Tech talent recruitment can be a difficult process with many aspects needing consideration; what are your organisation’s unique selling points and strengths? Do you have an attractive EVP? What skills are you targeting and where are the candidates you’re seeking most likely to be found?
To improve their tech talent recruitment efforts, organisations can make sure they have covered the following:
- Learn where your target audience searches for opportunities and spends time.
- Talent Mapping – find the talent you need based on location or competitors’ organisations.
- Think about where the audience is most likely to discover your vacancies and/or branding.
- Amplify your Employer Brand. For smaller or less well-known businesses, this is imperative. Potential candidates won’t always know what your organisation offers or what type of culture it has. If your tangible offer doesn’t exceed your competitors, then Employer Brand and company culture may well be the differentiator.
- Use data. Whatever data you have at your disposal – use it. Especially to help refine your searches and advertising targets. More focused targeting will equate to higher quality candidates.
- Automate where possible – there are a number of software packages that can automate certain aspects of your recruitment, such as CV screening tools.
- Decide on the type of recruitment you are going to employ – should you use an RPO provider, your in-house team or embedded recruitment?
Be visible
If your organisation is hiring, you need to make sure the opportunities are as visible as possible. There are many places businesses can advertise vacancies – some of the most popular include; careers pages, social media, jobs boards and advertising platforms. Most businesses will use a combination of them all. It’s important to figure out which you are going to use, as well as how you’re going to use them. Paid adverts will have a more significant impact on reaching your desired audience and engaging them to take action. Organic traffic is outperformed quite significantly by paid adverts, however, that’s not to say you shouldn’t use it. Organic content has other benefits – for starters, it’s free. It can also put you ahead of your competitors on search engines. Creating regular, quality, organic content will help your pages rank higher, pushing your rivals further down in the search results.
There are advantages and disadvantages to all of the different mediums. Paid advertising is a useful tool to recruiters – it allows you to target specific audiences, making engaging with potential candidates easier. Cost, frequency, competition and rejection are all issues with paid adverts, therefore, some businesses may not have the required budget to advertise online. Too many organisations may already be competing in the same space, rendering your adverts less effective than they should be. People may learn to ignore the advert as it’s been shown to them too often, or people may reject the advert, believing it’s not relevant to them. Having a mix of organic content in addition to some paid adverts is the sweet spot for your recruitment needs.
Focus on culture and fit
Attitude is sometimes an easier attribute to use to determine the candidate that fits best with your organisation. Hiring people just based on skill does not guarantee an employee that fits well into your business. Skills can be taught – attitude cannot. A candidate whose personality is the perfect fit can bring other benefits to the business. A highly skilled person with an attitude that doesn’t fit might not work well with the team and could, in reality, make the workplace a less harmonious environment.
Consider tech talent outside of your network
Businesses often perform their searches for talent in the same places. University graduates from the best institutions will usually be their first port of call. Technology has provided an alternative to this. Candidates these days aren’t always graduates – many will have studied online or gained experience in a real-world setting. Considering non-traditional candidates can help you expand your talent pool, resulting in a more diverse and inclusive staff – something many businesses strive to achieve. Having a more diverse talent pool could further your organisation’s competitive edge when it comes to recruiting tech talent.
Including the option of remote workers increases the size of your talent pool. It gives candidates internationally an opportunity with your organisation, so as to provide you with a more diverse range of options.
Passive candidates should be a consideration for your tech talent recruitment. Hiring these candidates can be tricky as they’re not seeking opportunities, though digital tools like LinkedIn are simplifying reaching passive candidates. Prior to the advent of these tools, it would be significantly more difficult to reach and engage those not actively seeking a new opportunity.
Is your EVP attractive enough to recruit tech talent?
Tech sector roles are growing at the fastest ever rate, resulting in increased competition for tech recruitment. Organisations looking to make tech hires, or planning for future recruitment, should ensure that their Employee Value Proposition (EVP) is attractive. EVP is essentially what an employer offers an employee.
An EVP comprises tangible benefits offered by an employer, such as salary, bonuses and perks, in addition to emotional aspects like company culture and values. The perception that people are more concerned about tangible benefits is not always accurate. For many, the emotional side can be the deciding factor. Hybrid or remote working might be more valuable to some employees and others may value working for an organisation that they share values with. Employees will have their own opinions on what’s valuable to them, so it’s important to monitor and adapt your EVP constantly.
RPO Providers like Talent Works can help influence the future of your tech talent recruitment by putting your EVP into a framework. Having your EVP outlined in a framework will ensure candidates have a summarised version of your offering and company values. EVP is the emotional connection between the employer and employee, therefore, getting it right could dictate whether a candidate wants to join your organisation.
Prior to launching recruitment campaigns or advertising vacancies, the organisation should consider its EVP and adapt it to suit the candidates they’re looking for. It is one of the main things that motivates your employees and makes them feel part of the team.
To find out more about recruiting tech talent, improving or reworking your EVP, please get in touch.
