Is It Time to Overhaul Your IT Recruitment Strategies?
Is It Time to Overhaul Your IT Recruitment Strategies?
By John Bemis On November 27, 2018 · In Uncategorized
Updated: August 3, 2023
Driven by high demand and competitive compensation, the technology sector has a 13.2% employee turnover rate – the highest of all U.S. employment sectors. Additionally, our recent Benchmark IT Candidate Perspective Survey revealed that almost 60% of tech pros plan on changing jobs in the next 12 months.
With so much movement in the tech marketplace, effective IT recruitment strategies are pivotal for remaining competitive and driving organizational growth. With that in mind, does your IT recruitment strategy need an overhaul?
Capitalize on Data and Analytics for IT Recruitment Strategies
Traditionally, IT recruitment strategies relied more heavily on human intuition and less on hard numbers or facts. Now, the tables are turning, with numerous software and analytics tools available for data-driven recruiting. Organizations can leverage the data they already have – and collect more – to create distinct competitive advantages, including increased efficiency, reduced costs, and improved hiring.
From measuring the quality of hires to offering acceptance rates, hiring managers can more accurately pinpoint exactly where their recruiting efforts are succeeding or falling short. By discovering these anomalies, action plans can be developed. For example, if a company identifies the time-to-hire rate is consistently longer than the industry average, they can use this data to narrow down potential bottlenecks such as lengthy sourcing or screening processes. With the precise determination of what worked – and what didn’t – in past hiring processes, hiring managers can vastly improve their future hiring decisions.
Offer Training & Retraining Opportunities
By 2020, there will be 1 million more computing jobs than candidates equipped to fill them. Despite this talent shortage, companies continue to seek highly specialized skillsets that essentially shrink their already limited talent pool. The only solution is to assess your list of requirements for the role and consider which skills are trainable – then narrow your list to the bare bones. By investing in training, instead of searching endlessly for hard-to-find “perfect” candidates, your talent pool will open up considerably.
Furthermore, IT professionals cite their top concern as staying professionally relevant and employable by learning new skills and technologies. Thus, offering professional development opportunities will attract these candidates and keep them happy for the long term. Ultimately, if a specific skill set is proving difficult to hire for, recruit professionals with transferable skills and a proven track record of early adoption – in addition to providing opportunities for skills development. Your organization can gain the necessary, elusive talent, like Security or DevOps engineers, despite the low unemployment rates for those roles.
Nurture Your Team Culture
Whether working to entice new hires or retain valuable team members, it’s vital that everyone understands the overarching team mission and their place in it. With so many options at their disposal, IT professionals value who they work with nearly as much as what they’re working on. This sentiment was supported in the Benchmark IT Candidate Perspective Survey where “team environment and direct management” (23%), along with “learning new skills and technologies” (26%), were top factors when considering a job change.
Fostering a work environment that encourages open communication and teamwork drives innovation and attracts industry leaders who are searching for a role that provides them more than just a paycheck. Your culture should be synonymous with your employer brand – splashed across social media posts, job descriptions, and your main website. In addition to attracting talent, developing a team culture will organically lead to employees referring other professionals, helping to build out your talent pool even further.
Optimize Your IT Recruitment Strategies for Success
With an industry-wide unemployment rate of 1.9%, recruiting tech talent is only becoming more difficult. The only way to maintain a competitive advantage and attract top candidates is by enhancing your recruitment strategy. By combining analytics, training opportunities, and engaging culture, your organization will appeal to IT professionals across the board.
To discover more recruiting tips, as well as gain further insight into the candidate perspective, grab your copy of Benchmark’s complimentary eBook, “Top 5 Challenges Facing Tri-State CIOs Today.”
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