20 Tips On How To Hire Tech Talent

The fiercely competitive tech talent marketplace is making it immensely challenging and tedious to hire the right candidate. With industries heavily depending on technology for day-to-day operations, talented tech experts have an array of choices and job preferences. Companies looking for top tech talent can no longer sit back waiting for incoming applications. Today, potential talent is also evaluating companies more closely than companies assessing them. So, how to hire tech talent?

With tables turning, businesses should work proactively to demonstrate that they are not just offering lucrative opportunities but are also eager to meet the expectations of today’s workforce. According to the Bureau Labor Statistics, by 2028, there will be a 21% increase in the need to recruit software developers. Thus, there will be a steady demand for tech talent, but the supply remains the same. Despite all challenges, how to recruit top tech talent?

Read on to know more.

Challenges Of Hiring Tech Talent

To know how to recruit top tech talent, it is fundamental to understand the major challenges. Sometimes, even the most promising tech recruiting strategies are not enough to understand how to hire tech talent.

 Some major bottlenecks that hiring managers are facing with hiring quality tech talent are as follows:

• Access to quality and relevant talent: Getting access to the right and relevant candidate possessing the desired skills is a real challenge for hiring managers. This also cements the known fact that it is rare to find the matching talent. Hiring managers also cite the limited availability of hiring resources as another major blocker. Then, how to hire tech talent? By measuring candidates through coding skills assessments.
• Limited pool of relevant talent: Tech hiring managers reveal that the limited pool of relevant talent is the #1 challenge in recruiting candidates possessing relevant skills. In addition, candidates also lack soft skills and workplace competencies like communication and interpersonal skills. Sometimes, even the best tech recruiting strategies may not work. That limits the scope of hiring technical talent.
• Intense competition: Companies strive to acquire the top talent. Considering that it is hard to come across great talent, there is intense competition to hire the best candidate. With tech behemoths, the scenario becomes extremely painstaking for small companies to hire consistently. But that does not mean you would not find ways how to hire top tech talent.
• Unreliable candidates: Hiring for tech roles is more challenging because you cannot take it for granted. Typically, candidates often hold multiple offers and try to use it to get another better offer elsewhere. This is unethical, but there’s least you can do about it. As a result, the probability of a hired candidate joining the team after receiving the offer is very low. In these situations, it becomes increasingly difficult for companies to drain all resources and pursue several leads for one role.
• Lack of required expertise: To hire tech talent, it is very important to evaluate the required skills and experience in the candidate. Understanding tech is basic when you are evaluating developers, and lacking it lowers the standards. Even the HR teams might not possess the technical proficiency of assessing developers; they report to basic keyword match. As a result, poor hire and loss of opportunity and costs.
• Niche skills challenges: Niche-specific skills are highly in demand in the IT industry. From Big Data Analysis to Cyber Security Specialists, these roles demand a command over the niche. However, it is often challenging to identify the right candidate to fill a position without testing their skills in real-time. Often times, the claims do not match the find.

Besides these aforementioned challenges, hiring managers are also exposed to factors like higher salaries, brand reputation, and limited technical knowledge of the hiring team. However, these challenges are not difficult to overcome. To know how to hire tech talent and retain them, read on.

20 Tips On How To Hire Tech Talent

#1: Write A Precise Job Description For Each Tech Role You Are Hiring

With the rapid rise in demand for tech roles such as developers, software engineers, and more, finding the right tech talent is as good as looking for a needle in a haystack. As IT companies are offering brilliant positions for technical roles, attracting suitable employees is easier said than done. It is prudent to have tech recruiting strategies in place to entice top talent. Job description plays a key role here.

Crafting an incredible job description will give you an edge over other popular tech giants. Personalize it to make it more appealing to job searchers. Here’s what you should pay attention to:

• The job title should be apt
• Narrate why the role is the best opportunity (draw inferences from previous interviews)
• Emphasize on new technologies
• Be specific and build an impact of the role
• Give clarity on the perks
• Mention the salary range

