Having the right people in place to manage your company’s IT infrastructure or develop your software product or service can make or break your business. And to ensure your company has the best talent on board, it’s important that you have an effective tech hiring process.
Not only will a strong tech hiring process fuel your company’s roadmap and backlog, it will also help you improve budget management, save time and keep your talent pipeline full. In the end, an efficient hiring process for tech talent should help you make better decisions. Here are some steps you can take to ensure that your tech hiring process is ready for the upcoming year.
1. Develop your company’s brand
Thinking deeply, articulating clearly and demonstrating authentically who you are as an employer and what sets you apart from other employers in the industry, is a crucial first step to improve your tech hiring process.
It allows you to start at the top of the talent funnel and spark connection with potential job candidates that resonate with your brand. If they understand what makes your organisation unique and why they should work there, you already made great progress toward onboarding the right talent. That’s why investing time and effort into crafting a strong employer brand is essential.
2. Create a candidate persona
A candidate persona is a detailed description of the ideal candidate for the position you’re looking to fill. The more specific you can be when creating your candidate persona, the clearer the strategy will be to reach and recruit the talent who meets the job requirements.
Initially candidate personas will be composed using data such as work history, skills, qualifications, certifications, education or other information you can find in a resume. However, to bring the candidate personas to the next level, you should enrich them with less obvious information like career ambitions, personality traits, communication styles and of course insights from experienced recruiters.
3. Clarify and align hiring needs
Before beginning the recruitment process, it is essential to clarify and align hiring needs. Consider how each hire will fit into the overall strategy of the organisation and be sure to involve key stakeholders in decisions related to tech hires.
Additionally, make sure that everyone involved in the recruitment process understands exactly who they are looking for and why they need them. Use candidate personas to drive communication on this topic. All of this will help streamline the entire recruitment process and save time in the long run.
4. Focus on candidate experience
Eventually, it might make more sense to start talking about ‘candidate experience’ rather than ‘hiring process’. This starts before talent even reaches out to you. They might read up on some company culture-related content from your firm and feel enticed to know more and contact you or apply to a position.
Then, when contact is established, make sure that potential candidates feel valued by providing clear instructions and timelines as well as regular feedback throughout their application journey. Leveraging technology like applicant tracking systems (ATS) can also help streamline this process while ensuring a positive experience for all parties involved.
5. Leverage technology
At SkillStorm we obviously believe in the power of technology to connect IT talent to IT employers. It’s a core driver for the continuous development of our job platform. But apart from finding job openings and matching talent, there are plenty of other technologies available today that can help streamline every aspect of recruiting from sourcing candidates to onboarding new hires. It can free up time from busy recruiters and human resources professionals alike, so that they focus more on strategic and human(!) impact.
6. Have the right recruiter in place
Having an experienced recruiter on board can make all the difference when it comes to optimising your tech hiring process for 2023. Working with recruiters who have industry-specific or technology-specific knowledge ensures they understand both sides of each job opening while also offering insight into potential gaps or opportunities within certain roles or departments within an organisation.
They will also be well placed to advise and decide which candidate qualifies perfectly both in skill as in culture.
Conclusion
Improving your tech hiring process doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive – but it does require a strategic approach, careful planning and consideration if you want the best results.
Having a successful tech hiring strategy not only helps companies achieve their goals in 2023 but also makes them stand out from competitors in the marketplace which further enhances their competitive advantage in the years to come.
