3 Reasons Companies Are Having a Harder Time Recruiting Tech Talent

These days, if your business lacks the buzz of a top Silicon Valley tech enterprise, the odds are good you are experiencing some difficulty recruiting tech talent. High quality IT professionals are considering multiple opportunities at once. That’s why organizations need to appeal to those candidates who fit their technical requirements and culture more than ever. It’s our experience handling IT recruitment that three particular factors are making your next IT hire harder than need be.

Dull & Out-of-Date Job Descriptions

Recycling old job descriptions is doing your candidate search harm. Technical skills and requirements that were relevant when you first wrote an advertisement can easily be irrelevant now. In just a few years, developers for iOS were expected to have Swift rather than Objective C experience. Data analyst skills require Hadoop as big data analytics strategy becomes more central to business performance.

Even as your company grows, new tools get integrated into your system and optimized practices change your core IT requirements. Though a full rewrite might not be necessary, job descriptions should always be checked for updates before posting.

Moreover, the job description itself might not attract the same caliber of technical candidate as it once did. With the variety of opportunities available, a job description needs to market your organization and the value candidates get from choosing to accept your opportunity. What challenges can they expect? How can their careers grow? What is the atmosphere like? What benefits are offered? There needs to be enough information for candidates to take the bait so they can learn more about your business in the interview (Also, be sure you are using these interview questions to ask candidates about their qualifications).

Recruiting Tech Talent without Tech Knowledge

We understand that when businesses are recruiting tech talent, the person reviewing candidate resumes and LinkedIn profiles is not always well-versed in technical terminology. A job description asks for a specific criteria and that person aims to follow it to the letter to ensure the best technical talent makes it onto the team. However, too much inflexibility about technical requirements might disqualify tech pros who are actually an incredible fit.

For example, we have seen instances where recruiters or HR teams unfamiliar with technical terms have fixated on looking for explicit mention of the LAMP stack acronym while overlooking all of the individual components (Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP/Python/Perl). In other cases, they might be looking for Agile/SCRUM expertise, but discount a candidate who just has Agile listed on their resume. These types of mistakes are all too easy to make for those not reviewing technical terms on a daily basis.

Companies where IT is not their primary business need to ensure that their sourcing and screening process is guided by a technical-minded internal team member or a technology staffing firm. That way, the nuance of positions are not overlooked and the best IT candidates continue to be funneled into your organization.

A Growing Percentage of Passive Candidates

With the number of opportunities presented directly to them, most tech professionals are able to pursue their job search in a more passive way. They might be receptive to leave their current job for the right position (84% of IT pros are), but they need convincing your company satisfies their desired challenges and career goals. That requires a more relationship-centric approach to IT recruitment.

Passive candidates require high-touch interactions that capture their attention. They need to feel as if your business understands their pain points and goals before they are willing to consider even looking into an opportunity. Part of that message can be communicated through content marketing, but once the initial connection is made, a relationship needs to be cultivated.

This takes time providing value and establishing trust before your business can leverage the fruits of your labor. Though many organizations do not have a dedicated person building a web of relationships to keep talent pipelines full, the right technical recruiter is able to put the time and effort into building those connections for you.

Improve Your Success When Recruiting Tech Talent

By incorporating these types of strategies into your IT recruitment, your business can simplify your search for technical talent in ways that improve your performance and processes. Moreover, you can keep your hiring strategies sharp and win top talent if your organization is tapped into the latest trends in IT recruiting. All of this can take a considerable amount of effort but the end results prevent your business from losing the best IT candidates to the competition.

Want to streamline your IT recruiting process? Reach out to w3r Consulting to get the full expertise of experienced technical recruiters working for you.

[fusion_text]

[/fusion_text]

Related Articles:

5 Clear Strategies for Lowering Hiring Costs

The Scale, Speed, and Quality of a Project Based Staffing Partner

The 2017 Detroit IT Salary Guide

[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]