According to Oxford Economics Workforce Report, the lack of skilled talent is among the primary concern recruiters are facing these days. All too often, top employees are either unavailable or not lack the motivation to work for a company.
The talent crisis is especially true in the tech industry. While it's hard to find as much as a good developer, a skills gap is even more obvious when it comes to fields like AI, data science, or IoT. By now, the competition has deviated from tech companies competing for talent between each other. Healthcare, education, retail, NGOs - all of these fields are in need of talent acquisition in tech as well.
In order to recruit top talent for tech teams, tech recruitment agency companies are constantly seeking new strategies and employer benefits to offer. If you're challenged to survive in a candidate-driven economy, here are 5 little-known things that'll make recruiting tech talent way easier.
Hire recruiters specializing on a particular tech areas
It's no secret that some tech openings are harder to fill than others. For instance, it's relatively easy to find JavaScript developers (though not as much when it comes to acquiring experienced seniors) while getting a data scientist on board is way more challenging.
Hiring a recruiter with a strong knowledge base in a particular area is what you should consider if you are going to be constantly hiring specialists from emerging tech fields.
Instead of being bombarded with generic questions during job interviews (defining strengths and weaknesses, explaining the desire to work for a particular company, etc), a candidate will be able to discuss his day-to-day responsibilities and company's goals in a particular field. Moreover, HR focused on hunting talent in a particular field will have a better grasp of all the conferences, social media groups, colleges, etc. that have a few potentially fit candidates for the company.
Start mentorship programs
According to Tech In Asia, one of the reasons companies are experienced the talent gap is due to the lack of interest in STEM among college students. College programs are mostly outdated and have little to do with preparing an IT specialist to his daily workload.
In order to bring university programs up to date as well as draw students' attention to the company, the practice of offering company-based mentorship programs is gaining momentum.
There are several ways to set a mentorship up - creating a college-based IT lab, putting a summer boot camp together, etc. In fact, creating mentorship programs are not as expensive as they seem. Colleges, struggling to attract prospective students, are interested to create new learning and employment opportunities. In fact, you can encourage the company's current employers to host a few workshops for tech talent acquisition - chances are, they'll be flattered by the honor and eager to accept the offer.
Most tech companies still work in a traditional food chain where employers stand on a higher ground than candidates do. However, as mentioned above, today's tech recruitment is largely candidate-driven, especially when it comes to IT.
In this reality, HR shouldn't be a mere evaluation machine. Instead, he can actually help a candidate to prepare for the interview (giving pointers regarding what project manager normally discusses during interviews, encouraging, and providing emotional support). Despite technically being a company's representative, when it comes to interviews, HR should be on the candidate's size.
Supported an encouraged by the HR, a candidate is not only more likely to ace the interview - but he'd also be more inclined to accept the offer company will make afterward.
Shorten the lead process
If you're a recruiter in a relatively big company, you're well aware of how twisted the process of interviewing a candidate is. At first, an employee-to-be has an interview with a recruiter, then - with a PM or a Team Lead, later - with management or even the company's CEO. While this certainly allows the company to get a better grasp as to whether a candidate is a fit, for most job-seekers, such a tech recruitment size is a pain in the neck.
Millennials want to have jobs right here and now. Seeing the competition spike within the market in the last 5-7 years, companies have to embrace the fact that, if they don't cut the lead process, top talent will be hunted by startups - perhaps, not as big and impressive but fast in onboarding, willing to provide extensive flexibility and room for growth.
In today's turbulent IT market, job recruiters have to constantly keep searching for new candidates. However, it's important to not forget to follow up on candidates that didn't pass the selection process. Follow up on job-seekers' interviews and ask them for feedback.
That'll prevent job candidates from leaving negative reviews on LinkedIn and Glassdoor and keep the business' profile stellar when other job seekers come to check the company's profile. Also, if you keep a bond with the candidates who didn't get the offer, they can become your referrals and point towards a potentially fit professional.
ConclusionHunting tech talent is challenging due to the tight competition and growing skill gap. However, in order to succeed in the candidate-driven economy, businesses need to adapt. Instead of looking for a candidate that would perfectly align with the company's workflow - instead, businesses have to build the infrastructure with the comfort of employees in mind.
