As technology continues to play an integral role in business operations, tech talent is undoubtedly sought-after across industries. It’s not only the tech companies that are realizing the value of these technical IT skills, but non-tech companies have been seeking people to tackle their IT challenges. With tech talent shortage as the most cited barrier to the adoption of emerging technologies, it’s not surprising that hiring skilled tech professionals is at the top of the agenda for many organizations.
But with multiple companies fighting over the same small pool of talents, what can organizations do to stand out from the crowd and attract the ideal candidates?
Leverage Customer and Employee Stories
It’s one thing to say what you’re like as an employer, but what are other people saying about you? People are keener to hear what others are saying. What’s your culture like? How do you develop your employees’ careers? What type of clients do you work with? Potential applicants would want to verify these things from other people’s perspectives who have directly experienced these things. That’s why job review sites like Glassdoor are extremely popular.
Make it easier for candidates to learn about your company by promoting both your customer and employee stories. Showcase some of your best clients and share their feedback about your company. Ask your current employees to share their thoughts about working in the company on your career page. By sharing multiple perspectives about your organization, it makes it easier for your ideal candidates to find something that will resonate with your company.
Highlight Culture and Vision
What are the great things about working in your organization? Is your vision or mission statement clear for people interacting with you for the first time? If not, then most likely potential employees won’t get it either. These aspects must be highlighted and apparent across all your applicant interactions.
But this shouldn’t happen in isolation. Align your recruitment efforts with marketing initiatives. Take advantage of your company’s social media reach to share job openings and promote internal activities that showcase your company culture. Celebrate employee achievements when appropriate. By demonstrating these activities to the public audience, people will have a better understanding of what it’s like to work in your company.
Make the Hiring Cycle Painless
It’s no secret that the hiring cycle itself can make or break your efforts in attracting top IT talent. A PwC survey found 49% of applicants turned down an offer due to a bad recruiting experience. This can be due to candidates not hearing back promptly or having to go through an arduous hiring process with too many stages. Often, this happens due to other responsibilities getting in the way, and with IT departments overwhelmed with countless tasks, recruiting activities can easily be forgotten. But regardless of how amazing your company is, if your hiring process isn’t up to par, you’ll be losing out on some great candidates.
Create a smooth, pain-free hiring experience by cutting out waste and ensuring clear communication throughout the process. Assess whether each stage of your recruitment process is essential and find ways how to improve the experience for everyone involved. For example, even an automated message acknowledging their applications have been received can help create a more pleasant experience.
Promote the Great Benefits You Have on Offer
What are the perks and benefits you offer that matter the most to your employees? Is it a remote/hybrid working opportunity? Or flexible working? The things that are popular among your current staff most likely will be important to your future employees, too, so make sure to shout about them!
Likewise, when writing your job ads, sharing the role’s salary range can attract more candidates. People analytics company Visier reported that estimated compensation is the top piece of information candidates prioritize when looking at job postings and applications. Demonstrating transparency when it comes to benefits and compensation not only eliminates wasted time from both parties as expectations are set on the get-go, but also helps build trust in your company.
Don’t Forget Your Employees’ Network
Sometimes the people you need the most are closer than you think. When hiring for roles, make sure to encourage your staff to share the job opportunities among their connections. Some of the most successful hires happen from a simple referral by an employee. Not only can you reduce recruitment costs, but it’s found that 45% of referral hires stay for more than four years compared to only 25% of job board hires.
If you don’t have one yet, you can also create a referral program to incentivize employees to share job postings among their networks.
Focus on Your Diversity and Inclusion Strategy
Your commitment to diversity and inclusion can also impact how attractive your company is as an employer. Where are you posting your roles? What sort of language are you using in your job ads? How are development opportunities distributed across the organization?
From the details of your job ad to the makeup of your workforce, working towards creating a diverse and inclusive workplace can only benefit your recruitment efforts.
Streamline Your Recruitment Process with the Right Tools
The hiring process involves many moving parts and various people. It can be a stressful time for everyone. For example, hiring IT managers are juggling their daily tasks with interviewing and assessing applicants, such as tackling service outages or responding to urgent incidents. Without the right tools, things can get messy quickly.
Minimize headaches by automating approval cycles and communication to make the recruitment process smoother. Likewise, IT managers can eliminate wasted time on manual tasks and get out of firefighting mode by automating key ITSM processes, so they can get back the time to focus on their potential hires.
If you’re looking for a better way to manage your IT services, IFS assyst can help. Designed to give you complete visibility and control over your IT service processes, it has everything you need to design, deliver, and optimize all your essential IT services. Get in touch today to learn more.
