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From dorm rooms to boardrooms, Arpit has built a career connecting young talent to opportunity. Their writing brings fresh, student-centric views on tech hiring and early careers.
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9 Creative Recruitment Strategies To Hire Developer On A Budget

Recruiting top-class talent is challenging in itself and doing it on a low budget can be quite a daunting task!

Startups and mid-sized companies that typically operate on a shoestring (small) budget (before they catch the eye of the big VCs and make it to the big league) are commonly faced with the predicament of how to recruit the right candidate with their limited budget.

At a time when big companies lure top talent with generous salaries and bonuses, VMware, Splunk, and Cadence the top three paying companies in America pay their employees in the range $160k according to Business Insider.

What chance do the smaller players have?

According to a study by Deloitte, employees reported work-life balance as being the most important factor apart from salary.

In another finding, a whopping 42% of those surveyed by Towards Data Science was willing to choose a lesser paying job with fewer working hours than a better-paying one with more working hours!

The attractive perks and benefits offered by tech biggies to their employees to keep them interested in more evidence supporting the finding that salaries aren’t everything.

For instance, Netflix offers its employees unlimited maternity and paternity leaves in their first year of parenthood.

Airbnb, on the other hand, offers its employees an annual stipend of $2000 to travel!

While the latter may not be applicable to a firm with budget constraints, a flexible work schedule can be very attractive to many employees. (Also Read – Employee onboarding: Looking at the bigger picture).

So what should startups do to hire developers and other tech talents on a small budget? While everyone is looking to get that developer worth million dollar bucks, there are few creative recruiting strategies to hire great talents, let’s discuss them below

Shoestring budget, how to recruit on budget, hire developer on budget, budget hiring, 9 creative recruitment strategies for hiring top talent , creative recruitment strategies

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9 creative recruitment strategies for hiring top talent

  1. Appeal to their emotional side

    While salary and bonuses may be more appealing to the logical side of the brain, there is another way to attract a potential hire – by appealing to their emotional side.

    At the core, all of us are driven towards finding a sense of purpose.

    If you can get candidates invested in your company’s mission, then it can go a long way in shifting their focus from merely looking for a well-paying job to one where he/she could make a difference in the larger scheme of things.

  2. Additional perks never hurt

    Maybe you have a fancy cafeteria with unlimited snacks and all your employees are equipped with MacBook Pros. Or maybe not.

    One thing we need to understand is that not all employees seek these fancy perks.

    Quality bonding time with everyone over a piping hot cuppa and some munchies to go around may be just as appealing!

    Most companies tend to overlook certain easy-to-implement and highly effective perks that would appeal to the employees, such as

    1. Flexitime

      A flexible work plan empowers employees to plan their work around their own schedule, which in turn leads to a more productive workforce that is self-motivated and doesn’t need constant reminders or supervision.

      The flexitime can be in the form of late clock-in time or early clock-out time. Since the flexiwork applies to everyone involved, employees are more willing to pitch in for a colleague in case of emergencies.

    2. Healthy meal options

      Promoting a healthy workplace is also in fashion these days, with cafeterias serving all kinds of healthy and nutritious food for the employees.

      By adopting a healthy food policy, not only are you offering your employees a healthier alternative but also positioning yourself as an employer that cares for its employees’ health and well-being.

    3. Convertible or standing desks

      Emerging as one of the fastest growing and in-demand employee benefit across companies, the humble standing desks or sit-to-stand desks can be an inexpensive yet attractive perk to offer to a prospective candidate.

      These desks, apart from making the workspace more robust and dynamic, ensure better collaboration among employees.

    4. Discounted neighborhood membership

      Most startups operating on a tight budget would not be able to afford a fully functional gym in their workplace, however, a group discount at a neighboring gym can be an excellent alternative.

      This would promote a healthier, dynamic work environment.

    5. Travel or holiday allowance

      An excellent benefit to add to your list would be a holiday allowance that can boost the happiness quotient among employees in your office to new levels.

      A dash of creativity coupled with some well-thought out and relevant benefits can empower you to not only retain your current crop of employees but also galvanize them into becoming brand ambassadors for your company.

      Referral hires who are well versed with the dynamics and work culture of your company, thanks to this band of brand ambassadors, would be willing to take a pay cut because they know they would be a good fit here. (Also Read – How employee wellness affects productivity: four fundamental pillars)

  3. Work-life balance

    Whether you’re running a bookkeeping side hustle with a team of two or managing an enterprise with a dozen headcounts, you must prioritize the work-life balances of your employees .Employees today do not prefer to be tied down to their desks for long work hours and require time-off to socialize, follow their passions, pursue higher education and lead a fulfilling life.

    It is imperative for employers to understand this need, and offer employees an excellent work-life balance. Such a workforce tends to be more productive and infuses robust energy to the workplace.

    A study by Deloitte reports how employees revealed that work-life balance was one of the most important factors while considering a job.

    There are limited hours in a day and demanding that your employee work for longer hours not only builds resentment but also affects productivity!

    An unhealthy lifestyle with irregular meals of unwholesome food, lack of adequate exercise, and the absence of stress-relieving activities can potentially lead to life-altering or fatal lifestyle diseases!

  4. Autonomy, mastery, and purpose

    Experiments in the 1970s by well-renowned psychologist Edward Deci studied how money and motivation derived different results from its subjects.

    In these experiments, a group of people was divided into two sets, one that was asked to solve a puzzle with money as the reward and the other who was asked to solve a similar puzzle without any monetary rewards.

    He found the second group that was simply offered a challenge without any monetary compensation to be more motivated than the one that was offered compensation.

    This example is in no way to suggest you withdraw monetary compensation for your employees from the table! On the contrary, the lesson we could perhaps learn from this is that humans have an intrinsic need to succeed, which can be leveraged by offering them an environment that is conducive to attaining such a goal.

  5. Potential for growth

    Some of the best hires are often looking for an excellent opportunity and a challenge as well!

    They are keen to know about the company’s growth prospects and their own professional advancement and career prospects.

    In a poll by Gallup, 87% of the millennials reported career advancement was very important in a job.

    A candidate who understands his current role, as well as the career prospects within the company, is much more likely to take a salary cut in lieu of career advancement.

  6. Stock options

    Several companies offer equity or stock options as part of the compensation.

    This would mean that the salary that the employee gets in hand would be much lesser since he gets to have greater skin in the game.

    This is an excellent way to align the company’s interests with that of the employee.

    The employee who chooses to take a lesser salary in lieu of equity believes in the company’s potential and is incentivized to grow the company so that her own shares also increase in value.

    Microsoft is one of the early companies who offered stock options to its employees and created 3 billionaires and over 12,000 millionaires in the process!

  7. Sell them on your technology

    A very effective way to attract players to your team is to sell them on the hot technology you are working on.

