Ruehie Jaiya Karri

As a recruiter, you know how painful it is to hire the wrong candidate (or who is not suitable for the job role). Hiring the right candidate is a challenging job. Nevertheless, we are in 2023, and plenty of tools and techniques available online will enable you to transform your hiring process into data-driven decisions. Data analytics in recruitment plays a significant role since it provides insights and information to help make hiring decisions. Analyzing resumes and job applications, tracking the efficacy of recruitment initiatives, and discovering patterns and trends in candidate behavior are all examples of this. Furthermore, recruiting analytics is used to optimize the recruiting process, such as finding the most effective sourcing channels and determining which individuals are most likely to succeed in a specific post. Organizations may increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their recruiting activities by employing data analytics, resulting in hiring better-suited individuals. Any advantage is welcome, especially in today’s competitive job market where the skilled talent shortage is at an all-time high. In this article, let’s look at how data analytics can help the recruitment process be more effective.

What is recruitment analytics?

Recruitment analytics is statistical data of candidates that a company might hire. To put it simply, finding, analyzing, and condensing significant trends for identifying, choosing, and recruiting are the goals of recruitment analytics. In addition, recruitment analytics provides you with a clear picture of these doubts:

• How candidates are reacting to the job profile (or job description)
• Why candidates are dropping out in between the interview
• How long is the interview process happening?
• What is the cost of hiring?
• What do suitable candidates have in common?

Data analytics in recruitment will streamline your entire hiring process and provide a better applicant experience. You can identify barriers and potential improvement areas in the whole process.

Benefits of recruitment data analytics

You can benefit from recruitment analysis in a variety of ways, including

• Improved efficiency and cost-effectiveness: When inefficiencies in the recruitment process are identified, adjustments can be made to improve efficiency and reduce expenses.
• Improved alignment with business needs: Data-driven talent acquisition can provide insights into the skills and qualities that are most in demand in your organization, helping recruiters better match their efforts with the needs of the business.
• Improved sourcing and recruitment strategies: You can increase the chances of attracting top talent by discovering the most effective techniques for sourcing and recruiting applicants.
• Better decision-making: Recruitment analysis provides valuable data and insights that can be utilized to inform decision-making at all organizational levels, from recruitment strategy to employee development.

Also, read: The Role of Talent Intelligence in Optimizing Recruitment

How to get started with data analytics in recruitment?

Data analytics in recruitment has great potential to up your hiring game. Let’s see how you can use data-driven power to efficiently meet your hiring goals.

Recruitment analytics tool:

The first thing you will need to get started with recruitment data analysis is a tool suitable to your specific hiring needs. As you know, there are multiple options for good recruitment automation software in the market, and finding the perfect fit can be time-consuming. To help simplify the process for you, we did our research and came up with the following list of features that you should keep in mind:

• Common data sources for recruitment analytics include applicant tracking systems (ATS), candidate relationship management (CRM) tools, information from human resources information systems (HRIS), and satisfaction polls
• Data reports from branding and advertising channels used for posting jobs
• Automation of repetitive tasks
• A straightforward interface with easy software integration
• A user-friendly platform for reporting and recruitment statistics

Also, read: Complete guide to technical recruitment software

Create a recruitment matrix:

The next step is to map out a recruitment matrix. You need to set your goal; what data do you need to get the most out of your hiring process? Knowing what data to gather and how to use it is necessary to revamp your hiring strategies. For instance, keeping track of the duration between interviews and hiring will help you cut down on your time-to-hire metric. Then, you can specify KPIs with high, medium, and low priorities by comparing the significance of specific measures with one another. A recruiting matrix is a valuable tool for visualizing your team’s preferences.

Apply predictive analytics:

Establish KPIs and have your recruitment matrix ready. Then you can use a relevant predictive analytics model and assess the results. It comprises handling data, choosing an analytic method, making performance predictions, and acting on insights. What is predictive analytics?: HR teams employ predictive analytics to examine previous and current data and predict future results. It digitally examines data to extract, separate, and classify information before spotting trends, anomalies, and correlations.

Organize measurement and reporting:

Understanding what KPIs to track is a big step toward better data analysis. Identify those recruitment KPIs that you want to measure and create a dashboard for tracking your progress. Many recruitment analytics tools provide customizable dashboards to understand reports with ease. You can also share these reports with hiring managers and keep them in the loop.

Also, read: 5 Steps To Creating A Recruiting Dashboard (+ Free Template)

Continually monitor and measure success:

Lastly, you have to periodically monitor the whole process to get the results you need. Every step is equally important, be it mentioning inputs and predictive data, hiring managers’ feedback, or taking action based on the predictive data outcomes. In addition, you can also measure progress by the below methods:

• Benchmarking: you can compare your recruitment statistics to industry norms and historical data. It can help discover areas for improvement and track progress over time and build a data-driven talent acquisition system
• Surveys: Conduct regular surveys for hiring managers and new hires to gather input on the hiring process and find areas for improvement.
• A/B testing: You can use A/B testing to compare different recruitment techniques and methods.

Key points from HR analytics

Data analytics gives meaning to information on resumes

Resume analysis qualifies candidates based on their education, experience, and other relevant information. Recruitment analysis helps to filter out resumes that fit your job descriptions. It helps you find candidates with the required skillset and saves time and money. In addition, data analytics allows you to shortlist the right candidates for the job role.

Data improves feedback from hiring managers to recruiters

Recruitment analysis can improve feedback from hiring managers to recruiters by identifying patterns and areas for improvement in the recruitment process. It could involve examining the time it takes to fill a position, the caliber of candidates given, and the communication and coordination between hiring managers and recruiters. Based on this data, you can improve recruitment by simplifying communication, offering training for hiring managers or recruiters, or deploying new technologies. It can lead to more efficient and effective recruitment, resulting in better prospects and more successful hires.

Data analytics helps retain employees

Yes, you read that right! Recruitment analysis can help retain employees. It provides you with actionable insights into employee satisfaction and engagement. For example, recruitment analysis can analyze employee turnover rates, why employees leave, and the characteristics of individuals who tend to stay with the organization. With this information, you can take actions to promote employee retention, such as:

• Offering competitive compensation and perks
• Providing possibilities for professional development and advancement
• Creating a positive and supportive work environment
• Regular and effective performance feedback
• Enhancing team communication and collaboration

Once you identify areas for improvement, recruitment analysis can assist you in creating a more engaging and supportive culture that aids in long-term employee retention.

