The best businesses are built on a steady, reliable stream of highly skilled talent.
A recruitment pipeline is the foundation for businesses to thrive, yet many will be entirely unaware of how to keep their pipeline reliable.
Hiring challenges in tech is hardly a new concept, yet the culmination of factors such as the Great Resignation, the pandemic, and skills gaps have made sustainable talent pipelines an even greater necessity for businesses.
In an industry where skilled professionals are in high demand and low supply and skills gaps permeate the hiring market, how can you build a reliable tech candidate pipeline?
Hiring managers will rarely have a thorough, pre-existing pipeline of talent, meaning that the entire process is a lengthy and time-consuming one.
This can often mean that from sourcing all the way up to closing a deal, there is a lot of back-and-forth, rapid changes, and patience required on the end of hiring managers to keep up with the process.
The problem with this approach? It’s not aligned with the long-term.
Rather than a continuous and sustainable tech talent pipeline, most hiring managers are going through the process from beginning to end (with back-and-forth in between) and then starting back at the drawing board once more talent is needed.
With tech expertise being in such high demand and driving business transformation and innovation, demand for talent will only increase – software engineers in particular received more than twice the average amount of interview requests in 2021 than in 2020.
How can you move away from an inefficient cycle to a predictable, sustainable talent pipeline?
Before even beginning to source candidates, it’s important to take a look at your current processes and where they might be hindering your efforts.
One common mistake is a long-winded vetting process.
Given that tech candidates are in such high demand, any potential barrier during the earliest stages of recruitment will simply turn them towards your competition.
With so many options to choose from, candidates can afford to be picky about who they do and don’t engage with.
The vetting process in particular can often result in candidates becoming impatient and turning to their other choices instead.
A common reason for this drawn-out process can be a lack of planned consistency – for example, many hiring managers may feel the need to introduce themselves and the business again to a candidate they’ve already made previous contact with.
Instead, sourcing and screening should be a defined process that is followed, rather than on a case-by-case basis.
Reviewing the potential barriers that might be losing you candidates before you focus on the sourcing side of creating a pipeline is essential to avoid drop offs and delays later down the line.
Automating or outsourcing the prospecting process not only streamlines your process, but also means you’ll spend less time searching and sourcing repeatedly.
One of the first questions that our Founder Richard Morgan will ask a client is “How many of these candidates will you need in the next 12 months?” – this is because he knows from personal experience that recruitment will rarely entail a small number of hires and then disappear in relevancy over time.
The purpose of a pipeline is to make the cycle predictable and sustainable, rather than a process that leaves you expending all of your energy on continuously vetting, searching, and sourcing.
The best recruitment partners will increase your access to the best talent through a global network so that you have a pipeline of skilled, accessible talent for whenever you need it.
You’re hiring to meet the needs of your business, but you’re also looking for a candidate that will fit into your organisation smoothly and contribute positively.
Though skills and experience are important to discuss and research during the recruitment process, it’s also essential to consider:
This means that you can determine how to best attract the candidate and keep them engaged, but most importantly, you’re creating a pipeline of the right candidates.
The qualities that each organisation is looking for will be different, which is why it’s so important to flesh out your candidate persona internally or alongside a recruitment partner to match the needs of your organisation – not just skillsets and experience, but also attributes and values.
Tech candidates are – and will likely be for the foreseeable – in high demand.
Having a generalised or impersonal approach when interacting with candidates is unlikely to be as effective as a personal touch and collaborative effort will be.
This ties in heavily with knowing your candidates – the better you know the candidates you’re interacting with, the more engaging the interactions you have with them will be.
One of the most important elements in tech recruitment, however, is knowing tech-focused roles and having the knowledge to relate to and build rapport with candidates.
For many organisations, this might not be feasible, in which case a tech-focused recruitment agency would be the best course of action to avoid ‘sales pitch’ sounding interactions with candidates.
Having some knowledge or expertise around tech and the challenges those in tech roles can face will add transparency to the candidate journey and build a sense of trust.
A reliable tech candidate pipeline will boost your recruitment efforts and free up time that can be spent focusing on other areas of the hiring process.
Rather than continually having to go back to the beginning process and round in circles when vetting candidates, you can benefit from an active talent pool that has the best attributes and fit for your business.
If you want to increase your access to the best talent with a global network, get in touch with us today.