    People, from entry-level to senior-level employees, would take a smaller paycheck if they get to work on cutting-edge skills. (Also Read – Automation in recruitment and why it is a necessity for HR)

  8. Show them you only hire the best

    Compelling stories about your team and their superior industry knowledge would persuade a talented hire to be part of your team.

    The reason?

    An A-player prefers to work with other A-players and would be willing to take home a few dollars less for the opportunity to be in the company of great talent.

  9. Job vs. Career

    The best hires are not merely looking for a job to earn money!

    Instead, they are looking for a workplace that has the potential to grow and offers similar growth prospects to its employees.

    In short, a lucrative career is what a top-class talent is looking for.

    To convince a person such as this, you need to play up your company’s mission, its goals, its potential for growth, its team, and its work culture.

    It is imperative to find a dedicated team of talented employees to boost your company’s success and without lucrative paychecks, these above-mentioned ideas can serve you well in attracting great talent.

Conclusion

While finding new ways to retain employees through exciting perks and keep them engaged with new challenges, remember to not tweak the hiring process to such an extent that you have to make do with less than the best talent.

There are other ways to cut costs— employ novel tools to identify talent, streamline the evaluation and interviewing processes, and manage employees— and weed out under-qualified candidates.

Automation can save several man-hours, which means you save lots of pennies too, and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your recruitment strategy.

Read how start-ups like GyanMatrix & global NGOs are using Technology Recruitment Software for hiring technical talents on budget.

Take a 14-day FREE trial for HackerEarth Recruit to see if the software is a right fit for your organization.

How to Create a Detailed Recruitment Budget [With Template & Examples]

Recruiting new people is exciting. But, the additional costs that come along with it? Not so exciting.

In fact, these costs can be dreadful if you have not planned a recruiting budget to keep a bull’s eye on your overall costs.

Recruitment Budget Template

That’s what we have:

  • put a detailed guide on the 6-step process to create detailed recruiting budget sheet
  • created a free recruiting budget template downloadable for you to get started

What is a recruitment budget?

A recruiting budget is the financial plan adopted by businesses and human resources teams to manage all the expenses related to hiring processes. This includes:

  • posting jobs
  • investing in tools and services like ATS, assessments, video meeting software
  • using external recruitment agencies
  • doling out bonuses for referral programs.

For example, if your organization invests in job posting platforms, and recruitment tools like skills assessment and video interview software, and conducts employer branding events, then you need to calculate the overall costs for these activities.

These activities are handles by the HR department. A specific amount of money is allocated to each HR manager for these activities. They need to inform the HR department before making these investments so they can approve them and keep in the records.

Essential components of a recruiting budget

Drafting a recruitment budget goes beyond just looking at how much you want to spend on job ads. Consider the following critical components:

Job advertising: Allocate funds for platforms like LinkedIn, job boards, and niche industry sites.

Recruitment technology: Include costs for Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), AI recruiting tools, and other software that streamlines the process.

Talent sourcing: Set aside funds for strategies such as headhunting, talent pools, and referral programs.

Candidate experience: This encompasses costs related to improving the interviewing experience, like travel reimbursements, meals, or gifts for candidates.

Training and onboarding: Consider the resources needed for onboarding new hires, including training programs, workshops, and materials.

Background checks: Budget for third-party services that conduct background verifications, drug tests, etc.

Recruitment events: Whether it’s hosting job fairs, attending university recruitment drives, or setting up booths at industry conferences, there are associated costs.

Agency fees: If you’re using a recruitment agency or external consultants, their fees need to be accounted for.

Internal costs: Think of HR salaries, office supplies specific to recruitment, and other overheads.

Miscellaneous and contingency: Always set aside a portion of your budget for unforeseen costs or opportunities that might arise.

How to create a recruitment budget

Step #1: Calculate the number of hires

The primary expense for any organization: its employees. Before starting with the math, get on board all the managers to understand their requirements in terms of new hires in the coming year.

Circulate a sheet similar to the following one and ask all stakeholders to fill it. This will help you understand how many new hires they may need in the coming year.

Based on this data, the recruitment cost analysis can be done more accurately.

Team/Qtr Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
Engineering 12 22 14 19 63
Sales 6 7 12 3 28
Operations 2 4 4 1 11
Marketing 3 9 14 7 33
Administration
5 8 8 4 25

Along with these number, you will need

  • Expected designation: Knowing if the roles are for interns, managers, senior managers, etc. will help estimate what the likely expenses, both quarterly and annual, are for specific teams.
  • Skills: In case you need to collaborate with external agencies, having a good idea about the niche skill sets your organization is looking for help; also, you might have to start this process early.

According to Sharon Jautz, Head of HR, WGSN

Not accounting for the length of time role will stay open. I have a rule: If you have met with at least 10 candidates and the role is still open, you need to reevaluate the role, decide if you need it and reevaluate your interviewing criteria.

Along with these numbers, what is needed to be taken into account is the turnover rate for each team and for the organization. The HR team needs to have a good understanding of how many employees would be leaving the organization in a particular year.

So, if the turnover rate is 10% and your total employee count is 2000, it means that 200 employees would be quitting the company next year. Hence, if you are looking to hire 160 new employees (from the above table), your actual count increases to 360. 200 for employees who have quit and 160 new employees.

Going back to past few years number and calculating turnover (If you do not have the number refer to average turnover over rate for industries from the web) for each team, give you an exact measure of the number of hires you would be hunting for in the coming year.

Step #2: Estimate basic recruitment costs

Recruitment costs refer to basic expenses associated with the hiring and recruitment process. These expenses are mostly recurring and often billed early in the year.

This cost may vary for each organization, but you have to consider common expenses across boards to have rough estimates.

  • Job boards: They are a great starting point to draw attention from candidates, and are frequently used by major corporations. For example, Cutshort, Indeed, LinkedIn and Stack Overflow.
  • Salaries: Occasionally, teams collaborate with contract-based recruiters and agencies on yearly basis. Don’t forget to add their salaries too.
  • Employee branding: Branding campaigns, career page optimization, and video campaigns—these are just a few ways you can amplify your employer brand and educate employees about why they should work in your organization.

Look at the following sheet to understand better.

How to create a recruiting budget, recruiting budget, recruiting budget for 2019, recruitment budget
Detailed sample template shared below

Also read: Nirvana Solutions uses HackerEarth Assessments to Reduce Cost Per Hire by 25%


Steps #3: Calculate the fixed cost

Fixed cost are costs associated with your recruitment process happens yearly and is usually processed in an orderly manner like salaries, partnerships, recruitment agencies, etc.