Also, read: Data-Driven Recruiting: All You Need To Know

What are the three important examples of recruitment analytics?

• Applicant Tracking: It assists in tracking the progress of job applicants throughout the recruitment process, including the number of resumes received, candidates interviewed, and candidates employed.
• Source tracking: It enables you to see where your job applicants are coming from, such as job boards, employee recommendations, or recruitment events.
• Time-to-Hire: This metric evaluates how long it takes to fill a job vacancy, from posting the position to hiring an applicant.

These three data sources in recruiting analytics are significant because they provide insights into the recruitment process, indicate areas for development, and assist in making data-driven decisions. But it is equally important to track quality, speed, and costs.

How to utilize recruitment analytics in your hiring process

Recruitment analytics, while helpful, can only help if you have a well though-out process surrounding the numbers. To do so, begin by defining what you aim to achieve. Whether it’s reducing the time-to-hire, attracting higher-quality candidates, or improving the offer acceptance rate, clarity in goals guides data interpretation.

Once you have defined your aim, you can work backwards and create a list of the data you need to fulfil these goals. Ensure that the recruitment software and tools you use automatically collect relevant data at every stage–from job postings to final onboarding.

Next comes analysis and interpretation. Employ statistical tools to analyze the collected data. This could mean discerning patterns, comparing performance against industry benchmarks, or predicting future recruitment trends.Based on the analysis, your team is now better prepared to make informed changes like revising job descriptions, altering interview processes, or redefining candidate engagement strategies.

Keep calm and repeat. Data analytics in recruitment is a long-term process and you will need to continuously monitor changes to evaluate their impact.

Key metrics in recruitment analytics

Time-to-Hire: Measures the duration between a job posting and a successful hire. Shorter times can indicate efficient processes, but overly quick hiring can mean rushed decisions.

Quality of Hire: Assesses the performance, cultural fit, and retention of new hires to gauge the effectiveness of the recruitment process.

Source of Hire: Determines which platforms (job boards, social media, referrals) yield the highest quality candidates, optimizing resource allocation.

Candidate Experience: Surveys and feedback tools to measure candidate satisfaction throughout the recruitment process.

Offer Acceptance Rate: The ratio of offers made, to offers accepted. A low rate might suggest a mismatch in compensation, role expectations, or company reputation.

Understanding the various levels of recruitment analytics

Operational analytics: Focuses on day-to-day activities, such as tracking the number of applications received or interviews scheduled. This offers immediate insights into the efficiency of recruitment processes.

Strategic analytics: Provides a broader perspective by analyzing overarching recruitment trends, forecasting hiring needs, or evaluating long-term impact of hiring decisions on business goals.

Predictive analytics: As the name suggests, it’s about forecasting future trends based on current and past data. For tech hiring, this could mean anticipating skill set demands based on industry evolution.

Prescriptive analytics: Goes beyond prediction to suggest actions. For example, if predictive analytics forecasts a rise in demand for a particular tech skill, prescriptive analytics might suggest specific universities or regions to target for recruitment.

Best practices to follow when using recruitment analytics in hiring

Here are some best practices to follow when using recruitment analytics in hiring:

1. Choose the right metrics to track. Not all metrics are created equal. When choosing which metrics to track, it is important to focus on those that are most relevant to your specific needs. Some common metrics to track include:
   • Time to hire
   • Cost per hire
   • Quality of hire
   • Source of hire
   • Diversity of hires
   • Employee turnover

1. Collect relevant data. Once you have chosen the right metrics to track, you need to collect the data. This data can come from a variety of sources, such as your applicant tracking system (ATS), your hiring software, and your HR records.
2. Visualize your data. Once you have collected the data, you need to visualize it so that you can easily understand it. There are a number of ways to visualize data, such as using charts, graphs, and dashboards.
3. Put the data into perspective. It is important to put the data into perspective. This means comparing it to industry benchmarks and to your own historical data. This will help you to understand how your hiring process is performing and identify areas for improvement.
4. Use the data to make informed decisions. The ultimate goal of using recruitment analytics is to make informed decisions about your hiring process. This means using the data to identify areas for improvement and to make changes that will lead to better hiring outcomes.

Here are some additional tips for using recruitment analytics in hiring:

• Get buy-in from stakeholders such as hiring managers and HR leaders, before you start using recruitment analytics. This will help to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that the data is used effectively.
• Be patient. It takes time to collect enough data to make meaningful insights. Don’t expect to see results overnight.
• Be open to change. As you learn more from the data, you may need to make changes to your hiring process. Be open to these changes and be willing to adapt your approach.

By following these best practices, you can use recruitment analytics to improve your hiring process and make better hiring decisions.

Recruitment and data analytics go hand in hand!

Data analytics has transformed numerous businesses and will only grow in popularity. There are several uses of data analytics in today’s society. They range from recruitment to manufacturing, and these applications can be the difference between success and failure. Companies that efficiently employ data analytics have numerous advantages over those that do not. Some benefits include increased efficiency, the ability to respond swiftly to changing market conditions, and much cheaper costs. Businesses are getting incredible returns on their investments due to the recent increase in data analytics. As a recruiter, it is high time you shift to a data-driven approach while hiring and streamline your entire recruiting process!

I have to manually sort through 348 applications for an open role, talk to hiring managers about new vacancies, and handle admin work. But this is nothing, I can still take up nurturing candidates and manually sourcing for fresh candidates in the second half of my day – said NO recruiter ever!

As is common knowledge, recruiters and talent acquisition specialists are mostly in over their heads with the amount of work they handle. The simplest way to reduce their workloads is by automating repetitive tasks like screening applications or sending emails to candidates—this frees up time significantly and allows them to focus on more important tasks.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I am a big believer in letting technology do the heavy lifting and recruitment is one area that can greatly benefit from this.

Baking in recruitment automation in your hiring processes means posting job openings to different job boards, parsing through resumes, sending timely updates, and uploading candidate data in half the time and half the manual effort. It also means that you’ll be sourcing for better-quality candidates faster.