#2: Clever Ways To Source Tech Talent

• Pay close attention to branding to attract top talent. Branding draws talent and ensures you can hire the best.
• Referral programs give you a pool of qualified talent looking for a job change. You can leverage the referrals and shortlist candidates based on their skill sets.
• Career page is another area you should focus on. Allow job seekers to fill up a form and enroll to the careers program of your company.
• Tech events or meetups are the best places where you can find the richest tech talent. Such events draw a pool of aspiring candidates and maybe you can find your best fit.
• Developer forums like GitHub bring global tech talents together to showcase their work. These forums are the right choice for job seekers to hunt for a role and vice versa.
• Social media platforms (paid ads) can be another clever source of drawing attention of tech talent. Social networks like LinkedIn provide an insight into candidates and facilitates talent hunt and review. Gen Z and millennials are leveraging these channels to find newer career opportunities to provide additional incentives for hiring managers to attract them.
• Sourcing blogs are great aids for recruiters. These blogs publish content consistently about sourcing and hiring, which attracts tech talent through indirect channels. Nonetheless, it is a great place to find good tech talent from time to time.
• Freelancing sites are the powerhouse of talented tech professionals. From developers to software engineers and technical writers to creative designers, you can find the best talent in some of the leading freelancing sites. You can pursue and attract top tech talent here and recruit.

#3: Create Candidate Pipeline And Keep Them Engaged

Building a talent pipeline is a proactive strategy of talent acquisition. It identifies, engages, and recruits talent to create a robust pool of tech talent to fill vacant positions. Talent pipeline moves job candidates through different stages of engagement that leads to new hires. Like modern recruitment strategies, the talent pipeline is derived from proven marketing and sales strategies.

With the correct talent pipeline, companies can choose from a qualified talent pool who are equally familiar with the organization. To ensure the success of talent pipeline strategy, organizations should focus on candidate engagement. The hiring managers are not just focused on filling vacancies, but they are also thinking of ways to meet the talent needs in the future. By building good relationships, it is possible to engage with top talent.

Besides better candidates, a talent pipeline also allows organizations to diversify their talent pool, provide personalized experiences to candidates, and improve the overall employer brand. Engage with candidates through social media – the top recruitment marketing channel today. A Glassdoor study reveals that 79% of job applicants prefer social media for job search. Hence, it is imperative to engage with prospective candidates and present a favorable employer brand on social networks to measure how to hire tech talent.

#4: Understand What Tech Professionals Are Expecting From The Job Role

To hire for a technical role, your scope is not limited to the technical qualifications of candidates. Soft skills such as team collaboration and initiative are equally important. Moreover, you have to understand what professionals are expecting from their job role.To improve hiring, recruiters and HR departments should focus on enhancing the recruiting process by introducing efficiencies like tech recruiting tools.

An effective approach is to focus on candidate experience and think like one. It includes improved virtual candidate and video interview experience, since almost half of 70% of the companies are now hiring and onboarding virtually. To do that, companies must deliver what tech talent seeks: 

• Tech talent prefers to meet technologists. It is advised to ensure that engineers and relevant roles form the interview team. Bring some of the best employees to interviews, conferences, and online events.
• Top candidates will be ambitious. They have multiple options too. Create an evaluation and interview approach leading to a decision within a day. Before candidates walk into the room, evaluate their coding skills with tools like iMocha.
• Stay active on the leading nontraditional channels like open-source platforms and hackathons. Understand that tech talent will not be limited to job sites. Give them something interesting and fun, like iMocha’s AI-LogicBox.
• Tech talent is equally eager to start working. Ensure that the onboarding process is smooth and helps them navigate through the process. Streamline the tech recruitment and hiring process to ensure developers can commit code. Here’s a case study of Clarion Technologies, a 98% success rate organization in onboarding the best talent that prefers iMocha.

#5: Share Real-Life Technical Challenges

Technical challenges can bring out the best in the talent you want to recruit. But how do you assess candidates accurately, measure their potential and how to hire tech talent? Choose iMocha’s technical assessments, live coding, and AI-LogicBox to measure applicants.

• Technical Assessments: iMocha presents a comprehensive skills library of more than 2500+ skills. Leverage this tactfully curated skills library comprising of 37+ coding languages, 66+ Next-Gen skills, 88+ cognitive skills, 77+ domain specific skills, and more. SMEs closely build questions around the skill sets including coding, finance, business skills, pre-employment screening, ERP, and more.
• Live Coding Interview: Interact with candidates in real-time as they code through live coding interview sessions. Assess developers on 37 different programming languages using this language agnostic solution that covers 1500+ coding problems. Candidates can code in any preferred programming language. Connect with teammates and make data-driven decisions.
• AI-LogicBox: iMocha’s patented AI-LogicBox, is a groundbreaking pseudo-coding platform to evaluate the skills of functional programmers when online coding compilers are unavailable.