  • Internal Salaries: Calculate internal salaries for existing employees. Make sure to add your HR team. The rules say for every 50 employees you should have 1 HR. Budget your internal salaries accordingly. Also, take into account the expenses if you are looking for new team members.
  • Partnerships: Calculate the cost of any yearly partnerships which you plan to commit to. These partnerships can include an external recruitment agency, event agencies, social media promoters, and others.
  • Recruiting events: Make a list of all upcoming virtual recruiting events like conferences you plan to take part in, in the near future and budget them in your sheet.

As Neil Williams from AVI-SPL says

I found that fees associated with events such as job fairs including air travel and lodging can be easily missed. Remember to think of each event from start to finish and all the necessary logistics involved.

  • External recruiting agencies: Most of the companies tie up with external recruiters agencies or independent recruiters who help them hire candidates, especially for niche skills. Think of the approximate number of hires you plan to make for the year. Factor in the cost associated with each hire (paid to the external recruiter) when you prepare the budget.

Step #4: Estimate recruiting technology costs

Technology is a great enabler. As HR evolves with enabling technologies like talent assessment software and video interviews, companies can expect better recruitment and overall management.

Coding assessment software

While candidate sourcing is managed by multiple agencies, job portals, and social channels, it is imperative you evaluate candidates on the right parameters. Coding assessment tools like HackerEarth Assessments helps reduce hiring costs by 10X.

Companies have also been using HackerEarth talent assessment software for university hiring by evaluating candidates remotely—reducing large cost (travel, stay, man-hours, etc.) associated with campus placement.


Also read: 5 Best Practices for an Effective Hybrid Campus Hiring Strategy


Video interview software

While assessing candidates can be managed by technical interview software, an organization should evaluate the candidate in person before selection. However, candidates are often scattered across the globe and the cost associated with their travel becomes too high. This is where video interview software like EasyHire and Kira Talent comes in.

HackerEarth’s coding assessment software is accompanied by video interview software called FaceCode, which helps you assess candidates on their real-time coding skills while interviewing them. Since these features are bundled, there are more savings to be had!

Background check service

A background check is an essential service used by organizations to verify a candidate’s credibility. Major global organization work in this field and charge relatively high fees in verifying all the relevant information.

With the increasing usage of social media and networking, referral hiring is a good way to save on the background check service. Calculate the cost accordingly.

Pre-boarding software

Candidate pre-boarding has evolved a lot over the last few years. With multiple options in hand, candidate ghosting has been a major menace for the recruiters. It is extremely essentials to keep your candidates way before joining, helping them understand their role, responsibility, and progression.

Companies using pre-boarding software have seen reduction in drop-off by more than 45%. Some of the top pre-boarding software available are Beamfox, BoardOn, Talmundo.

Application tracking system (ATS)

Application tracking systems have not evolved much since their inception in the mid-90s. But due to high dependency on them, most of the organizations still prefer to have a good part of their expenses dedicated to ATS.

Application tracking systems help follow the entire journey of a candidate, from sourcing, interviewing, joining, to exit. Some of the top ATS across the globe are Taleo, Greenhouse software, iCIMS, JobVite.


Also read: Remote Work and Recruitment: An ATS Story


Step #5: Estimate your miscellaneous hiring costs

Tying in the ROI on the unexpected expense with the broader strategic HR and/or organizational plan helps get stronger buy-in for unexpected added costs

Ensure you make allowances for miscellaneous expenses that pop up frequently in your hiring cycle. A few expenses relate closely to the internal campaigns you decide to run with referral bonuses taking up the major chunk.

Next, average out all incentives paid in the last two years to have an approximate idea about the budgeting for incentives to be rolled out in the appraisal cycle. It is essential to keep a check on inflation and the industry-standard before zeroing in on a certain amount.

Some companies regularly offer bonuses to their employees, sometimes in the festive season or when the business has had a great year. Discuss with the leadership on the target goals, and any bonus roll-out in case targets are achieved.

Step #6: Calculate cost per hire

And the most important step, calculate the cost per hire before finalizing the budget. If you have a previous budget to refer to the cost per hire for earlier years, then calculate expected expenses for the coming year.

According to Neil Williams, HRBP, AVI-SPL

Calculate it by adding the actual recruiting expenses from last year and divide by the number of hires you made. Then, multiply your average cost per hire by the number of hires you plan to make this year. Add all projected internal and external costs.

The basic formula for cost per hire is

Cost per hire = Internal Cost + External Cost / Total Number of Hire

Make sure that your cost per hire should not increase exponentially for any given year and should be in sync with inflation, revenue growth, and a number of hires.

Tips for managing tech recruitment budget

Here are some tips for managing your tech recruitment budget effectively throughout the year:

  1. Plan ahead: At the beginning of the year, take some time to plan out your hiring needs for the year. This will help you to estimate how much money you will need to spend on recruitment.
  2. Set a budget and stick to it: Once you have a good understanding of your hiring needs, set a budget for recruitment. Be sure to include all of the relevant costs, such as job postings, advertising, recruiter fees, and background checks.
  3. Track your spending: It is important to track your spending so that you can stay within your budget. This will also help you to identify areas where you can save money.
  4. Use free and low-cost recruitment tools: There are a number of free and low-cost recruitment tools available. For example, you can use social media to post job openings and to connect with potential candidates. You can also use free job boards, such as Indeed and LinkedIn.
  5. Partner with recruiters: If you have a lot of open positions, you may want to consider partnering with a recruiter. Recruiters can help you to find qualified candidates and to manage the hiring process. However, it is important to note that recruiters typically charge a fee for their services.
  6. Invest in employee referrals: Employee referrals are a great way to find qualified candidates. Encourage your employees to refer their friends and colleagues for open positions. You can also offer incentives for employee referrals.
  7. Hire for soft skills: Soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving, are just as important as hard skills in the tech industry. When hiring, be sure to assess candidates’ soft skills in addition to their hard skills.
  8. Negotiate salaries: When negotiating salaries, be sure to factor in the cost of living in the area where the candidate will be working. You should also consider the candidate’s experience and skills.
  9. Offer competitive benefits: In order to attract and retain top talent, you need to offer competitive benefits. This includes benefits such as health insurance, paid time off, and retirement savings plans.
  10. Review your budget regularly: It is important to review your recruitment budget regularly to make sure that you are on track. You may need to adjust your budget based on changes in your hiring needs or the market conditions.

Plan your recruiting budget effortlessly

Make sure that your cost per hire should not increase exponentially for any given year and should be in sync with inflation, revenue growth, and a number of hires. Download a sample budgeting sheet for the coming recruiting year.

HACKEREARTH – TECHNICAL RECRUITING SAMPLE BUDGET SHEET

Top 10 recruiting software platforms for 2024

We put together a list of top recruiting software platforms tech recruiters and HR can use, in no particular order.