Can your company battle skill gaps, talent shortage, and mass quitting with outdated recruitment tech stacks? Especially when your competitors are embracing modern recruitment and automation. I didn’t think so! Without further ado, let’s look at recruitment automation platforms and how they can improve your overall hiring process.

How to automate your complete recruitment process

It can be tricky to identify which areas of your recruiting cycle need improvement. As they say, too many cooks spoil the broth and too many tools might end up hampering your recruitment.

After a lot of research, we’ve put together a list of common yet important pain points of recruiters that can do well with automation! Here they are:

1. Automate distributing your jobs to multiple job boards

You have a job role that fell vacant. Time is short and you need to fill this role within a small window of time. What do you do? Re-use your previous, possibly outdated job description, manually post it on generic job boards, and wait for applications (which may not be of great quality) to pour in.

Now let’s add a layer of technology to this. You have a job role that fell vacant. You have a recruitment automation platform at your disposal. It can generate targeted job descriptions for you, cross-post your job postings to relevant career sites like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and others, form a strong talent pipeline and improve the talent pool quality. All in half or even lesser the amount of time it would take for you to do it manually!

Additionally, you can also use the insights and analytics provided by your tool to see which sourcing channels got you the highest number of qualified candidates. Spend more time and money specifically targeting those channels in the future. Optimize your hiring and find the best of the best out there.

2. Boost your candidate sourcing abilities

Marketing your job postings right is half the battle won when it comes to candidate sourcing. As seen above, recruiting software can help you reach a bigger, better talent pool by cross-posting your job descriptions to targeted job boards and social media channels.

You can tailor candidate searches based on what job role you’re hiring for with AI-based candidate matching algorithms, years of experience, or geographic location rather than manually constructing your own Boolean search strings.

You will have extra time to leverage social recruiting, especially when hiring for niche roles. Also, GenZ is predominantly a big user of social media. That’s where you should be focusing your recruiting efforts on. Social recruiting also allows you to find passive candidates before they’re actively looking for work.

All of this slashes your cost-per-hire and betters the quality of your hire, which come with other benefits like,

• Reduced employee attrition
• Increased employee performance
• Improved employee engagement

3. Keep track of all candidate applications with an ATS

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is a life-saver for recruiters. And a majority of the recruitment automation platforms in the market can be integrated with popular ATSs like Lever, Naukri RMS, and Zoho Recruit.

An ATS enables you to stay organized and comes in handy when dealing with high-volume internal tasks. Some of the tasks include storing candidate applications and data in a central database, candidate pipeline visibility, tracking a candidate’s journey at each stage, syncing emails and calendars, and collaborating with your team on these tasks.

Some ATSs offer a candidate self-service portal where candidates can upload their resumes, cover letters, and other documents directly.

An ATS alerts your candidates about the next steps in their application process. You can also use existing candidate data from your ATS to see what hiring strategies are working and what needs to be changed.

4. Streamline and enhance the pre-screening process

The quickest way to vet a candidate’s resume and make sure all the skills mentioned pan out is by conducting skill assessments. A good coding assessment tool offers specific tests for the majority of the skill sets out there. Some tools also allow you to create custom tests of your own.

Evaluate candidates and determine their expertise/skill level and culture-fit, objectively. Auto-reject candidates who don’t meet the selection criteria. A major advantage of such tools is the ability to shortlist candidates solely based on their skills, thus eliminating any unconscious bias, whatsoever.

Any recruitment automation platform would integrate with the top pre-employment coding assessment tools in the market. You can schedule assessments and invite candidates to take the test, right from your automation platform instead of switching between different apps.

A tech hiring platform like HackerEarth can help you screen the very best developers with ease. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial and check out all the features of our coding assessment platform to see for yourself!

5. Eliminate the need for manually scheduling interviews

Another time-consuming task that probably rivals screening thousands of resumes manually, is scheduling interviews. For each shortlisted candidate, you have to consider a suitable date and time. More hassle if the candidate lives in a different time zone.

This is one part of recruiting that can benefit greatly from technology. A recruitment automation platform enables you to automate the interview scheduling process. You can set up interviews with candidates at your convenience, offer candidates the option to self-schedule their interviews and make use of auto-generated interview reminders, emails, and updates to be sent to your candidates.

Any guesses on how many hours were saved, here? My guess is a LOT and that’s good enough!

6. Nurture your candidates better to create a memorable experience

By using HR recruitment software, headcount planning and other recruiting platforms, you get to prioritize your work better. More importantly, you free up your time to handle more important tasks, like nurturing candidates, for instance. It is a vital aspect of recruitment and more often than not, we recruiters do not have enough time or the capacity to give it the attention it deserves.

Automated recruiting enables you to reply promptly to any emails, set up customized email sequences to continuously engage your candidates, schedule follow-ups, reminders, and alerts, and provide chatbots to give automated responses to FAQs, and simple queries. It streamlines the overall candidate communication.

This shows your candidates that you care about them. That you want to keep them in the loop through every stage of the hiring process. It creates a lasting first impression right at the beginning and enhances your employer brand.

5 Benefits of using recruitment automation platforms

The biggest benefit of using a hiring automation platform is employee retention. Gone are the days when your recruiting teams were willing to work insane hours to close those open roles with little to zero help from ancient recruiting tools. According to research, 50% of recruiters’ would shift companies if the other one had better recruiting software.

Before you can focus all your energies on attracting the best talent out there, the first step would be hanging on to your talented recruiters and getting them to stay! Additionally, online recruiting platforms come with a few more key advantages:

1. Reduces time-to-hire and improves the quality of hires

A major strain on a recruiter’s time and effort is going through mountains of applications. And a major advantage of using a recruitment automation platform (a.k.a. HR recruitment software) is that it can take care of screening applicants for you. It also comes with a resume parser to check if minimum qualifications are met.

Voila! Slashed your time-to-hire by a huge margin already. This is just the tip of the iceberg of what such tools bring to the table.

You get to screen a lot more applicants now since it is automated. You also get to identify better-qualified candidates due to detailed, efficient screening. Recruitment automation makes sure the good ones don’t slip through the cracks. As we see next, it can also help diversify your talent pools by tailoring your candidate searches to every role, pulling up profiles of passive candidates, and in general, improving the quality of your sourcing efforts!