#6: Provide Great Candidate Experience Throughout The Hiring Process

Starting from screening candidates to onboarding them, let the process be smooth and transparent. Keep the interview short because you are handling tech talent and not just any other talent pools. This will save your time as well as effort.

Besides explaining the benefits of joining the organization, including perks and privileges, the HR team should also focus on explaining the career prospects of the job profile and how it can help in increasing their knowledge and skills. In addition, highlight more about the company culture and how that creates a work-life balance and harmony.

#7: Create Attractive Work Culture

A good work culture makes a difference to the hiring process. While compensation and scope of work matter, so do perks and benefits, but nothing can replace the importance of work culture.

• Design flexible workplace: The first step to build a happy work culture is to instill trust. When you hire the right people into leadership positions and provide the resources leading to their success, have faith. In addition, encourage diversity as a part of the company culture. Ensure people coming into your organization feel valued and appreciated.
• Provide learning and development opportunities: Aim to build an intelligent, creative, as well as an empathetic workforce. Help one another grow. Encourage learning and development. Initiate reskilling and upskilling strategies.

#8: Background Check Before You Invite For Interview

Before sending invitations for tech interview, it is important to check the background of candidates in the tech community. For instance, if you are hiring a developer, visit an active developer community to find out more about the candidate’s craft, their projects, past experiences, teamwork, vision, and deliverables. This will give you an insight into the skills and qualities of candidates and help the hiring team prepare for the interview.

#9: Ensure You Are Hiring A Diverse Tech Talent

Hire diverse talent to maintain an equitable workforce. Some of the common platforms to find diverse talent are:

• AbilityLinks – for differently-abled people
• AbilityJobs – for differently-abled people
• VetJobs – for military veterans
• BlackCareerNetwork – for black people
• Jopwell – for black people
• Career Contessa – for women
• HireTechLadies – for women in tech
• LGBTConnect – for LGBT community

In addition, companies that provide remote work opportunities are more preferred. Microsoft Work Trend Index report published in 2021 revealed that 66% of employers globally are redesigning their offices to accommodate hybrid culture. In fact, remote arrangement is a permanent worldwide trend, typically tech and IT jobs.

#10: Clearly Mention Compensation Along With Other Perks & Benefits

Clarity and transparency are the two factors that build trust. Especially when you are handling top tech talent, be very clear about the benefits you are offering, including the compensation breakdown, variables, and additional offerings. This strategy sets up an amicable scene wherein you can discuss and negotiate to arrive at a conclusion. Any ambiguity, and you are at a risk of losing the right candidate.

#11: Offer Internship Programs

Offering the right internship programs often lead to top talent, especially the ones you have not considered. The scope of internship programs exceeds beyond the projected prospects. You can find new potential candidates with this strategy.

In addition, it gives another chance to your organization to assess a candidate before hiring them for a top tech role and full-time position.

For candidates, this is an excellent opportunity to experience working at the organization and develop a sentimental connect with the company. This encourages the chances of hiring candidates for long-term.

#12: Arrange Virtual Job Fair

Virtual job fairs are a great avenue to showcase your organization and demonstrates your qualities as an employer. Moreover, with the emerging trend of remote work, candidates are prepared for virtual hiring process.

You can participate in such events by enrolling for an upcoming event organized by some other company. There are many virtual job fairs that allow companies to represent their performance and build connections with potential candidates.

You can also host your virtual job fair for IT roles to let tech professionals know about the current job opportunities in your company and create that space for communication with experts from the industry through webinars. Whether you host a fair or join one, ensure your concepts are developed and state the expected number of attendees and participants.

#13: Arrange Coding Bootcamp

Coding bootcamp is a brilliant tactic for creative recruitment. Although this method is complicated that also requires resources, it can connect you with trained programmers as per your preference.

Irrespective of technology, coding bootcamps have one common goal – to teach technical skills to developers and get them a top position in this job market. Employment is, definitely, a noteworthy motivator to sign up for coding bootcamps. Approximately 80% of bootcamp graduates secure jobs using the skills they’ve mastered at a bootcamp.

The idea is to expand bootcamps and encourage hiring opportunities. Start the course by announcing an interview with leading companies for successful graduates. This would be an incentive to motivate active participation and you would get a large pool of talent to consider.

