Discovering and attracting excellent talents is never simple. Employers are finding it harder and harder to source the right talent for their company. In areas where unemployment rates are higher, job postings can receive thousands of applicants, but only few are relevant to the required skills. To make it worse, the workforce does not have enough workers and skilled candidates to fill an ever-increasing number of high-skilled jobs. In December 2018, 7 million jobs were open, but only 6.3 million unemployed individuals were looking for work.
This issue is more challenging in IT recruitment. After the technology bubble and software automation, there was a boom in technology jobs particularly in the Information Technology domain. Companies scramble to adapt to the IT job market by doing whatever they can, including attracting and hiring top tech talent.
IT recruitment specialises in technical vacancies, such as handling open positions in Information technology domains. Its recruiter deals with different types of IT requirements related to different IT skills or technologies like PHP, Java, .Net, Oracle, SAP, Embedded, SEO, Digital Marketing, etc. Meanwhile, non-IT recruitment is basically recruiting in all sectors excluding the IT sector, such as building material, agro commodities, medical and healthcare, industrial, sales, media and entertainment, etc.
See also: How to Use Social Media as Part of Recruitment Strategy
Recruiting tech talent comes with multiple hurdles for HR specialists and recruiters. Firstly, recruiters and HR teams should look for them in the right places. Secondly, tech recruitment requires a captivating approach and presenting candidates with an accurate portrayal of company culture.
Many recruiters would refer to LinkedIn and other popular social media, forums, and job platforms to find talents they need. But to find the right, excellent IT talents, these platforms might not be enough. Popular social media channels and professional networks do not always represent the most practical solution for high-demand positions.
So, where to look for tech talents? There are several unexpected places to find them, including open-source projects, job platforms that are especially dedicated for IT talents such as Gitlead, Hikido, or Stack Overflow, an employee’s network. Generally, top tech performers will be able to refer to top talent from their circles.
Other than those platforms, recruiters can also consider hiring remote IT employees. There are certain countries where IT individuals gather. Here are the top five according to Globalisation Partners:
Recruiters might think that sourcing IT talents remains the same as sourcing other roles. They also need to craft good and selling job descriptions, influencing people to apply. But while recruiters usually advertise the roles on job boards, choose a different medium and different conversation style, or look in a CV database and go to LinkedIn for a higher response rate, this is not a sufficiently suitable method for hiring IT people.
As mentioned earlier, tech talents commonly gather in different platforms and might not actively look for a job or advertise themselves on job boards, so recruiters must look for them and approach them. Luckily, 75 percent of 90,000 developers told Stack Overflow that they are interested in hearing about new job opportunities. And 16 percent of them are actively looking for a job.
Upon the good news, recruiters must be prepared with the competition of getting the best tech talent out there. Make sure all essential information regarding the role needed is covered. Employers should also communicate aims, requirements, needed experience and knowledge, tech-stack, and overall working conditions as well as benefits. Recruiters can also ask the IT team on board to help with the interview.
Read also: Science-based Talent Acquisition for Better Recruitment and Engagement
