Due to increase in Silicon Valley’s talent crunch, companies have to work twice as hard to creatively strategize ways to attract top talent in order to stay ahead of the competition as the job market continues to heat up.
According to a recent, West Valley Staffing Group (WVSG) survey on a range of Silicon Valley hiring managers from different industries about their upcoming hiring needs, 85% predict that hiring will increase or remain steady during the third quarter of 2015, as in comparison to 89% last year. However, only 15% expect their hiring needs to decrease in the upcoming quarter of 2015.
As the job market continues to heat up, employees are beginning to hold the upper hand in their career search. Top talents are being drawn to companies who can offer them the most beneficial employee packages. Employers are starting to offer enhanced packages such as 401K, medical, dental, retirement, life insurance, and investment options.
Charlie Allport, Executive Vice President of WVSG said, “To compete with all the companies in Silicon Valley, hiring managers need to attract top talent by offering competitive benefits and work perks.”
According to the California Employment Development Department (EDD), “California’s unemployment rate decreased to 6.3 percent in June.” EDD also stated, “From June 2014 to June 2015, nonfarm payroll employment in California is up 3.0 percent, which is a 461,800 job increase.”
Additionally, companies are also offering work perks such as day-care, gym memberships, complimentary meals, company family events, and even something as simple as celebrating an employee’s birthday. All of these benefits and perks become more attractive to candidates which will help companies obtain and retain top talent.
See: Talent War Intensifies in India to Recruit from Silicon Valley
An off-Silicon Valley base is considered as a smart human resource strategy, and talent pool is getting fragmented in the valley with large number of start-ups springing up. Most e-commerce companies as Flipkart, Ola and Snapdeal on the other hand, are paying top salaries in India to recruit professionals from the Silicon Valley, in the race to catch up on rivals like Amazon and Uber.
Talent war has been raging in Silicon Valley between small, high-growth, venture-backed companies and publicly traded companies. The winners of the war often rely on creative packages, leaning heavily on incentives, and selling the promise of future upside.
Furthermore, Silicon Valley has a diversity problem which is a contentious issue into focus. The tech firms have been sheepishly releasing updates on the hiring of minorities. “Many point to the talent pipeline as one of the main culprits. They’d hire if they could, but not enough black and Hispanic students are pursuing computer science degrees, they say,” Washington Post reports.
Besides the talent pipeline concerns, big tech companies also indicate towards a couple of challenges that include unconscious biases of being given preference to white men. This bias shows up in recruiting with companies drawing up candidates from the same universities, wherein blacks and Hispanics are still lagging behind in other groups. Where is the talent war headed? Please opine.
Also read: How to bridge the ‘skills gap’ in war for talent?
Image credits: flickr.com