2. Expand and diversify your talent pipeline

A recruitment automation platform helps you cast a wider net when sourcing fresh talent. You can post your job postings on a varied range of job boards and social media channels with just one click. Without hurriedly copying and pasting generic job descriptions, you now have a good amount of time to create targeted job postings. Consequently, it will improve the quality of your applicants.

This expanded search leads you to source prospective candidates beyond your organization’s network or existing talent pool. You can also spend time searching for, connecting, and building relationships with passive candidates who might be a good fit for your company.

3. Hire for niche technical roles

Automated recruiting enables you to parse resumes against a chosen set of keywords and screen those that are a good match. Moreover, this feature comes in handy especially when you need to hire for specialized roles. You can select keywords that match a particular job description or skill set. The tool will shortlist your candidates from there.

4. Create a memorable candidate experience

A recent report shows that GenZ prefers working with advanced recruitment technology, and 54% say they would drop out of the application process of companies with obsolete methods and complicated processes. The future of the workforce is GenZ. By not using a recruitment automation platform, you are alienating a majority of the available talent pool.

The best recruiting platforms offer several practical features. Popular ones include easy-to-use online application portals, timely updates every step of the way, chatbots to answer any queries, and automated email drips to build better relationships with your candidates. Making sure all your potential candidates have a great experience right from the start will help you seal the deal quickly and seamlessly.

5. Streamlines the complete hiring process

Any good hiring automation platform provides data for the entire recruiting lifecycle. Armed with this data, you can identify which parts of your hiring process are broken, what’s working, which hiring practices are giving the best ROI, and so on. Such tools help you make data-driven decisions and optimize your hiring process to be more efficient.

Automated recruiting for the win!

With automated recruiting, fewer items slip through the cracks. The efficiency, productivity, and morale of your recruiting team go up. Tech recruiting platforms ensure recruiters can focus their attention on matching candidates with the right job opportunities instead of on administrative tasks.

Well, what are you waiting for? This is your sign to start using a good recruitment automation platform!

Hiring Freeze! There is nothing more frustrating to a recruiter than this phrase. It doesn’t matter if you are a human resources representative for a company or a recruitment agency. A tech hiring freeze is usually the result of efforts to cut down costs and sometimes the impact of recession or scale down of the organization. When recruiting and hiring stops, a company can save money and remain operational. Now, how can you, as a recruiter, use this time positively? The following tips will help you make the most out of your company’s hiring freeze, retain and understand employees, improve your hiring process and come up with great ideas for future hires. Before that, Let’s first understand a tech hiring freeze and the reasons for its occurrence.

What is a hiring freeze?

When a company decides to halt hiring for new positions, it is called a hiring freeze. Though the company may continue to hire candidates for essential jobs, it stops all efforts to fill non-essential jobs and prohibits creating new positions. Tech hiring freezes typically begin with a halt to these actions: sourcing\screening, interviewing, and hiring.

Main reasons behind a hiring freeze

Every business aims to maintain long-term financial viability. Fears of a recession, a pandemic, and supply chain disruptions force companies to halt hiring during difficult market conditions. When these circumstances arise, management may freeze hiring. Here are some examples of situations where a company might consider a hiring freeze:

1. Uncertain market conditions:

Market volatility and fluctuation can significantly affect revenue generation and profitability.

2. Global crisis:

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every business in some way to a certain extent. These crises have negatively impacted businesses worldwide. Moreover, layoffs and tech hiring freezes were the only way for companies to sustain themselves then.

Also, read: 4 Images That Show What Developers Think Of Layoffs In Tech

3. Emerging liquidity concerns:

Companies may postpone recruitment processes if liquid assets decline. Thus, they may opt to deploy funds from the pay budget to finance current assets to increase liquidity.

4. Budget deficit:

When a company anticipates that hiring new employees will lead to a budget deficit, it will postpone hiring new employees until its financial position improves.

Effects of a tech hiring freeze on current employees

A hiring freeze can also be stressful for current employees owing to increased resource utilization to meet the deadlines and workload allocation within the available workforce. In addition, the workloads of departing employees are distributed among the remaining staff. In turn, this can negatively affect staff productivity, causing more employees to leave the company. So, during the hiring freeze, if recruiters are not hiring, then what do they do? Here are some best practices a recruiter (or a company) can use to motivate and retain current employees and smooth future hiring processes.

Things recruiters can do during a hiring freeze

Improve your hiring process for the future

During the hiring freeze, you have plenty of time to look into hiring gaps and plan for better future recruitment. For instance, you can check your existing hiring metrics and data to know what area to focus on to improve the hiring process. You can also review previous recruiting reports and methods provided by your ATS. You can then conclude,

• how much does hiring for a particular role cost
• what are the best sources/channels to find the right candidate
• what is the job acceptance rate for your company
• why candidates might drop off during an assessment phase
• what does the candidate interview experience look like

This exercise will give you a grasp of what needs to be fixed in your hiring process.

Also, read: Streamline Your Recruitment Process With These 7 Tips

Furthermore, you can discuss key points with managers and team leaders to better understand their current objectives and future goals. This way, you can obtain a preview of the competencies and potential positions your company may require in the future. Also, you can create more crisp and clear job descriptions. In a nutshell, the more time you spend closing process gaps, the easier it will be to recruit again.

Build your employer’s brand

A strong employer brand always stands out and attracts talent. Amidst a tech hiring freeze, you can focus on building an impactful employer brand. Showcase your company’s work culture, ethics, and perks because it affects the candidate’s decision to join your company. Consider using video content, as this format makes it much easier for you to showcase your company’s culture and values. Furthermore, building an employer brand is not just for hiring new candidates; it is also suitable for existing employees. Employees who feel valued and appreciated will stay with the company for a long time. To improve your employer brand both from an employee’s and a candidate’s perspective, follow these tips:

For employees:

Employees are your biggest asset, and retaining the best candidates is essential. It is more likely to happen when your employees are happy working for you and feel valued and recognized for their efforts. You might have already provided your employees with all the perks. But always look to see if there is anything else you can do to increase their productivity at the workplace or improve their mental and physical health. Moreover, you can keep them engaged in fun activities or sports, take their feedback, or conduct some counseling sessions for employees for better work-life balance or mental health awareness. Also, employees love it when a company recognizes their hard work and loyalty and rewards them with appraisals, incentives, and bonuses. You can also send them personalized emails and gift cards to keep them motivated.