Best Recruiting Platforms are

  1. HackerEarth (Coding Assessments)
  2. Dice (Open Web)
  3. Codility
  4. HireVue
  5. Pymetrics
  6. People Search (Workable)
  7. The Predictive Index
  8. Devskiller
  9. Hired
  10. Glider.ai

Read the detailed description on each of the top recruiting software platforms below:

  1. HackerEarth (Coding Assessments)

    Recruit, HackerEarth’s technical recruitment software, allows companies to use online coding tests to automate their tech screening process.

    With a library of more than 15,000 questions, technical leads and even non-tech recruiters can conduct tests on a large scale to grade developers for virtually any technical role.

    Supporting 35+, Recruit auto-assesses the submissions of each developer instantly based on defined parameters such as logical correctness, time-efficiency, memory-efficiency, and code quality.

    Tech recruiters can then analyze each applicant’s performance with the detailed reporting and analytics features within Recruit.

    With its proctoring measures and plagiarism detection techniques, recruiters can be surer about the originality of each submission.

    Looking to hire developers? Request a free demo

  2. Dice (Open Web)

    An award-winning social recruiting platform, Open Web aggregates profiles from over 180+ social sites to give you tech talent with hard-to-find skills.

    Tech recruiters can build a tech pro’s profile from digital signatures gathered from these social sites. Dice Open Web also helps them to reach out to passive candidates and get better response rates, saving time and cost.

    This recruiting platform offers predictive analytics to increase the efficiency of the hiring process.

    Talent acquisition and hiring managers can also get an overview of the candidates' technical aptitude as Open Web focuses on portals such as GitHub and Stack Overflow.

    (Also read: 5 reasons you should use Talent Assessment Software)

  3. Codility

    Codility offers an intuitive recruiting platform to increase brand visibility and help source programmers to add value to your company. Developers can be evaluated, or inspired, using customized tests/challenges and interviewed via the automated platform.

  4. HireVue

    Utah-based HireVue calls its product an “all-in-one video interview and pre-hire assessment solution.”

    The digital interview platform helps recruiters choose applicants from a sea of resumes by watching videos where they had recorded responses to interview questions.

    The company now adds artificial intelligence (voice recognition software, licensed facial recognition software, a ranking algorithm) to pick the ideal candidate.

    HireVue promises tech recruiters a modern, simple approach to hiring through insightful data.

  5. Pymetrics

    Using neuroscience games and AI, Pymetrics offers a bold recruiting platform that is bias-free.

    It helps tech recruiters build a profile of a candidate not based on resumes but on their emotional and cognitive traits.

    Pymetrics identifies what candidates are best at and matches them to the right jobs; this approach puts applicants on a more equal footing.

    “If LinkedIn and Match.com could have a child, Pymetrics would be it.” (Digital Trends)

  6. People Search (Workable)

    This search engine from Workable helps tech recruiters source candidates using “information aggregated from multiple sources in real-time,” streamline applicant tracking processes and manage interviews.

    People Search helps personalize reach and boost response rates. It allows Boolean queries as well.

  7. The Predictive Index

    This is a behavioral assessment designed to be an effective, simple, and easy evaluation of existing and future employee work skills.

    The proven methodology helps tech recruiters define the cognitive and behavior requirements for a job and assess and hire candidates accurately.

    The test uses a free-choice format and is not timed; it takes about six minutes and measures four constructs: extroversion, dominance, patience, and formality.

  8. Devskiller

    Devskiller lets companies use their own code base to test programmers online and lets developers use their own IDEs and resources.

    Tech recruiters can screen applicants with real-world sample tests to assess what really matters and interview them in real time.

    The recruiter-friendly solution automatically measures the coding skills and finds the real problem solvers. The company says it aims to imitate a “first day at work experience.”

  9. Hired

    Hired brings together tech recruiters and employees, matching the right people to the right jobs.

    The website offers “algorithmic matching, key ATS integrations, and 1:1 support” to make smart recruiting decisions for employers looking for top quality technical talent.

  10. Glider.ai

    This artificial intelligence-powered competency-based hiring platform helps recruiters build great tech teams. Glider’s approach combines the preferences and capabilities of employers (and job seekers) to ensure an efficient recruitment process without bias.

    For data-driven hiring decisions, Glider offers auto-scored coding tasks, video interviews, and real-world simulations.

(Read: How to pick the right assessment tool)

Conclusion

These are only a few of the most effective and popular recruiting platforms available in the market.

With amazing advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation almost guarantees the efficiency and accuracy of the hiring process and helps create a rich workplace.

Although automation in technical recruitment is a no-brainer, organizations must remember to give enough importance to emotional intelligence and human interaction.

The recruitment landscape has changed tremendously in recent years, especially with diversity and inclusion goals and the need to become “innovative” gaining prominence.

Forward-thinking HR leaders must focus on optimizing talent along with strategic hiring and retaining engaged employees to boost overall business performance.

It pays to take all the help you can get—use talent assessment software best suited to your needs and “transform” your recruitment strategy.

Detailed feature comparison of 8 recruiting software platform for developer hiring

We decided to compare the 8 most common recruitment software platforms as per the number of users. These comparisons have been made from an external source.

All platforms have been compared based on price, number of users (admins), number of assessments and 9 other criteria.

Download full comparison by filling the form below -

Developer assessment tools

Top 10 Recruiting Software Tools for Hiring Success

We put together a list of top recruiting software platforms tech recruiters, HR can use, in no particular order.

Best Recruiting Platforms are

    1. HackerEarth (Coding Assessments)
    2. Dice (Open Web)
    3. Codility
    4. HireVue
    5. Pymetrics
    6. People Search (Workable)
    7. The Predictive Index
    8. Devskiller
    9. Hired
    10. Glider.ai
Read the detailed description on each of top recruiting software below -
  1. HackerEarth (Coding Assessments)

    Recruit, HackerEarth’s technical recruitment software, allows companies to use online coding tests to automate their tech screening process.

    With a library of more than 15,000 questions, technical leads, and even non-tech recruiters can conduct tests on a large scale to grade developers for virtually any technical role.

    Supporting 35+, Recruit auto-assesses the submissions of each developer instantly based on defined parameters such as logical correctness, time-efficiency, memory-efficiency, and code quality.

    Tech recruiters can then analyze each applicant’s performance with the detailed reporting and analytics features within Recruit.

    With its proctoring measures and plagiarism detection techniques, recruiters can be surer about the originality of each submission. -

    Looking to hire developer - Request a free demo
  2. Dice (Open Web)

    An award-winning social recruiting platform, Open Web aggregates profiles from over 180+ social sites to give you tech talent with hard-to-find skills.Tech recruiters can build a tech pro’s profile from digital signatures gathered from these social sites. Dice Open Web also helps them to reach out to passive candidates and get better response rates, saving time and cost.

