security is a high priority.“Addressing tech debt isn’t just about replacing dilapidated technologies,” says Michael Monday, managing director, security and privacy, at Protiviti. “It’s about addressing vulnerabilities and risks stemming from old and unsupported systems and tools that can no longer be updated or patched. Specialized consultants can help businesses assess and resolve these issues both tactically and holistically.”Monday adds that in some cases, organizations will lean on specialized consulting firms to handle the planning, execution and transformation work using their own teams.If your in-house team lacks the time, skills or capacity to take on a major IT modernization effort, partnering with consultants or bringing in full-time project professionals can accelerate progress and give you flexibility as the project evolves. Here again, you’ll be in good company taking this approach: In a Robert Half survey, 73% of tech leaders said they plan to increase their budget for technology consulting this year.Learn about world-class technology consulting solutions from Robert Half and Protiviti.
Option 3: Staff for urgent needs while also investing in what’s next
When you’re battling technical debt, it’s easy for your tech and IT teams to get stuck in a firefighting mode. Adopting a forward-looking staffing strategy can help you address both urgent and emerging needs. What capabilities do you need to address immediate risks? What skills will help position your team for tomorrow’s opportunities?Start by mapping current tech and IT skills gaps to your most pressing priorities—whether that’s stabilizing aging IT infrastructure, improving cybersecurity or laying the groundwork for AI integration. Then look ahead: Will you need more cloud engineering talent next year? Are your developers trained to use frameworks and languages that can best support evolving business needs? Which emerging skills—such as prompt engineering or automation design—will be vital in the next 12 to 24 months?Addressing these questions may mean upskilling your current team to strengthen critical capabilities and improve retention. It could also involve making strategic permanent hires for roles that require specialized, future-focused expertise. A blend of both approaches—developing internal talent and hiring externally—can help you build a more resilient and transformation-ready tech organization.When upskilling or recruiting tech talent for your team, don’t focus solely on technical abilities. Soft skills are just as crucial to the success of projects designed to help your business ease tech debt, modernize IT, transform digitally or all of the above. Collaboration is particularly vital for initiatives involving AI, according to James Johnson, Robert Half’s executive vice president and chief technology officer.“The ability to collaborate effectively has become crucial,” Johnson says. “Success hinges not just on technical prowess but on a deep appreciation for the value of teamwork across departments and functions. Establishing collaborative efforts from the outset of any project and promoting cross-departmental cooperation lays a strong foundation for achieving goals and delivering expected results.”
Find the right resources to tackle your tech debt—with help from Robert Half
Contact usTechnical debt is a workforce issue as much as a technology one. To tame tech debt and make meaningful progress toward digital transformation, your business needs a highly skilled, next-gen tech team that can change in size, specialization and scope with speed and agility as business needs rapidly evolve.That’s why leading IT departments are shifting to more adaptive, flexible talent models that blend permanent staff, contract talent and consultants to meet shifting demands. At Robert Half, we can help you align the right mix of resources to turn your specific tech debt challenges into an opportunity for driving innovation and long-term efficiency.
Get more insights and guidance on how to keep critical tech projects on track this year
View the full reportRobert Half’s research-driven report, Building Future-Forward Tech Teams, examines tech leaders’ priorities and challenges for 2025. It offers insights into overcoming critical IT skills gaps—especially for technology modernization, digital transformation and enterprise systems projects—and tips for building skilled tech teams ready for what’s next.