Also, read: 7 Employee Engagement Strategies For WFH Tech Teams

For candidates:

Before applying or accepting the offer, applicants tend to go through social media, Glassdoor, or Google reviews to learn more about the company’s culture. It means you can leverage the power of social media to showcase your company’s culture and the working lives of your current employees, for example,

• Appreciate your current employees on LinkedIn, tag them, and rework your career pages.
• Work on Glassdoor and google reviews of your company. You can’t stop negative reviews on these platforms, but you can humbly reply.
• Show behind the scenes of your office, celebrating birthdays, festivals, etc.
• Take feedback from your current employees, ask about their experience in your company, make a video, and share it on social media.
• Always check the tonality of your social media posts. It should be gender-neutral and easy to understand.

Companies that embrace and practice diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are more likely to outperform their competitors in terms of profitability and value creation. You can also make a plan for reverting or giving feedback to each applicant applying for a job opening at your company. Note: Do not ghost any applicant when you reject any candidate. It can create a bad image for your organization.

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

Build Candidate Relationships

A tech hiring freeze is the best time to expand your candidate pools with skilled candidates. Use this downtime to nurture relationships with passive candidates via social recruiting. Take advantage of recruiting tools. These tools help you connect with freshers and professionals and build relationships that will come in handy for future hiring. Keep your talent pipelines warm by sending them regular company updates, content that showcases your company culture, relevant articles, and webinars that may interest your prospective candidates. When the time comes to hire again, you wouldn’t have to start from scratch! You have your trusty candidate pool to fall back on.

Brush up on your recruiting skills

Although HR teams are constantly busy, a hiring freeze gives the recruitment team time to update their skills. The organization’s human resources department can enhance the whole company’s performance. As a result, in the HR position, you must always keep abreast of new industry regulations, technological advancements, and other human resource management techniques. Moreover, many HR training programs are available over the internet, like HackerEarth’s Learning and Development for HR, so you can better utilize your time to understand the HR ecosystem.

Also, read: Spend A Day With A Tech Recruiter

We’ve gone one step further and reached out to our Senior TA, Shalini Chandra to spill the beans on how to navigate this hiring freeze and become a better recruiter. Watch the video to get tips straight from the horse’s mouth!

FAQs related to hiring freeze

How to keep candidates engaged during a hiring freeze?

• Stay in touch with candidates; provide timely responses to any emails
• Share company updates and other relevant information like PR releases, blogs, and podcasts to keep candidates interested
• Work on establishing an employer brand

How long does a hiring freeze usually last?

Depending on the reason, a hiring freeze usually lasts for 3-6 months but can last up to weeks, months, or years.

What are the advantages of a tech hiring freeze?

• A hiring freeze reduces hiring costs; reducing these expenses can result in the return of financial stability.
• Hiring freezes allow management to condense staff and reorganize workgroups to produce necessary products and services for consumers more efficiently.
• It also strengthens teamwork and allows the company to review its growth plans and operational procedures.

Conclusion

A tech hiring freeze gives the organization and recruitment team time to focus on other essential things and prepare for future hiring. Use the methods mentioned above during the hiring freeze to rework the overall hiring process, increase the productivity of current employees, and retain employees. This time can be fruitful for organizations if used correctly.

An employer brand plays a crucial role in the employee value proposition. It essentially refers to what the organization has successfully communicated as its identity to its current and potential employees. According to Workable, 9 out of 10 candidates would apply for a job when it’s from an employer brand that’s actively maintained.

Intrigued about employer branding? Then, this blog is for you!

Here are some of the important questions that are often asked about employer branding. We have provided some detailed insights in place to help you with a clear understanding of technical recruitment and employer branding for your tech business.

What is employer branding?

Employer branding refers to the process a firm undertakes to promote itself as an employer of choice. It consists of core principles, employee experience, and communication with prospective employees. That being stated, why is employer branding vital to your company? Following the epidemic, the necessity to develop a strong brand became more important than ever. The IT talent market is becoming increasingly competitive as more organizations are embracing remote working and rapid technological adoption.

As others compete to fill in-demand positions, good employer branding will be vital in determining your success. Many renowned businesses use employer branding as an employer branding marketing strategy. It helps a firm portray itself as a top choice for competent applicants. On the other hand, building your brand is a persistent, long-term process that provides consistent dividends in the long run. So, it’s quite evident that starting earlier will help your organization build a reputation as a great workplace.

What is the purpose of an employer brand?

It is easier said than done to establish a strong employer brand. Identifying and presenting your organization as a desirable location to work for the most skilled applicants takes time. However, if you succeed, you will be able to achieve the goals that you are presently battling. Employer branding is crucial in technical recruitment because:

Helps attract and retain excellent employees

A positive employer brand will make your current employees proud to work for you. Becoming a part of a company with a strong work culture is important for job seekers. Thus, businesses must be mindful of how they portray that environment. Most job seekers will look at your company’s social media accounts before applying, so use them to portray an employee-centric culture and to take advantage of social media platforms and job portals.

Lowers Recruitment Costs

If you have a strong employer brand, candidates will rush to apply for your job postings, allowing you to spend less money on tech recruitment marketing. Why pay for a job board posting when people are already pouring to your careers page? Working for a well-known, reputable firm is vital to many individuals, and if you present your company like this, you will draw more prospects for open roles. This approach becomes even more effective when combined with consent based marketing, where potential candidates opt in to learn more about your company culture and values.

Increases Employee Engagement

When your company adheres to an employee-centric corporate brand, you conduct frequent employee engagement activities. There’s no second thought about the fact that an engaged workforce increases productivity and revenue. On the other hand, a lower employee turnover provides a solid foundation for your organization to attract more qualified candidates for new positions.

Communicate the Value of Your Brand

It’s no secret that top players in the market always dominate when it comes to recruiting top talents. Skilled workers will always prefer companies with strong brand recognition and beliefs. Ensure that your brand value is adequately conveyed to hire the best of the best. Modern job seekers are interested not just in your company’s services but also in intangible resources such as your mission, goal, ethics, and work environment.

