It’s no secret that the job market is more competitive than ever. Most human resources executives know that there is a serious shortage when it comes to hiring the most adept candidates in the tech industry. As a result, the top brands like Google, Salesforce, and Facebook are scooping up the most skilled workers and leaving the smaller companies in the dust.
With the war for top tech talent in mind, HR reps need to do everything they can to prove to potential candidates that their company is a fruitful option. Chances are, you can’t leverage the same resources as Google to find tech industry all-stars. But, there are many things you can do to put yourself ahead of the curve and convince candidates to be a part of something great.
3 Tips for Reeling In Top Tech Talent
To help reel-in top tech talent that will carry your brand through this fascinating age of technology, incorporate these three tips into your recruitment strategy.
Advertise the Things that Techies Want in a Job
Workers today want more than just a job. They want a career where they can learn and prosper while understanding the big picture of their role. Additionally, they want to work in an environment that sees eye-to-eye with them in regards to their career trajectory.
Turnover is extremely high these days and the cost can be detrimental. If conditions are not meeting the needs of workers (especially millennials), they have no problem finding the door and looking for greener pastures.
During the hiring process, it’s widely known that HR staff does research on potential candidates. At a basic level, this entails doing things like Googling a person’s name, looking into social media profiles, and background checks. While this can do a lot to shed more light on an employee’s life, some might find it intrusive and irrelevant to job performance. With so much transparency available these days, there are much better routes to take when determining the worth of a potential worker.
For example, Woo is an incredibly useful website where HR departments can find all sorts of information about some of the top prospects in the tech world. Through this platform, you can learn about what potential employees really want in their next job in terms of compensation, work-life balance, etc. Woo’s techie matching algorithm will provide way more relevant information than your average Google search and give you key insights on how to properly advertise your business to the top candidates. This results in a far better response rate compared to other recruiting channels.
Click here for more expert advice from our information technology staffing solutions experts on how to attract top tech talent.
Use Internship Programs to Your Advantage
Internship programs are becoming a necessity for college students. The sad reality is that a college degree by itself is not nearly as valuable as it was 30 years ago. If your company does not have a formal internship program, it is definitely worth looking into.
There are a number of advantages to an internship program; including:
- Much cheaper than hiring a full-time employee.
- You can learn a lot about a worker’s strengths and weaknesses without bringing them on full-time.
- You get to feel out what potential employees can bring to the work culture with low risk.
- The intern gets great real-life experience.
After the decided duration of the program, you can make a final decision as to whether or not the intern will make a good addition to your team.
If this sounds appealing, Grads of Life is a great resource to create a beneficial program for businesses of all sizes. Internship programs can do a lot to find the perfect fit for your company and build a talent pipeline. Do some research and see what one could do for the culture of your brand.
Don’t Wait Too Long to Hire
Finding the perfect candidate in the tech industry does not happen overnight. In most cases, it can take a while to find the best fit. However, you should always exercise a certain degree of urgency when hiring. While you shouldn’t hire the first person who walks through the door, don’t spend months and months being overly picky. Chances are, the top tier candidates are either: a) heavily sought after, or b) looking for immediate work.
Speed and decisiveness are your biggest allies. On contrary, being slow to pull the trigger can do more damage to your brand than you think. Most importantly, waiting too long can cause the heavy-hitters to slip through the cracks.
The tech industry is a bit tricky as most positions require a highly-qualified prospect. According to the DHI Group, the average time-to-hire is 33 days.
Having a short recruitment cycle can do a lot to save money and resources in the long run. If you want to get a leg up in this “talent war” for techies, do you, and your potential candidate a favor and speed up the process as much as possible.
Bringing new talent on-board will always be a challenging task. Each candidate is different with a variety of skills to offer. On a positive note, the outlook for the tech industry is looking very, very bright. Companies everywhere looking to get into the game need to maximize their hiring efforts as soon as possible. The top tier techies will get picked up fast!
About Author: Dipti Parmar is the digital PR strategist and account manager at Preceptist and handles content marketing campaigns at E2M. She helps brands and individuals with their marketing while keeping their online reputation spotless.