In an ideal world, your tech talent pipeline is full of exceptional candidates—they are interested in your job, and once you make an offer, they happily say yes. Fast forward a couple of days, they sign the employment contract and you have succeeded once again.
This is not the reality for most companies however. Hours are spent going back and forth with candidates that may not be that genuinely interested. As most hiring managers and HR departments have discovered, given the high level of competition for software developers and niche tech consultants, it takes a considerable amount of time and effort to lure a candidate to join your company. In other words, the process is rife with challenges, even for seasoned recruiters, who can fall victim to one of the deadly sins of technology recruitment.
Here are some of the problems we see regularly when it comes to finding candidates in tech.
1. Searching for Perfection
Things are not perfectly cut and dry when it comes to finding a Microsoft Dynamics CRM Developer, or Netsuite Functional Consultant for example. Previous projects and the exact role played within them can account for more than certifications and training. Success often depends on approach and experience across a wide range of technical disciplines—some of which may not even be listed on a resume.
So rather than look for the ‘perfect’ candidate on paper, give candidates that might work a chance, and you may find a perfect one after all.
2. Being Desperate
Desperation causes two problems—1) the hiring process is rushed and you end up with the wrong person and 2) it isn’t attractive to candidates. Candidates want to feel like the company they are going to work for is aspirational, not needy.
3. Selling the Job Badly
Bottom line: the job must sound enticing. If it doesn’t, no one is going to want to apply. It isn’t just about the salary, candidates also care about the mandate (is it a challenge and a good next-step?), company culture and day-to-today office environment.
4. Too Many Recruiters
Using more than one tech recruitment firm to help you find candidates may seem clever, but it rarely is. Not only is it difficult to be a good client to more than one agency in terms of your own time, follow-up, interview availability, etc, each will have a different approach, often complicating matters. You may end up with various job descriptions posted on several different job-boards, and even an overlap in suggested candidates. It gets confusing.
5. Too Many Interviews
Interviews take time, and time is valuable when tech candidates are so scarce. They are also stressful and a hassle for nearly everyone involved. Even after a series of extensive interviews with various members of the team, there is often no clear decision as to who to hire. This is where a good recruitment search firm can add real value—they already know the candidate, and as such can help reduce the number of interviews.
6. Assumptions vs. Data
Gut instinct is the enemy of a successful hiring process. Your gut can often deceive you. Instead of making assumptions, look for actionable data.
7. Not Going for Second Best
We have seen this many times: a company fixates on attaining what they believe is the best candidate for the job, ignoring the ‘runner up’. They entice the candidate to come work for them with more money and added benefits, only to watch the second-best option to go to a competitor and excel in ways the person they hired didn’t.
The second-best option can be better than the first-best.
Recruiting well in any industry is difficult, and with the exponential increase in demand we have seen in recent years for qualified consultants and programmers in the technology field, hiring well in this sector is even more of a challenge. Avoid these 7 pitfalls, and hopefully you will get it right.
About Oliver Parks
Oliver Parks Consulting offers search-based recruitment solutions to the technology sector, specialising in the ERP, CRM, CMS, ECM, BI and Open Source Technology spaces. The firm’s multilingual consultants operate in narrowly-defined niche market segments, enabling them to gain extensive knowledge of the people and companies operating in each technology. Oliver Parks has a proven track-record with more than 100,000 candidates worldwide and more than 300 clients globally.