Recruiting and retaining employees is a multi-faceted challenge, especially when the pace of hiring is constantly evolving. We’ve talked recently about how slowing economies often result in reductions in force, and we are seeing some of those contemplated outcomes become realities. However, even amidst these recent hiring shifts and layoff announcements, the tech industry remains highly competitive when it comes to attracting talent. That’s why it’s important to understand what tech candidates really want to know about their future employers.
Clinch explored what matters most to candidates in 2022 and found that strategically addressing these findings throughout the hiring process is key to winning tech candidates.
These tips can help your team make candidates fall in love with your organization while also being smart about your hiring strategy:
Tech hiring tip 1. Hire diverse skillsets and cross-train
Earlier this year, the Great Resignation left many companies — including those in the tech industry — struggling to fill open positions. And now, a potential economic slowdown could be an invitation for talent teams to become more strategic when it comes to developing talent pipelines.
To remain agile as a tech business, talent teams should encourage recruiters and hiring managers to seek out candidates with diverse skillsets. When employees already have a wide variety of skills, opportunities to cross train employees will become more abundant.
More than half of tech leaders are planning to cross-train their existing employees to meet their talent needs, according to the 2021 Harvey Nash Group Digital Leadership Report. This benefits both parties, saving companies money they’d spend on new hires and allowing employees to expand their skill set and explore new career opportunities. And since results from Clinch’s report, What matters most to candidates in 2022 show that “role” and “career tips” are the two highest categories of which tech candidates desire to be in-the-know, weaving these topics into parts of the recruiting life cycle (email, career site content, job descriptions, targeted ads) are great ways to be upfront and let tech candidates know that your organization sees them.
Tech hiring tip 2. Use qualifying skills tests
Strong resumes, well-written cover letters, and engaging interviews don’t always translate to a great hire. That is why tech recruiters are warming up to the idea of ditching the traditional hiring process and basing their hiring decisions on technical assessments. At the beginning of the recruitment process, applicants are given a technical skills assessment that tests their proficiency in certain software and technology they’d be using daily if hired for the position. While these tests lack objectivity, they do help recruiters evaluate candidates’ skills more effectively, and following up these tests with interviews can provide a more holistic approach to recruiting.
Tech hiring tip 3. Spend more to hire developers
53% of recruiters said their hiring budget for developers increased in 2022, according to the CodinGame & CoderPad 2022 Global Tech Hiring Survey. Recruiters have stated they need to offer higher salaries to keep up with demands and stay competitive with other tech companies. Large companies are increasingly mass hiring developers, which requires a larger budget for talent acquisition teams.
Tech hiring tip 4. Invest in hybrid environments
Like it did for many industries, the pandemic taught tech companies that hybrid and remote working environments were possible on a large, long-term scale. Recruiters are using this as a hiring incentive, as employees are seeking more flexible work options. For tech companies offering fully remote positions, it allows recruiters to expand their talent search beyond their local geography. What’s more, embracing hybrid positions not only motivates employees —Most American workers would take a pay cut if it meant they could work from home —but it also saves companies money on operational costs.
Tech hiring tip 5. Improve diversity
65% of recruiters believe hiring bias is an issue in tech recruiting, according to the CodinGame survey. Managers should be looking for more diverse hires, as this promotes innovation and profitability, as well as opening the door to a larger pool of talent. To improve diversity in their recruitment strategies, tech companies are offering equal pay, sourcing diverse candidates, and implementing strict anti-harassment policies. Companies can also reduce bias by making applications “anonymous” and hiding identifying details like their name (which may create assumptions about the candidate’s gender or ethnicity), university, and address.
Tech recruiters are also finding candidates with diverse educational backgrounds. Recruiters are now more open to hiring developers who learned to code outside of a traditional environment, like those who are self-taught or took a coding boot camp course. According to the CodinGame survey, the percentage of recruiters who hire from this pool increased from 23% to 39% in the last year. And of the developers surveyed, 32% were self-taught, learning from free online resources such as classes and YouTube.
Tech Hiring tip 6. Evaluate your tech
Clinch customers such as Toast and Equinix have found success winning tech candidates over by leveraging some of the strategies above, paired with optimizing their recruiting tech stacks.
Toast was looking to make their candidate experience more engaging and insightful for tech candidates. They also needed to integrate their HR technology systems and wanted greater autonomy when it came to updating their career site. Incorporating Clinch into their recruiting technology stack alongside their existing Applicant Tracking System (ATS) enabled Toast to scale their recruiting efforts faster and with a better understanding of their candidates. Clinch has afforded Toast the opportunity to get better data-driven insights on what recruiting efforts are really resonating with candidates. For example, heat map analytics help them evaluate which content candidates engage with most and which pieces are converting candidates into applicants. And with complete control over their own career site, they are now able to adjust their site at a moment’s notice.
Equinix needed technology to nurture their talent pipelines before they applied. Clinch acted as that recruitment marketing tool sitting on top of their ATS to do just that. They increased the reach of their talent community by leveraging automation to invite past candidates to sign up. And 50% of those who joined the talent community even signed up for job alerts!
Talent teams face a complex challenge needing to attract top talent by anticipating their priorities while also strategically hiring and onboarding candidates with retention in mind. As recruiting teams continue to adapt to rapidly changing hiring needs, Clinch is here to hear what’s working best for your team as well as steer you in the right direction to hire outstanding talent, quicker, today!
