Race for the Top Tech Talent
Step One: Find the Talent
“Financial and software development firms are looking for this technical talent, and there’s just not enough supply out there for the demand. So, for us, the challenge is to find that talent. So you need really good recruiters,” said Dave MacKeen, CEO of Eliassen Group .
Computer science graduates are not as plentiful as companies need them to be. The narrow search for qualified tech talent is even smaller as the field shrinks. Finding the best tech talent for the job relies on your company recruiters. Considering 73 percent of technology focused companies plan to hire more tech talent, it is imperative tech recruiters know what these candidates want to see.
As a recruiter, you aren’t going to find tech talent if you don’t look in the right places. These social sites are popular among tech savvy candidates :
- Reddit – 100 million unique monthly visitors
- Github – 3.5 million tech pros on the world’s most popular site for sharing open source code
- Quora – attracts 3x more tech pros than the average website
- Dribble – hosts 300,000 portfolios demonstrating mobile, web, and UI skills
Do your recruiters have the skills and resources to attract and retain the ideal tech talent?
Step Two: Distinguish Yourself from the Competition
“New hires at Sojern , a San Francisco-based ad platform that targets travelers, also get 40 hours of paid time to benefit others. Employees can volunteer for the equivalent of a week each year on the company clock.”
It’s not all about the money. Benefits like sabbaticals, dogs in the office, and allowing employees to spend 20 percent of their time on their own ideas are more enticing than a little extra pocket money. Millennials, for example, are more civic-minded than other generations in the workforce. Companies like Sojern are aware of this and incorporate volunteering into its company culture.
Distinguish your company from the competition through the candidate experience. Invest in the recruitment process. If a tech candidate has a good experience during the recruitment process, even if you don’t hire the person, he or she is more likely to spread the word to his or her other tech friends. Give them suggestions for the future if they don’t make the cut.
Company culture attracts tech talent, but what keeps them there?
Step Three: Keep Their Attention
“Encouraging innovation and establishing a culture that empowers people to be creative and go do what they want to do.”
Recruiters need to give potential candidates reasons to stay interested. They want to know more about the company than just the culture. They want to know the future of the organization. What is job security if the company doesn’t have an idea where their path is taking them? More importantly, candidates want to know they are a part of the innovative process. In fact, a lack of empowerment is the no. 2 reason top tech talent leave their jobs.
Keeping the attention of tech talent isn’t always easy. You have to look in the right places for the right talent. As a recruiter, you have to know the places tech talent hangout. The qualified tech savvy candidate is in such high demand that candidates have the upper hand in negotiations. Distinguish your company from the rest both in culture and innovation. Tech savvy candidates flock to companies that show promise in innovation. What makes your company a better fit for the ideal tech candidate than the other guys?
What is your company doing to successfully recruit tech talent?