    This recruiting platform offers predictive analytics to increase the efficiency of the hiring process.

    Talent acquisition and hiring managers can also get an overview of the candidates' technical aptitude as Open Web focuses on portals such as GitHub and Stack Overflow.

    (Also read: 5 reasons you should use Talent Assessment Software)
  3. Codility

    Codility offers an intuitive recruiting platform to increase brand visibility and help source programmers to add value to your company. Developers can be evaluated, or inspired, using customized tests/challenges and interviewed via the automated platform.
  4. HireVue

    Utah-based HireVue calls its product an “all-in-one video interview and pre-hire assessment solution.”The digital interview platform helped recruiters choose applicants from a sea of resumes by watching videos where they had recorded responses to interview questions.The company now adds artificial intelligence (voice recognition software, licensed facial recognition software, a ranking algorithm) to pick the ideal candidate.

    HireVue promises tech recruiters a modern, simple approach to hiring through insightful data.
  5. Pymetrics

    Using neuroscience games and AI, Pymetrics offers a bold recruiting platform that is bias-free.It helps tech recruiters build a profile of a candidate not based on resumes but on their emotional and cognitive traits.Pymetrics identifies what candidates are best at and matches them to the right jobs; this approach puts applicants on a more equal footing.“If LinkedIn and Match.com could have a child, Pymetrics would be it.” (Digital Trends)
  6. People Search (Workable)

    This search engine from Workable helps tech recruiters source candidates using “information aggregated from multiple sources in real-time,” streamline applicant tracking processes and manage interviews.People Search helps personalize reach and boost response rates. It allows Boolean queries as well.
  7. The Predictive Index

    This is a behavioral assessment designed to be an effective, simple, and easy evaluation of existing and future employee work skills.The proven methodology helps tech recruiters define the cognitive and behavior requirements for a job and assess and hire candidates accurately.The test uses a free-choice format and is not timed; it takes about six minutes and measures four constructs: extroversion, dominance, patience, and formality.
  8. Devskiller

    Devskiller lets companies use their own code base to test programmers online and lets developers use their own IDEs and resources.Tech recruiters can screen applicants with real-world sample tests to assess what really matters and interview them in real time.The recruiter-friendly solution automatically measures the coding skills and finds the real problem solvers. The company says it aims to imitate a “first day at work experience.”
  9. Hired

    Hired brings together tech recruiters and employees, matching the right people to the right jobs.The website offers “algorithmic matching, key ATS integrations, and 1:1 support” to make smart recruiting decisions for employers looking for top quality technical talent.
  10. Glider.ai

    This artificial intelligence-powered competency-based hiring platform helps recruiters build great tech teams. Glider’s approach combines the preferences and capabilities of employers (and job seekers) to ensure an efficient recruitment process without bias. For data-driven hiring decisions, Glider offers auto-scored coding tasks, video interviews, and real-world simulations.
(Read: How to pick the right assessment tool)

Conclusion

These are only a few of the most effective and popular recruiting platform available in the market.With amazing advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation almost guarantees the efficiency and accuracy of the hiring process and helps create a rich workplace.Although automation in technical recruitment is a no-brainer, organizations must remember to give enough importance to emotional intelligence and human interaction.The recruitment landscape has changed tremendously in recent years, especially with diversity and inclusion goals and the need to become “innovative” gaining prominence.Forward-thinking HR leaders must focus on optimizing talent along with strategic hiring and retaining engaged employees to boost overall business performance.It pays to take all the help you can get—use talent assessment software best suited to your needs and “transform” your recruitment strategy.

Detailed feature comparison of 8 recruiting software platform for developer hiring

We decided to compare the 8 most common recruitment software platforms as per the number of users. These comparisons have been made from an external source.

All platforms have been compared based on price, number of users (admins), number of assessments and 9 other criteria.

Download full comparison by filling the form below -hbspt.forms.create({portalId: "2586902",formId: "28743abe-765e-4f2a-b7d6-470b90136efc"});

Developer assessment tools

Technology Recruiting: The Future of Hiring Top Developers

Key Takeaways for Tech Recruiters

  • Benchmark existing employees to identify skill gaps before hiring externally.
  • Adopt data-driven strategies to expedite and enhance the quality of the hiring process.
  • Use AI-powered tools to assess and identify top talent.
  • Engage with talent via hackathons and coding challenges.
  • Aim to provide a positive candidate experience with your recruitment methods. 

Introduction

India’s technology sector has seen impeccable growth in recent years, creating exciting job opportunities for engineering professionals. However, the employment numbers reflect a different picture. Every year, roughly 1.5 million students graduate from engineering colleges. However, only 10% can find employment as they lack the practical skills to qualify for coveted jobs. Therefore, identifying, assessing and hiring top talent is challenging for even the most skilled and experienced recruiters. To tackle this issue, hiring teams must adapt data-driven strategies, leverage AI-powered tools and focus on skills-based hiring. 

In this article we explore modern technology recruiting techniques that can help recruiters make faster, fairer, and more efficient hiring decisions.

The Challenges in Tech Hiring Today

Decline In Skilled Talent

Although there is no shortage of highly qualified developers in today’s job market, there is an acute shortage of ones that are well-rounded. One of the major issues recruiters face today is finding the skilled and talented developers with industry-specific skills.

A LinkedIn report found that 67% of recruiters struggle to source qualified candidates for technical positions. 

Passive Hiring Is Passe

Traditional hiring methods are ineffective and are being replaced with AI and automation. Even advanced Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) fail to capture real skills, leading to a gap between the job requirements and a candidate’s true capabilities leading to very few favourable results.

Pro tip! Use live assessment tests to assess candidate skills in real time.

Bias in Hiring Still Exists

Several companies still rely on conventional hiring methods, leading to unconscious bias, causing them to miss out on acquiring great talent. Over 60% of hiring managers admit that hiring decisions are biased at some point in the recruitment process.

Candidate Experience Matters More Than Ever

A positive candidate experience is crucial in retaining good talent. Shorter hiring periods, and prompt response after interviews are some of the ways to keep new talent engaged in the recruitment process.  Lengthy assessment periods, slow feedback loops and outdated interview formats turn candidates away even from the most admired brands/companies.

Pro tip! Aim to complete the entire hiring process for top talent within 2 weeks 

Overcoming Hiring Challenges with Modern Recruiting Techniques

Attracting Top Talent 

The first step towards employing the best tech talent is to craft meaningful job descriptions. In tech recruitment, top talent is attracted to a purpose-driven job description over everything else. Engineers are realists. So it is essential to showcase your organisation’s tech values to attract skilled talent.

Leverage AI-Powered Screening

AI-powered recruitment tools can help recruiters find top talent without bias, automate mundane tasks, reduce hiring time and ensure diversity.