#14: Be Communicative In Entire Hiring Process 

Communication is the key to a smooth hiring process and streamlined transition. The HR team and IT recruiting managers should have an open and approachable communication channel to ensure candidates can raise their concerns. Maintain 100% transparency at all times to reduce communication gap.

#15: Campus Recruitment For Tech Roles 

Campus recruitment opens up new doors to hire fresh graduates and raw talent. Unless you have a looming deadline that requires senior developers, you can hire and train juniors. It is a beneficial recruitment strategy that leads to long-term success.

Scout local campuses for fresh graduates in computer science. Even though you may not come across impressive resumes, some of them could still become valuable assets to the company, especially for smaller businesses with a defined growth plan.

Besides having sound theoretical knowledge, new graduates are eager to hit the vast job market, which gives you a highly motivated developer. 

#16: Equip Yourself With Data On Current Tech Hiring 

Successful technical recruitment depends largely on the use of quality data about the latest market trends. Use the data available about the recent condition of the job market, trends of workforce, and related factors influencing tech talent recruitment results. So, the answer to how to hire tech talent also lies in data.

• Competitor Research: Competitors are not necessarily companies producing the same product or providing similar services. Consider SEO and digital competitors too. Research, learn more about the key competitors, and work on it.
• Understand hidden costs: Tech hiring is not restricted to salaries alone. Other expenses include rent, promotion, etc.
• Don’t mistake supply for availability: You may witness a massive talent supply. However, that does not mean you would get the best candidates easily. Finding the best talent is often more competitive than expected.

#17: Learn Technical Jargon 

Knowing technical terms is quintessential. After all, you are expected to understand what you are discussing! 

Understandably, not all recruiters are developers. So, it is imperative to be aware of the frequently used technical terms associated with the post. To hire the best talent, you should know the fundamentals. Also, you cannot create a precise job description without knowing the job role.

However, do not go overboard with technical terms. Be specific and not like a machine.

#18: Automate Technical Hiring 

Recruitment automation involves the use of technology to facilitate recruiters to select the top talent. Hiring managers can add value by applying their perspective, judgement, and expertise. The following recruitment touchpoints can be automated and explored: 

• Pre-employment screening 
• Automated shortlisting 
• Video interviews 
• Live coding simulators 
• Interview scheduling
• Communication
• Due diligence checks
• Onboarding 

#19: Bring Your Top Employees In The Hiring Process To Share Their Experience 

Involve your best employees in the hiring process. Let them share their work experience with prospect candidates to give them a better perspective of their role and draw robust inspiration. Tech talent always prefers to meet and communicate with fellow technologist, regardless of their role. So, make sure you involve developers and engineers in relevant roles in the interview panel. Include peers and top-level employees to share their experience and firsthand knowledge, which will help the prospect understand what to expect.

#20: Interview Tips 

Finally, equip yourself with the right kind of questions and get ready for a solid tech interview. When you are hiring for a tech role, it is prudent to look beyond the technical qualifications. Soft skills such as collaboration and initiative are equally important. 

Here are a few questions you can ask:

• Do you use online resources to do your job? What are those? 
• How do you stay abreast with the current technology skills?
• What are the strengths of a developer’s role? 
• What are your favorite and not-so-favorite technology products?
• Do you think technology advances can impact your job? 

Besides, you can introduce live coding interviews, coding simulators and video interviews through iMocha’s talent acquisition platform. Ultimately, the top talent will be eager to showcase their capabilities through real-time coding.

That answers how to hire tech talent! 

Also read:

• Top 20 Online Hiring Tools
• Top 20 Recruiting Tools used by Pro Recruiters

FAQs

How to assess developers? 

Assess developers through the following steps: 

• CV submission 
• Review submission, shortlist, and send invite to the most relevant candidates for a telephonic interview 
• Invite the selected candidates for a software developer assessment 
• If positive, schedule a final telephonic interview 
• HR round 

What is a coding assessment?

Coding assessments, also called coding skill tests or coding challenges, involve a set of standardized coding questions, problems, and challenges for developers to measure their skills. There are different forms of coding assessment, either created in-house or used from a relevant pre-existing technical assessment platform.

Why is technical recruitment difficult?

Technical recruitment is difficult because the industry is growing rapidly and there is a steady demand for skilled and specialized candidates. There is a scarcity of skilled tech professionals to meet the growing demand and organizations are competing for the top talent by offering perks and higher salaries.