Go From Good to Great by Following These 5 Dos & Don’ts of Successful Tech Hiring
Hiring for the IT industry can be tricky. There are skills and attitudes to check, while making sure to make inclusive hiring a part of the recruiting mind-set. And the right person for the job and for the organization can make or break teams and even organizations. Over the last decade, we have recruited hundreds of candidates for various tech positions in all over USA. In the process, we have interviewed thousands of candidates and hiring teams from the client. Based on which we have compiled a definitive list of 5 Dos and Don’ts to take you from being a good to great recruiter.
The Dos
1. Make sure to involve your senior tech team
When looking for a specialist, who better than a specialist to ask for help? As you plan to hire someone to the tech team, involve your senior tech staff, CTO, leads or senior developers offer their inputs on what kind of candidate you must look for and which places to look at.Since they have worked with many developer and will likely be working with the new member you hire as well, their inputs will help you hire the right candidate for the team.
They will also be aware of the ongoing and upcoming projects and should be involved in the recruiting process to identify the right skill to hire for, as well as, the right candidate.
2. Showcase your projects and tech stack
Every employee, especially the ones in the tech or IT industry, are looking to improve their skills all the time. At the same time, they want to work in a place where their skills will be useful. The research for both usually begins by looking at the company’s website. The company you are recruiting a tech candidate for should have a smashing website showcasing all their best projects, clients and case studies of this work. A blog written by the tech team does not hurt either.</p?
Apart from the company’s website, also keep all the portfolio pages on 3rd party websites like Clutch, LinkedIn, GitHub updated to help automatically filter the ideal candidates.
3. Use technology to make the process easier
Technology is getting smarter and can be used to both engage candidates, as well as, find them. Use videos and social media to reach out and create engaging company profile and job descriptions for positions to help with tech staffing.At the same time, finding, screening, tracking candidates can be done much more efficiently and streamlined with the help of AI apps and tools.
4. Be transparent with the candidate
This conversation takes place usually in the later stages of the tech hiring process, once you’ve shortlisted the candidate, and the conversation moves over to compensation, procedures and rules and regulations. With the long-term in mind, and to save time in the short-term, it is important to be completely transparent with your IT candidates right from the start. Whether it is about compensation, contracts, non-compete clauses and exits, ensure that the candidate is aware about everything, to ensure a great work culture and relationship for the future.
5. Understand the organization to think ahead
A great recruiter can anticipate the needs of the organization before the need arises. In order to this the recruiter must be aware of the entire organization’s processes, patterns and strategies. They must often talk with employees to understand gaps and pain points and potentials for growth. Staying on top of the company’s process and trends and focusing on the future instead of just the present can help your recruit candidates at the right time and retain them much longer.
The Don’ts
Never stack all IT candidates into one basket
This is the age of specialization. Every developer comes with a specialization and expertise in one technology, and has a working knowledge of the other technologies pertaining to his/her industry. Hiring specialists for each of your departments helps you serve all kinds of clients better.
When you’re seeking a developer or tech staff to work at your client’s site, whether it is in healthcare, finance, insurance or media, you need to be particular about what kind of developer you’re looking for.
Is it for a custom website? For mobile and web applications? For a WordPress based website? Sometimes tech specializations also happen based on the industry.
For example, the insurance companies, financial companies or banks will prefer to work with a techie who has worked in their industry before, since they will know more about the industry-specific compliance. Similarly media companies will require a developer with an eye for visuals. You need to have clarity about these first before starting to recruit IT candidates for jobs in finance, insurance or media.
Never ghost or spam your candidates
One of the biggest don’ts for recruiters, not just in the IT industry but any industry, is to keep the candidate hanging about his/her chance of landing the job. Clear communication, even if it is not a positive news, builds a great reputation for the company. By not communicating with the candidates regularly with updates about their application, other prospective candidates will feel discouraged and avoid seeking out opportunities with you. At the same time, don’t spam candidates when they are not looking for jobs and are not even passively looking for positions.
Never oversell the job to the candidates
Technology jobs are notorious for their high employee turnover ratios. And one of the reasons behind it is that IT recruiters end up over promising and over selling the job to the candidates during the hiring process. And post joining, when the employee realizes that he/she is not getting what was promised, they start looking again.
No matter how urgently the position in your company needs to be filled, never try to lure the candidates into accepting your offer with promises the recruiting organization can not keep. This will deter others from applying with you even when there’s a genuine opportunity.
Never turn down newcomers
Train them young, nurture them and turn them into your finest. Instead of keeping your doors open only for experienced candidates, always keep room to rope in fresh graduates and those just starting out their technology careers. Offer them internship positions, a stipend and a promise of serious consideration for a permanent position based on performance. This way you build a strong and loyal team who will be molded into the company’s culture.
They will also bring in a fresh perspective and ask more questions about the “whys” and “hows” which helps the company stay up to date with the ongoing trends too and often ends up as a reality check for existing practices.
Don’t keep candidates in the dark
Unclear salary terms and conditions are a huge turn offs in the IT industry and many jump ship when they realise that they’re being compensated differently from is the industry standard.Before your candidate signs the dotted line, make sure he/she is completely aware of the cost to company, the deductions that will take place and how much compensation they’ll get on hand at the end of the month.
Now that you know what to do, and the places where you might fall short, follow these tips to hire the best talent for your tech business and achieve even more success and growth for the companies you recruit for!