How to Implement AI-Powered Assessments:

  • AI-driven assessments rank candidates based on skills and problem-solving efficiency.
  • Automated coding interview platforms like HackerEarth FaceCodeprovide real-time code playback and instant feedback.
  • Reduce unconscious bias by using AI-powered resume masking to focus on skills rather than demographics.

Pro Tip: Remember that no matter how efficient AI is, at the end of the day it is a program that can produce potentially biased results. Hence, ensure that your hiring strategies include human intervention at crucial stages.

Use Hackathons to Identify Top Talent

Hackathons are an excellent way to engage with top developers while assessing their technical and collaboration skills.

How to Use Hackathon as a Hiring Tool?

  • Host a hiring hackathon to attract top talent and test problem-solving capabilities.
  • Use hackathons as a pre-hiring assessment to see how candidates perform under real-world pressure.
  • Engage with HackerEarth’s rich global developer community of 9.6M+ developers..

Adopt Skills-Based Hiring

Resumes fail to capture the true skills of potential candidates. Instead, use online assessment tools to understand and assess potential candidates in real time.

How to Implement Skills-Based Assessments:

  • Use HackerEarth Assessments to evaluate coding and problem-solving abilities.
  • Design real-world coding projects that mimic actual work scenarios.
  • Incorporate full-stack developer assessments to gauge a candidate’s overall expertise.

Enhance Candidate Experience with Seamless Processes

Leverage developer-friendly forums like GitHub and LinkedIn to attract skilful candidates. Make yourself approachable to potential candidates by leveraging chatbots to answer common questions they might have about your company. Such practices enhance employee engagement, garner good brand recognition and facilitate seamless hiring.

How to Enhance Candidate Experience?

  • Cut down assessment time with AI-powered adaptive testing that adjusts difficulty based on responses.
  • Offer live coding interviews instead of multiple rounds of generic technical screenings.
  • Provide instant feedback to candidates post-assessment to improve engagement.

Benchmark Internal Talent for Strategic Hiring

Implement internal feedback loops that help bridge skill gaps, and then advertise for candidates accordingly.

How to Implement:

  • Use internal benchmarking to measure current employee skills against industry standards.
  • Create personalized learning paths for upskilling developers before sourcing externally.
  • Encourage internal upward mobility by promoting skilled employees into open roles instead of hiring externally. It’s not only cheaper but it also increases retention and improves employee morale.

Case Study: How MoEngage Enhanced Hiring Quality with HackerEarth

Challenge: MoEngage, a customer engagement platform, wanted to add top notch talent to its engineering team quickly but found conventional screening methods misaligned and difficult to manage. 

Solution: By partnering with HackerEarth, MoEngage introduced technical assessments to pre-screen candidates before technical interviews. This streamlined the hiring process and ensured that only qualified candidates progressed to the interview stages.

Key Achievements:

  • 50% improvement in candidate quality: The introduction of assessments led to a higher calibre of candidates reaching the interview stage.
  • 400% expansion in the talent pool: Automated assessments allowed MoEngage to consider a broader range of applicants without increasing the recruitment team's workload.
  • Reduction in interviews per hire: Previously, hiring managers interviewed up to 15 candidates per role; with HackerEarth's assessments, this number decreased to 6, optimising interviewer time and resources.

Results: MoEngage successfully scaled its engineering teams, improved the efficiency of its hiring process, and ensured a higher calibre of new hires, contributing to the company's growth and innovation.

Read the full case study here: hackerearth.com

The Future of Technology Recruiting

The recruitment landscape is evolving rapidly. With AI, data-driven decision-making, and skills-first hiring, companies can identify and retain the best developers faster and more efficiently.

Conclusion

The tech industry is making transformative strides with the help of AI and automation. To keep up with changing times, recruiters must accept and adapt data-driven methods to identify, assess and hire skilled professionals. HackerEarth’s assessment solutions are agile and capable of helping modern-day recruiters carry out their mission of aligning top tier talent with organization’s needs. Skills-based assessments, AI-driven hiring practices, and hackathons are here to stay, and recruiters must leverage these tools to find the best tech talent in the industry.

5 Tips To Refine Your Tech Talent Acquisition Strategy

The tech industry has always grappled with finding skilled talent. While the demand continues to skyrocket for IT professionals, the available talent pools keep diminishing. In fact, a 2022 ManPower Group study shows employers struggling to find qualified tech talent. Global talent shortages reach a 16-year-high as 3 in 4 employers report difficulty finding the talent they need—and IT and data roles are the most in demand. So what happens when a niche role in your engineering team suddenly falls vacant? Filling that role instantly remains a pipedream. Filling that role within a week still seems farfetched. Beginning your recruiting efforts after a requirement occurs will not cut it anymore, especially in today’s competitive market. This is where having a robust talent acquisition strategy in place will have your back! In this article, we aim to explore how to –

  • Reduce the impact of talent shortages on your organization and still remain competitive
  • Proactively build a strong talent acquisition strategy to help attract talented developers

Settle in and let’s get to it!

How does recruitment differ from talent acquisition?

While both terms are used interchangeably, they mainly differ in their approach. To put it simply, recruitment is a short-term objective and talent acquisition is a long-term plan. To quote, “Recruitment is linear, talent acquisition is an ongoing cycle. ” Recruitment is limited to hiring candidates to fill a vacancy that exists in an organization. It begins once a role falls open. Predicting an organization’s hiring requirements, even before such a situation arises, is essentially what talent acquisition aims to do. Think of how you plan for a vacation. You anticipate the length of your trip, a rough itinerary, and other important expenses ahead of time. To get the best deals on tickets and accommodation, you do your research, plan, and book everything in advance. That is what a talent acquisition strategy is to hiring.

  • List down your future hiring requirements
  • Identify skill gaps in your teams
  • Expand your talent pools with passive talent
  • Plan and allocate your recruiting budget
  • Budget in upskilling initiatives to better retain your current talent

Also read: 5 Tips From Recruiters To Fix Talent Acquisition Issues in 2023

Why is building a robust talent acquisition strategy important?

With an effective talent acquisition strategy in place, the organization can transition smoothly over its growth curves, with the confidence that as and when the need arises, a reliable pipeline of talent awaits. That’s how you hire the right people for your organization. Such strategic hiring empowers recruiters with both time and resources, which are both invaluable to recruiting. Recruiters can take their time to carefully plan out –

  • How best to leverage the right tech recruiting tools to source and attract quality candidates
  • Better engagement with potential candidates, well in advance, to cut down on the time it takes to fill vacant positions
  • A strategy to foster diversity in the workplace
  • How to boost productivity in your organization and save costs by hiring the right people

In the absence of such a planned approach to recruiting, companies often find themselves needing to hire at short notice with limited resources, often resulting in poor hires. A carefully thought-out long-term recruitment strategy will enable and empower the organization to hire superior talent. If you are serious about employee retention then invest in a good talent acquisition strategy.

