As skills and labour shortages continue across the tech industry, there’s a prevailing question for tech companies to consider… How can companies stay ahead in the new era of talent competition in tech?
Economic uncertainty and a recent influx of high-profile layoffs in big tech have left many businesses scrambling away from, rather than towards, recruitment as a competitive advantage during such a tumultuous period.
The post-pandemic impact is still influencing the hiring market in tech, with a continuing demand for tech experts to keep up with post-pandemic digitisation and an ever-widening skills gap in areas such as cloud computing, AI and ML.
Yet, to prepare for a potential recession or any level of economic uncertainty, it is vital that companies understand the necessity for a sustainable and streamlined talent strategy.
So, how can you stay ahead of the new era of talent competition in tech?
Take a look at our step-by-step guide below.
1. Re-evaluate what you’re looking for
When many businesses think of hiring or recruitment, they think of how to attract talent, analyse their skills, and onboard them (and hopefully, retain them, too).
Whilst there’s no issue with this process in a general sense, it ignores the importance of aligning your approach to hiring talent with your long-term business goals.
In other words, how can you find talented tech candidates that are a good cultural fit that can contribute to wider company goals, whilst also aligning with its values?
Adjusting your approach to stay ahead of the new era of talent competition is reliant on this shift because it will not only help to fill current roles in your business, but to define the qualities and skills for future roles also.
Important questions to get your organisation started include:
- Does your organisation plan to expand in the next few years? If so, how does talent influence your organisation’s ability to expand (this could include the next year or even the next five years depending on your growth plans)?
- Where does your organisation need the most support? (e.g., if you intend to shift more of your workforce to a hybrid model, this may mean you’re looking for cloud computing skills primarily)
- Which skills are the most vital in helping you to meet business goals and objectives?
- Which values are integral to the direction your organisation is moving towards? (e.g., if diversity and inclusion are key to the future of your company, how do a candidate’s values tie in with this?)
The best way to approach this is to keep in mind that there are the skillsets/qualifications you need to identify alongside your awareness of your organisation’s future.
2. Make recruitment an active process
In such a competitive hiring market, waiting for candidates to apply to your organisation will not only barely scratch the surface of your hiring needs, but it’ll also result in a talent pool that isn’t diverse or necessarily aligned with your requirements.
Instead, you should focus on building an active talent pipeline.
This means actively finding candidates through different sources, including:
- Social channels: Whilst platforms such as LinkedIn are usually top of the agenda for sourcing candidates (whether active or passive), other social platforms like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram can be used to attract candidates through organic and paid social efforts. Additionally, online tech forums can be a great place to locate tech talent.
- Referrals: Referral programs are a great way to reward current employees for referring candidates, particularly since current employees have a strong idea of the cultural and skill fit required for a role.
- Networking events: Another method that provides access to both active and passive candidates, approaching candidates at in-person events can be a more personable way to connect with talent and build a network that can be referred to at a later date for suitable roles.
- A recruitment partner: Even with a variety of recruitment channels to work with, it can bring some much-needed peace of mind to work with a recruitment partner that not only knows tech but also knows the landscape of the current hiring market, candidate expectations, and the best approach to securing top talent.
3. Boost your employer brand
In a candidate-driven market, your employer brand is extremely important in highlighting the benefits of working at your organisation, whilst also conveying its values and culture.
How can you go about boosting your employer brand to attract tech talent?
- Showcase your values and vision together: Candidates are your target audience in this case, which makes conveying your values and vision an integral part of attracting this target audience. This information should be consistent across your marketing channels. In other words, where do you want to be and how will your values help to get you there? This should be a consistent and concise message.
- Highlight employee benefits: Though employee benefits are a separate entity from your branding, they work together when done effectively. Benefits tie in strongly with values, for example, if an organisation strongly values work-life balance, then benefits such as flexible working or wellbeing support would go hand-in-hand with this.
- Involve current employees: Employees are the best advocates for your business when it comes to attracting new talent. By getting current employees to speak about their experience working at your business, you can have a wealth of content to use across your website, social media channels, and other marketing collateral.
4. Don’t limit your recruitment efforts
It can be tempting during periods of uncertainty and high competition to scale back your hiring and recruitment efforts.
However, this usually means that you’ll rush the process when it is necessary and rarely have the desired outcome, meaning you’ll likely end up spending just as much in the long term.
This approach also has a knock-on effect on your overall organisational productivity, as it is a firefighting, all-hands-on-deck approach that isn’t sustainable.
Instead, you should focus on:
- Building a network of candidates: As mentioned earlier, when interacting with candidates across various channels, it’s important to nurture these relationships even when there isn’t an immediate hire in mind. This is the best way to build a sustainable talent pipeline.
- A consistent employer brand: In the same way that your recruitment efforts shouldn’t solely be during specific periods, neither should your employer branding efforts. You need to consistently market your employer brand across your marketing channels and during interactions with potential candidates.
- Staying ahead of trends: The current challenges – flexible work, economic uncertainty, a candidate-driven market – are unlikely to disappear over the coming years, but that’s not to say new challenges won’t arise. It’s important to keep an eye on how these challenges act as barriers to your ability to stay ahead in the new era of talent competition in tech so that you can plan for them.
Let us help
At Remit Resources, we use our approach to recruitment to fill the gap between a traditional agency and consultancy by focusing on development, infrastructure and infosec.
We can identify your talent needs and provide you with recruitment solutions through our global network – if you’ve got ambitious growth plans for your business, we could be the perfect recruitment partner for you.
Get in touch today to find out more.