Also Read: Building An Employer Brand: Everything You Need To Know

Effects of ignoring employer branding

Inability to win the Talent Competition

Businesses are in a constant war for recruiting talents to acquire highly motivated, experienced, and qualified employees. You’re always at the risk of hiring below-average personnel if your thinking isn’t geared toward attracting the top applicants. Consequently, you lose the fight and end up recruiting employees that lack the necessary talents to propel your business forward.

Attracting Unsuitable Talent

It is related to the previously described danger. Of course, you lose the talent war, but what’s more harmful is that by attracting poorly culturally fit individuals, your company has little chance of surviving in this cut-throat competition. . However, competitors that have effectively applied employer branding and recruited the best and most culturally suitable job prospects will achieve success and successfully build their firms both locally and worldwide.

Employee value proposition

The most common barrier for applicants choosing a new job is a lack of vision about what their day-to-day life may look like at a new company. A clear employee value proposition can assist them in doing so; it informs them of the type of team they will be dealing with and what sorts of activities, career trajectory, work-life balance, and everyday chores they will encounter at the company. These details can assist in building the foundation of a solid employer brand that catches the audience’s attention, piques their interest, and encourages them into your technical recruitment pipeline.

As you move closer to selecting your perfect employee, your EVP becomes more than simply a tool for attracting prospects; it also serves as a clear means of distinguishing yourself from the competition. When applicants are deciding to take a position, a strongly outlined employee value proposition allows them to evaluate different possibilities or job offers on a point-by-point basis.

Job seekers evaluate potential employment opportunities based on the employee value proposition and prefer the one that effectively matches up with their professional goals, has higher advantages, offers more valuable work, delivers the most enticing resources to its employees, and more.

Also Read: IT Recruiting: Strategy and Tips for Success

Which channels can my company use to promote the employer brand?

It’s no wonder that IT talent can be acquired online, and all applicants are nowadays spending time on digital platforms. As a result, social media and digital programmatic advertising are excellent places to begin.
LinkedIn is now the best platform for employer branding, content marketing and recruitment marketing business, but if you’re seeking to market yourself as an employer who wants to attract a younger population, you can consider Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

However, don’t overlook the value of personalizing the tech recruitment process by encouraging recruiters to contact prospects directly or using customized advertisement methods such as LinkedIn emails, GitHub, and AngelList to display openings, workshops, and definitely your employer brand.

Furthermore, you can always go beyond the boundaries to reach out to educational institutions such as colleges. Building a strong rapport with them will provide you with a community of ready-to-graduate people who will be familiar with you as an employer. Incorporating QR codes powered by Uniqode's QR tracking into your campus materials or events can help you engage students more interactively while measuring interest in your brand.

How can I measure the success of employer branding?

Some of the employer branding in recruitment metrics that can help you measure the success of employer branding:

Industry Awareness and Perception

The top-level measures of employer branding are:

1. Brand awareness
2. Social media engagement rates
3. Brand sentiment
4. Brand characteristics/associations
5. Branded search impressions

Measuring Candidate Experience

The mid-level employer branding metrics are:

• Hire quality
• Cost per candidate
• Source of hire
• Offer acceptance rate
• Tech hiring manager satisfaction

Measuring Employee Experience

The bottom-level employer branding measures are:

• Employee satisfaction scores
• Employee referral rate
• Employee retention
• Employer site review

Also Read: 4 Steps to Build your Talent Acquisition Strategy

Is it important to have a dedicated employer branding manager?

Obviously, your organization would have an employer branding manager, but this may not be realistic for everyone. The majority of businesses do not have the resources. However, this doesn’t imply that they can’t work on the brand and numerous tasks can be completed without a dedicated individual.

To begin with, any employee can serve as a branding expert when they are supported and encouraged. There are very small firms with fantastic employer branding in tech recruitment because the individuals who work there adore the company’s culture. Begin with small measures, and you will see a significant improvement over time.

How can I promote employer branding with a growing remote-working culture?

• Ensure you provide the dynamics and specifics of your remote work policy in every job posting and job description. Incorporating your remote work policy into each job advertising indicates you support remote employee tech hiring consultants.
• Posting job offers on job sites that resonate with remote employees is an excellent way to represent your organization as one that welcomes them. It indicates your experience with remote work, the perks of working remotely, and your understanding of the prerequisites for a successful remote business.
• Again, social media will indeed be your greatest friend, but you’ll need to be innovative outside the workplace. Instead of advertising your company’s physical presence, such as eccentric office spaces and the entire crew, you must develop ways to capture the emotional qualities of your employer brand. Share staff testimonials and creative content, and take advantage of video technology advancements by posting screenshots of meetings and get-togethers.
• One way to promote employer branding with a growing remote-working culture is to look at what past and current workers share on social media. Encourage employees to talk about their remote work experiences on their profiles so that people get a better idea of what it’s like to work in a remote environment.
• Virtual workplace excursions and executive interviews can also be conducted as part of your virtual orientation program. Just because we’re working remotely today doesn’t imply we’ll be doing so eternally, and new employees need to know what they can expect from the company when they join.

18% of hiring managers state that finding qualified entry-level technology talent has become even more complex over the last year (an 8% increase from 2021). Enter hackathons!

Hackathons have always brought out the best and the most innovative solutions for the most abstract problems. They are a great way to bridge the ever-increasing gap between developers, recruiters, and hiring managers.

Because we at HackerEarth have conducted countless hackathons in the past decade, two points stood out starkly:

• Developers LOVE fighting real-world challenges with hackathons
• Hackathons are immensely popular among companies as branding, engagement, crowdsourcing, and upskilling tools

Ten years of our journey of playing matchmaker for companies in finding the right tech talent, we know exactly how hard the sourcing-to-hire cycle is. The last two years have reiterated the fact that community engagement needs to be at the forefront of every company’s tech recruiting process. On that note, let’s take a look at some of the recent innovative hackathons that we are incredibly proud of 🙂

Also, read: The complete guide to organizing a successful hackathon

Let’s go down memory lane of our 7 most innovative hackathons!

hackCOVID 2.0

In 2020 when covid-19 was at its peak, HackerEarth in collaboration with IIMB launched the HackCOVID hackathon. We saw an amazing response from the community and consequently went on to conduct two more hackathons in this series – hackCOVID 2.0 and hackCOVID 3.0.