Also read: 7 Recruitment Trends That Will Impact Talent Acquisition in 2023

How do you build a strong talent acquisition strategy?

Talent acquisition strategies are not generic and there is no rulebook that dictates how best to strategize. There are, however, certain best practices that can be adopted and customized to suit an organization’s requirements. Here we list some of the best talent acquisition strategies that HR departments follow.

#1 Assess and analyze the business using data

First and foremost, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of your business, its long-term growth prospects, average monthly or yearly hiring load, past turnover trends, etc. to better understand periods of high or low demand. With tons of data available at their fingertips, recruiters are leveraging big data analytics to better assess and analyze issues associated with high turnover rates and the possible solutions to these issues. With a better understanding of the issues and their solutions, recruiters are able to make more effective hiring decisions through data-driven recruiting.

Also read: Optimize Your Hiring Process With Recruitment Analytics

#2 Leverage cross-team collaboration

Recruiting cannot happen in a vacuum. It is important to collaborate with other departments to leverage their skills in better tailoring your talent acquisition strategies. For instance, the marketing department can help you with print and digital recruiting materials that can be used to attract potential candidates. Have in-depth discussions with your hiring managers to get a detailed understanding of the job role you’re hiring for. Another vital source of information and insight are your current employees in roles similar to the ones you are looking to hire for. They are a treasure trove of information and can provide insights into the work culture of the company, what drew them to the company, what would attract them to a new role, and where would they go to find it. Collaborating in this manner with the various departments of your business can not only help you understand certain aspects, hitherto unknown, of your business but also provide you with fresh perspectives and insights into your strategizing.

#3 Allow technology to aid you

On average, recruiters lose 14 hours per week completing tasks like scanning resumes, uploading candidate data, and sending emails manually. If you invested in smart AI-powered tech recruiting tools, they can do the heavy lifting for you. It saves you a lot of time and resources. With tools like HackerEarth, be it using our product for shortlisting candidates through coding assessments or conducting remote coding interviews, it helps remove human bias out of the equation. Additionally, it makes the process more efficient and effective. To be ahead of the curve when it comes to AI and automation, it is important to take an inventory of your recruitment tools — applicant tracking system (ATS), candidate relationship management system (CRM), onboarding system, career site — and check whether these are indeed providing the quality of insights that you expect them to deliver.

#4 Work on your employer branding

Employees diligently check out a potential workplace on social media sites and read employee reviews on sites such as Glassdoor to get the real scoop on companies before applying for a job. Update your company’s policies to offer flexible working schedules, remote work options, a casual Friday, or even paid sabbaticals. Such attractive perks go a long way in keeping the employee motivated at work. Apart from these, HRs need to strategize in collaboration with the marketing manager how best to align the employer brand with the corporate logo and brand on social media, job boards as well as print and digital media. Any piece of literature that bears the company’s logo is subject to scrutiny. Hence, it is very important to put a lot of thought into everything that is being communicated on behalf of the company.

Also read: How Tech Recruiters Can Build Better Employer Branding With Marketing

#5 Reevaluate the effectiveness of your talent acquisition strategy

Key Recruiting Metrics To Track To Build A Strong Talent Acquisition Strategy

To remain successful, companies have to conduct regular audits, leveraging data and technology to see the effectiveness of the strategies that have been put into action. While there are several metrics used by various companies to evaluate their strategies, the most significant ones are cost, time, quality, and quantity.

Cost as a metric

A detailed analysis to determine cost inefficiencies in your process is crucial to measure the success of your strategies. Cost is an effective metric to measure quality since financial resources are limited and, if one cannot function within a budget, it is prudent to reevaluate it.

Also read: 6 Steps To Create A Detailed Recruiting Budget (+Free Template)

Time as a metric

Time is a little more complicated metric to measure the success or failure of a strategy. For instance, some processes reap rewards in the short term, while others do so over a longer period of time. A detailed, case-by-case study is essential to determine the effect time has on the effectiveness of strategies.

Quality as a metric

Quality, like time, is a fickle entity. Each organization would have a different interpretation of what it means. While one organization would value obedience, another may value innovation and yet another may define it by leadership and cultural fit. Whatever your organization’s definition of quality is, it is important to measure the success of your strategies against the quality of hire.

Quantity as a metric

Hiring more employees than necessary is bound to take a toll on company resources. However, hiring inadequately will severely affect the desired outcome and can have a damaging effect on the morale of employees. Quantity is, therefore, a great way to measure the effectiveness of strategies.

A good talent acquisition strategy is always in flux

Crafting a talent acquisition strategy is imperative to the success of your business and to ensure that recruitment as a process is conducted not merely on a need basis but as part of the strategy. Recruiters cannot afford to be reactive in their hiring. It’s all about the early bird catching the worm, and proactive recruiters landing the best, most talented candidates! However, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to building a strategy for talent acquisition. We hope the tips mentioned in this article will help you create and tailor a strategy according to your business requirements.

FAQs on how to refine your talent acquisition strategy:

#1 What are the essential components of building a good tech talent acquisition strategy?

A good tech talent acquisition strategy should focus on the following aspects:

  • Engagement: Even before a vacancy opens up, tech recruiters need to start creating a dialogue with the developer community. This can be done by participating, sponsoring, or organizing events like hackathons where developers can network.
  • Employer branding: A strong employer brand helps in attracting top talent to your organization. This includes showcasing your company culture, values, and mission.
  • Recruitment marketing: Using various channels to promote job openings, such as social media, job boards, and networking events, is important in reaching potential candidates.
  • Candidate experience: Providing a positive candidate experience, from the application process to onboarding, can help attract and retain top talent. Effective assessment methods, such as skill tests, coding interviews that involve pair programming and other practices can help amplify the candidate experience.
  • Diversity and Inclusion: Bake in diversity and inclusion policies into your hiring process to attract a wider pool of candidates and create a more inclusive workplace culture.
  • Data-driven approach: Using data to track the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts and make data-driven decisions can help optimize your talent acquisition strategy over time.

#2 What are important things to consider when creating a global tech talent acquisition strategy?

