When a candidate in the Tech world is entertaining opportunities, they’re more than likely engaged in conversations with multiple employers. We’ve had some customers upset at the idea that a candidate isn’t solely focused on joining their company and entertaining other opportunities.
It’s important to understand that vacancies in the IT sector are rapidly outgrowing the talent market. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics we’re looking to see a 22% increase in demand for employees in the IT sector in the next 4 years.
“Your requirements may be too large for me to take you seriously.”
As a staffing agency, we see this all the time. Job descriptions that list all the technologies under the moon ‘to cast a wide net’. To the candidate, it gives the perception that you don’t know what you’re looking for or you’re just pipelining for a job that isn’t there. When working with clients, we often revise stagnant job descriptions to appeal to the available talent pool.
“I’m not going to leave my secure full time position for the chance to move to a Contract Only/Contract to Hire job.”
VIMRO supports our clients on these types of engagements regularly and appreciates that this style of hiring works well for a lot of our customers. Consultants regularly work on 6/12+ month engagements and they tend to enjoy taking a project to completion and moving on to the next challenge. The difficulty comes when you’re hiring for a contract job but want someone to leave their full time job to come and work for you and consider consultants as “job hoppy”.
“I check out websites like glassdoor.com and see what their employees have to say about them.”
Websites like this speak to candidates more than any branded HR video. Look at what your current and past employees have to say about you and if you see a pattern, address it as soon as possible. Bad reviews speak louder than good ones, so if you’ve addressed the issues, have your HR team reach out to current and past employees and see if they’re willing to give you a good review.
“When I’m actively looking, I can’t hang around for a 2 month interview cycle.”
It’s important to give candidates a timeline and expectations about your position and interviewing structure e.g. Phone > Skype > Onsite > Offer. Can you consolidate a multi-round interview process?
“There’s a major skills gap in IT in general. My employer recognized my foundation of technical skills and trained me. I’m now the principal engineer.”
We recently worked on a hybrid position for one of our clients. They were in search of Network engineer with strong programming skills. After a lot of back and forth we were able to convince the manager to hire a programmer and train them in networking. As the IT world becomes more sophisticated we need to be more creative in our hiring approach.
Conclusion
As with all types of human interactions, consideration and compassion of the others’ perspective pays huge dividends. Get unbiased feedback and see it from the candidates perspective to achieve dramatic results.
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