This hackathon in particular had two goals, to help industries mitigate the Coronavirus outbreak and to bring out the best developer talent around the world. We asked developers worldwide to come up with the most innovative and unique solutions to tackle COVID-19.

For the same reason, we had several relevant themes in place:

• Healthcare
  • Outbreak management
  • Covid-19 Patient Symptom Screening and Reporting
• Public Administration
  • Home-quarantine tracker
  • Tracing and monitoring
• Economy
• Virtual Learning
• Open Innovation for Covid-19

This hackathon was a massive success with over 700 teams taking part. This event brought out some of the most innovative applications such as “Using Anonymised Mobile Network for Identifying Hotspots and Covid-19 spread”, “Ventilator Monitoring”, etc.

Also, read:How Hackathons Can Help You Attract, Engage, Hire, And Train Top Talent

Pride Hackathon 2020

Yet another hackathon that is a part of our Inclusion and Diversity program. This was the very first hackathon of its kind in India, an LGBTQ+ exclusive hackathon to come up with tech, non-tech, and social solutions to secure internships, and jobs, and of course win other prizes as well.

This was done in collaboration with multiple organizations with multiple themes and sub-themes:

• Technical: Induction process – Streamline the candidate journey (candidate selection, interview process, and pre-onboarding process) to make it free from bias and more inclusive to the LGBT+ community, during the interview process for both the candidate as well as the interviewer.
• Non-Technical: Inclusion at Atlassian – Propose a framework to create a more LGBT+ inclusive environment at the workplace. Your idea might include current challenges, baselines on company practices and policies, and recommendations.
• Social Good: Employment Opportunities – Enable the transgender community to broaden the scope of employment opportunities (For example – by removing bias from the interview).

During the course of this hackathon participants came up with fun and amazing yet practical solutions in every area (tech, non-tech, and social). This was hands-down one of our most fun hackathons!

Missing Hackathon

In my opinion, this is one of the most unique and innovative hackathons held.

People go missing almost every minute around the world with women and children being the main victim, this, of course, is a great cause for concern. This hackathon was conducted to find innovative solutions to locate and rescue missing people.

There were themes included that helped in further breaking down different avenues for searching and rescuing missing people. They were:

• Facial Recognition System – to help global law enforcement agencies identify missing people via facial recognition
• Decentralized Directory of Missing Persons – the creation of a public missing person inventory to help identify missing people
• Search Mapping – this is to figure out and trace the pattern of offenders to locate and save victims of abductions/human trafficking
• Open Innovation – this theme has no boundaries, developers have the option of coming up with any solution they deem helpful.

This event was yet another massive success. In fact, one of the missing people hackathon solutions helped state police in locating and rescuing 2 missing people. How amazing is that?

Live Love Be: AR/VR Hackathon 2.0

Love knows no gender, freedom of rights knows no bounds, and the LGBTQIA+ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, +) community is the epitome of this thought. In honor of Pride Month, we conducted a hackathon to celebrate the impact and change that the LGBTQIA+ community has made globally.

The proposed themes were:

• Pride – Virtual Events: People all over the world are gearing up to attend the Pride Parade virtually. Participants were given the task of creating the tech infrastructure needed to host the event.
• Open Innovation: Participants were asked to ideate and create a prototype on anything in the domain of AR/VR to help businesses scale.

We created the Live. Love. Be.- AR/VR Hackathon 2.0. to find solutions that will pave the way towards a more inclusive future in tech and the incredible HackerEarth community did not disappoint!

Also, read:Virtual Hackathons: All You Need To Know

ICTs for Indigenous Languages

The gradual disappearance of languages, particularly indigenous ones gave us some food for thought. We had to think of an answer that was unique and innovative. Like always, we turned to our trusty hackathon model to throw up some valuable ideas for this problem.

As part of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Forum 2022 Special Track on ITCs and Indigenous Languages, WSIS, UNESCO, in collaboration with other stakeholders co-organized an online hackathon on our platform, inviting all interested stakeholders to ideate and create solutions that contribute to the preservation and promotion of indigenous languages.

Some of the interesting themes were:

• Knowledge: Creation of favorable conditions for knowledge-sharing and dissemination of good practices on indigenous languages.
• Empowerment: Proposing online training, chat rooms, educational games, and solutions to learn indigenous languages, especially for the young generation.
• Preservation: Developing online archiving tools and online dictionaries to access preserve, protect and revitalize indigenous languages

Read the complete case study here – How UNESCO and the WSIS Forum engaged developers from over 70 countries to help preserve indigenous languages

Hack To Enable

Shining the spotlight on the underrepresented sections of our society, it is imperative to talk about how hard people with disabilities have it in the world; and how hard they have it in the tech space.

This hackathon was specially conducted to find unique solutions to help disabled individuals get into any sector. In other words, the Hack To Enable hackathon is an initiative to help specially-abled folks get access to education, and work in any and every industry or come up with unique solutions that will help them lead much better lives.

Solutions can be created under the following themes:

• E-learning – build solutions to help specially-abled individuals learn
• Healthcare – to develop innovative tech solutions to help disabled people live much better lives.
• Wearables – smart watches and similar smart wearables with features to help disabled people
• Transformative transportation – propose innovative ideas or prototypes of travel tech
• Open innovation – here you can come up with your own ideas that you deem helpful toward specially-abled individuals.

The participants of course came up with some great ideas like a fall detection smart wearable, a human-machine interface, and similarly many others.

Also, read: Internal Hackathons: Drive Innovation And Increase Engagement In Tech Teams

Love is love

This 2020 hackathon is a part of our Inclusion and Diversity program in collaboration with Pride Circle. The goal of this hackathon was to create an ML (machine learning model) combined with NLP (Natural Language Processing) and OCR (Optical Character Recognition) to assess the sentiments (positive, negative, or random) of quotes and statutes put up on social media.

This hackathon was a unique one and hell-bent on making the internet a safe space for everyone. Considering the unfortunate times that the entire world was facing due to the Coronavirus pandemic back in 2020, the prize money for this hackathon was distributed for the welfare of society.

