Introduction:
73% of candidates are passive job seekers – if the candidates you are currently interviewing are active job seekers – you may be missing out on a large portion of the talent pool.
Recruiting talent is different than it was a decade ago. Candidates want different things and competition for their services, even with the current COVID crisis, is still very high. Actually, time from application to offer has reduced since COVID and top developers stay available for just less than 10 days before getting hired.
There is an ongoing and unrelenting challenge for hiring managers to improve their attraction strategy and recruitment process. Here are 6 ways in which you can implement the best strategies, techniques and practices in order to be one step ahead of the competition when it comes to successfully attracting top software development talent for your organisation.
Big on Branding
Organisations that invest in employer branding are three times more likely to make a quality hire. A popular and compelling employer brand can help identify, attract and retain the right kind of people…
In addition to your website catering for potential customers, it is also one of the first places a potential candidate will gage whether your company is somewhere they want to work.
It is essential that your website and social sites are more than just a tool for your sales teams to attract more customers, but also represent you as an employer of choice.
Grab attention with your job role advertisements
72% of Talent Attraction Specialists worldwide believe that employer branding has a significant impact on hiring.
According to LinkedIn, companies that invest in employer branding on average experience a 28% decrease in staff turnover. There are many different ways to get creative and make a job advertisement stand out!
- Personalise the advert – Use language which will resonate with your target candidates. Imagine what they would want from a new job and focus on that.
- Talk about company culture – Small and organically growing companies may not have the money of big business but can offer a huge cultural advantage over massive enterprises.
- Make it easy to read – Many job seekers will only spend a few seconds on an advert, so ensure that the post is easy to read to avoid them glossing over it.
- Link to a video – Keep your job advert nice and brief then link to a video on the company’s website.
- Sell the lifestyle – People are looking for a more balanced lifestyle, so ensure you mention your perks. These could make the difference!
Utilise Internal Talent
The idea of hiring within your own business is often overlooked! How well do you really know your people?
You may have a passionate self-taught coder working in your accounts department or a HR person with the key transferable skills to be a great Business Analyst. Sadly, you often only realise this on exit interview; when they find an external company willing to give them that career change.
High-performing talent acquisition teams recognise the value of internal mobility and view it as a critical talent initiative. Transforming a culture to promote internal mobility should be part of a larger, systemic approach to talent sourcing. It begins with an awareness of one of the most effective ways to promote growth and improve employee retention: championing internal mobility and embedding it into organisational culture.
Tell Your Story
It makes a difference.
Every business wants to acquire the best development talent available to help facilitate growth and achieve its strategic goals. The problem arises when the talent pool is too shallow and competition for top quality software development candidates is vast.
In these instances, you are not simply trying to employ someone, but undertaking a marketing exercise to ensure they view you, your products and your organisation above others. There are many ways to achieve this, but the message needs to be ‘joined up’ and consistent. A business cannot communicate a particular message through its website, only to contradict it further along in the process.
Making sure the stories are being shared throughout your industry helps you maintain a proactive pipeline to prospective hires and puts you in the position to land the best hires on an ongoing basis
Develop a Pipeline of Candidates
Every company benefits from a pipeline of relevant candidates, the challenge is building and sustaining this when very few businesses have “evergreen jobs” and live roles are sporadic. With an engaged pipeline in place, no searches start from scratch and organisations can dramatically reduce costs, reduce time to hire and limit the chance of a wrong hire.
Here are some benefits of having a pipeline:
- Better candidates – talent pipelines allow you to nurture exceptional candidates that aren’t ready to move immediately.
- Engaging passive candidates – the bulk of Software Developers are not active job seekers so, if you want to compete for the best talent, it’s vital that you’re able to engage them effectively.
- Less haste more speed – Fewer wrong hires occur when both parties have the opportunity to flirt and date before jumping into full-time commitment.
- Improved diversity – 56% of organisations are currently struggling to find candidates that fit their diversity requirements – pipelines give them the capacity to identify diverse prospects and build a relationship with them, instead of just hoping that they’ll come across their job postings.
- Better candidate experience – Talent pipelining is an entirely candidate centric process. Instead of driving candidates to job postings and hoping that they’ll apply, organisations focus on building a strong relationship and engaging candidates on their terms
Use Experts
Vivo Talent can offer a perfect solution – Vivo means “with life & vigour” and as a business we are breathing much needed new life into the recruitment industry.
We understand that no two clients are the same, so have shaped our products to help address a number of the challenges facing companies today. As specialists in technology recruitment we have combined our recruitment experience with cutting edge technology, marketing and AI, to ensure our products are leading the way in candidate attraction and engagement.
Whether you’re looking to recruit an individual developer, run a large recruitment campaign, build a diverse talent pipeline, identify internal talent or looking for someone to manage your recruitment process, we have solutions that can deliver.
Please book some time here, should you wish to discuss further.