Finding the best tech talent can be a challenge. Traditional recruiting methods don’t always apply. The candidates you want and need are out there, but how do you best source, hire and retain them for the benefit of your company?
Think Outside the Box
Rethink your candidate selection process to find the most game-changing IT professionals on the market. Exceptional tech talent doesn’t always come in a neat, cookie cutter package.
- Look beyond the resume. Many top technical experts spend far more time perfecting their craft than their CVs. From another perspective, in a recent CIO Insight survey of 2,000 IT professionals and 1,500 IT leaders, 35 percent of pros said they felt resumes commonly contain lies. 63 percent of professionals and 77 percent of leaders said they believed resumes contain exaggerations.
- Scour the market for candidates with resilience and creativity. At the same time, keep such traditional skills as work ethic and reliability top of mind. Find the right combination of proficiency, experience, cultural alignment and innovative thinking.
Recruit to Train
Focus on attracting talent – and then train them to be the employees you want in your workplace.
- Don’t limit people to applying via your ATS. Put more emphasis on candidates’ core abilities to learn and adapt, rather than being overly precise when it comes to specific skill sets.
- Zero in on foundational competencies. Then you’ll be able to look at a broader pool of qualified prospects and spot talent that your competition may have overlooked.
Go Niche
Use a professional recruitment firm, as well as online and traditional sources, that specialize in IT.
- Turn to social communities such as GitHub, Dribble and Stack Overflow. In the CIO Insight survey, 96 percent of IT professionals reported that they use job boards in their searches, but by pinpointing those that are industry specific, you can attract the talent you want. As more and more candidates contribute to these peer-reviewed communities, you can get deeper, more objective appreciations for their core competencies. Using this information, you can rank prospects and save time on screening interviews.
- Recruiters matter. Close to 60 percent of IT pros work with recruiters during their job search.
More Tips
More than half of all IT professionals actively search for a new job at least once a week. Additional tips for recruiting them include:
- Tap current employees. 45 percent of tech professionals say their networks include at least 10 individuals with similar experience.
- Shorten your application process. 63 percent of IT pros reported that online applications were too time consuming, and 46 percent said they would not apply to an organization if the process took too long.
As you perfect your plan for sourcing, recruiting and retaining A-level IT talent in the Charlotte market, turn to the specialized team at Talent Bridge. Read our related posts or contact us today for more information.