  • Define your talent needs: The first step is to identify the types of roles that need to be filled and the skills required for each role. Determine if you need to fill these roles with local hires or if it’s better to relocate or outsource talent.
  • Determine your target markets: Identify the geographic regions where you want to source talent from. Consider factors such as the availability of talent, the cost of living, and the cultural fit.
  • Develop your employer brand: Create a strong employer brand that showcases your company’s values, mission, and culture. Use social media and other platforms to promote your employer brand and attract the best talent.
  • Use multiple channels for recruitment: Consider using multiple channels for recruitment, such as job boards, social media, employee referrals, and recruiting agencies. This will help you reach a broader pool of candidates.
  • Consider language and cultural barriers: When recruiting globally, language and cultural barriers can present challenges. Consider having a multilingual recruitment team or partnering with local recruitment agencies to help overcome these challenges.
  • Implement an efficient screening process: Develop an efficient screening process that helps you identify the best candidates quickly. Use pre-screening tools and technology to help automate the process.
  • Provide a great candidate experience: Provide a great candidate experience that showcases your company’s culture and values. This will help you attract and retain top talent.
  • Monitor and adjust your strategy: Finally, monitor your recruitment strategy regularly and adjust it as needed. Use analytics and data to track your success and make data-driven decisions.

#3 Define a good tech talent acquisition framework

Here’s an example of a tech talent acquisition framework:

  • Define your candidate persona: Identify the specific skills, experience, and cultural fit you’re looking for in a candidate. This may include programming languages, industry experience, project management skills, and more.
  • Create job descriptions: Craft clear and concise job descriptions that accurately reflect the role’s responsibilities, required skills, and desired experience.
  • Source candidates: Use various sourcing channels such as job boards, LinkedIn, and networking events to identify and attract candidates who meet your ideal candidate profile.
  • Screen candidates: Use phone screens, technical assessments, and behavioral interviews to evaluate the candidate’s qualifications, skills, and fit for the role and your company’s culture.
  • Assess and interview: Use skill-based take-home assessments to shortlist candidates based on their assignment score, and move them to the interview round.
  • Close the offer: Once a candidate is through, extend an offer that’s competitive and fair, with salary and benefits packages that reflect the candidate’s value.
  • Onboard new hires: Provide a comprehensive onboarding program that helps new hires acclimate to your company’s culture and sets them up for success in their new role.
  • Measure success: Track your success in hiring top talent by measuring your time-to-fill, the quality of candidates, retention rates, and employee satisfaction.

#4 How can technology help with your tech talent acquisition strategy?

Technology can play a significant role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your tech talent hiring strategy. Here are some ways you can use technology to enhance your hiring process:

  • Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): Implement an ATS to streamline your hiring process and manage candidate applications. This can help you organize resumes, track candidate status, and automate communication.
  • AI-powered assessments: Skill-based assessments can help you qualify candidates from a large pool. AI-powered assessment platforms can benchmark candidate results, so you can pick the best candidates that fulfill your skill requirements. They can also weed out manual errors in the assessment process.
  • Video Interviewing: Video interview tools with built-in IDEs and real-time coding features can help you check coding skills on the fly through the use of code stubs or pair programming methods.
  • Virtual Reality (VR): Use VR to create immersive experiences that showcase your company culture, work environment, and team collaboration. This can help candidates get a better sense of your company and the role they would be playing.

#5 How can you incorporate DE&I in your tech talent acquisition strategy?

Baking in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) into your tech talent acquisition strategy can help ensure that your hiring process is fair and equitable and that your team represents diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Here are some ways you can incorporate DE&I into your tech talent acquisition strategy:

  • Ensure your job descriptions are inclusive and avoid gendered or biased language.
  • Expand your sourcing channels beyond traditional job boards to reach underrepresented groups like developer communities in HBCs (Historically Black Colleges).
  • Engage with diversity-focused organizations, attend diversity job fairs, and consider partnering with universities with diverse student populations.
  • Train your interviewers to be aware of bias and to ask inclusive questions that focus on skills and experience.
  • Create structured interviews that ask the same questions to all candidates to avoid unconscious biases.
  • Identify objective selection criteria that focus on skills, experience, and cultural fit, and avoid using criteria that may perpetuate bias or exclude underrepresented groups.
  • Set diversity targets and measure your success the same way you would measure TTH and cost benefits.
  • Create a workplace that’s inclusive and welcoming to all employees, regardless of their background, and make this part of the employer branding activities.

#6 How do you create a tech talent acquisition strategy?

Creating a tech talent acquisition strategy involves understanding your company’s technical needs, defining clear roles and responsibilities, and leveraging various recruitment channels.

Begin by analyzing your current technical team’s strengths and gaps. Collaborate with department heads to forecast future tech needs. Then, tailor your job descriptions to attract the right candidates. Utilize online job portals, tech-specific platforms, and engage in networking events and tech conferences. Regularly review and adjust your strategy based on the results and evolving needs.

#7 What are some best practices in technical talent acquisition?

  • Writing clear job descriptions that precisely define technical roles, responsibilities, and requirements to attract suitable candidates.
  • Using a mix of job portals, networking events, tech conferences, and referrals to source candidates.
  • Implementing technical tests, coding challenges, and interviews to assess technical and soft skills.
  • Positioning your company as a desirable place to work, emphasizing culture, growth opportunities, and unique selling points.
  • Promoting opportunities for professional development, ensuring talent remains updated with industry trends.

#8 What are the biggest challenges in tech talent acquisition?

The biggest challenges in tech talent acquisition currently are:

  • The skills gap. There is a shortage of skilled tech workers in the market, which makes it difficult for companies to find the talent they need.
  • The war for talent. Many companies are competing for the same pool of tech talent, which drives up salaries and makes it harder to attract and retain top talent.
  • The high cost of hiring. The cost of hiring tech talent is rising, due to the factors mentioned above. This can put a strain on company budgets.
  • The long hiring process. The hiring process for tech roles can be long and drawn-out, which can discourage candidates and lead to lost opportunities.
  • The lack of diversity in the tech workforce. The tech workforce is still disproportionately white and male, which can make it difficult for companies to attract and retain a diverse range of talent.

#9 How do you build a tech talent acquisition pipeline?

Below we have listed the steps involved in building a tech talent acquisition pipeline:

  • Sourcing: Actively seek out candidates using job portals, social media, tech platforms like GitHub or Stack Overflow, and through referrals. Sourcing candidates should be a regular process and should be done even when there is no active open role. Thai way, recruiters and engineering managers can keep a handy database of prospective candidates ready.
  • Engaging: Maintain regular communication with potential candidates, even if there isn’t an immediate vacancy. This helps in building relationships for future roles. Hackathons are a great way to engage and connect with developers, and improve brand recognition within the developer community.
  • Screening: Regularly review and update your screening processes, by employing a robust platform for conducting technical tests, and soft skill assessments.
  • Onboarding: Companies see a high percentage of drop-off during the waiting period i.e. when they are waiting for a developer to finish the notice at their previous employer and join their company. It is necessary to keep engaged with the developer even during this period, and help them onboard to the new company through regular communication. The onboarding process can continue when the developer formally joins the company and is introduced to different departments and functions.
  • Continuous learning: An oft-missed part of the talent acquisition process is the provision of continuous learning opportunities to developers, so that the can grow into new roles and skills and attrition can be kept low.