See you at the next big HackerEarth hackathon!

As 2025 is almost upon us, we have an exciting line-up of innovative hackathons. If you’d like to organize one for your company or are interested in knowing more about this cost-effective way of engaging with developers that can benefit your business then book a demo right here.

The skills gap is real. There’s no way around it and it has only been increasing exponentially. Nearly one-third of employers surveyed in the Future Of Work 2022 report by Monster agree that the IT skills gap has increased from a year ago. 87% of employers say they have trouble finding qualified talent as a result. Also, the acceleration of remote/hybrid work and the heavy dependence on technology has led to different and newer skills being required from employees and employers alike. A McKinsey study shows respondents leaning toward skill-building as the best way to close the skill gaps rampage in this industry. Social and emotional skills like empathy, compassion, and adaptability have been spotlighted. The need to address the skills gap is more urgent than ever. Building a future-ready workforce begins with skill transformations—providing opportunities for your employees to upskill continuously so they are better prepared to handle the rapid changes the tech industry is known for. Wondering where to start? You’re in the right place. In this article, we see what an IT skills gap means, how to identify skills gaps, how to perform a skills gap analysis, and strategies for upskilling your employees. Read on 🙂

What is technology skill gap?

It’s an exciting time to be a software developer. Changes are taking place not only in advanced technologies like net development machine learning, AI, and data science, but also in how we work, emphasizing soft skills like communication, understanding, and adaptability. But here’s the catch—for software development teams to remain in step with the rapid changes in the industry, they must place upskilling at the center of their strategic approach. Over 50% of employees say their employer doesn’t understand their current capabilities. This leads to employers offering the wrong kinds of training or worse, offering no training at all. Before you know it, there will be too big a gap between required and needed skills; productivity will take a hit and employees will feel demotivated. To put it simply, you have a skills gap problem on your hands. A technology skills gap is when your existing workforce’s skill set doesn’t align with the skills they need to do their jobs. How do we bridge this? By conducting a skills gap analysis on an individual, departmental, or company-wide level at periodic intervals. The results of this technology skills gap analysis will help inform training requirements, employee development plans, and hiring strategies.

Also, read: What Top Developers Are Looking For In Their Next Job: A Data-Backed Answer

IT skills gap analysis: A definition

Rapid digitization in the tech industry means that certain jobs will disappear due to automation, while others will change in terms of their core tasks and responsibilities. You should also factor in all the changes brought about by the remote/hybrid work models of today. This is where the IT skills gap widens and job descriptions evolve to better suit work requirements. Enter skills gap analysis—think of it as a planning tool to ensure that your tech team is equipped to meet the demands of your organization as well as adapt to the ever-changing needs of the tech industry. You, as a manager, can uncover gaps in your tech teams, organize employee training plans, and set career development goals. Assess the employee’s (in this case, the developer’s) ability to perform each task to a required level. Determine what skills and knowledge are currently missing in your development teams and which of those skills are essential for your organization’s performance. Then curate individual learning and upskilling paths for each developer on the team.

How to perform a skills gap analysis

Now that we’ve discussed what an IT skills gap analysis is, and why it’s important, let’s dive into how to conduct one:

Define the skills needed for a particular job description

Before you get started with upskilling and training programs for your teams, it’s crucial to decide the scope of your skills gap analysis. If it is at the individual level, then you need to evaluate each employee’s skills against the existing job description of their roles. If it is at a team/company level, focus on whether the team detail-oriented and has the required skills to complete an upcoming project. We are delving into the individual skill sets of in-house developers in this article so that would be the scope of the analysis here. In this case, team leads can help you with uncovering the skills gaps of the individual employees in their respective departments. Based on these findings, you can formulate a tentative plan of action that narrows down the skills gap at your company.

Also, read: Streamline Your Recruitment Process With These 7 Tips

Track market trends to identify key “future skills”

Keep an eye on key trends in the tech industry and what type of skills come to the forefront in 5 or 10 years. This will help you set your target range of skills needed accurately. Make use of skills identification software as a helpful starting point to map the relevant target skills. With the tech industry rapidly evolving, developers and companies alike need to stay abreast of the latest technologies, languages, and advancements in their fields to remain competitive. Evaluate and determine the skills you will need in the future by answering these questions:

• Which jobs could become automated?
• What skill sets are currently on the rise?
• Which currently (not yet defined roles) will your company need?
• What new skills would our employees need to do their jobs well in the future?
• Does the hiring process align with our new skills requirements?

Rank your target skill sets by the level of importance. Assign a numerical value between one and ten for each:

• Level of importance (1-10)
• Level of proficiency in skill required (1-10)

Use this rating as your baseline when measuring your employees’ current skills.

Also, read: Building Future-Ready Tech Teams

Review the current skills of your employees

Identifying your target set of skills will help you to determine your “distance” to those skills. Now that you have your ratings in place, the next step is to evaluate where the skills gaps lie. To measure individual skill levels, you could use:

• Employee surveys
• Skills assessments
• Interviews with employees
• Feedback from 360-degree performance reviews
• Analysis of KPIs for teams and individuals

HR technology for skills management like HRSG, 15Five, Kahuna, Skills DB Pro, and TrakStar can make a skills gap analysis much less time-consuming.

Use data to plan for and close the IT skills gap

By now, you will have a comprehensive list of skills gaps that need to be addressed. Generally, skills gaps are addressed by a combination of two methods: training and hiring. #1 Training to close the skills gap – Assess your employees and create individual learning paths for them that focus on the areas that you’re looking to upskill. Once you have a plan in place, provide the resources to train your employees. The right training can help you close gaps between current and desired skill levels. You can offer:

• Team-level workshops
• Employee mentorship programs
• External certification courses
• Employee skills assessments
• Internal hackathons

We’ve discussed them at length in the next section of this article. #2 Hiring to close the skills gap – If your skills gaps are too expansive to minimize with training, consider hiring contingent workers to bring new knowledge and skills into your company. Up your hiring game by:

• Incorporating rigorous screening of candidates for skills your company needs, into your hiring process. You can use pre-employment coding assessments to ensure your candidates are a good fit for the team.
• Sourcing passive candidates via social recruiting when hiring for niche skills. Use Boolean search strings for better results. Recruiters need to think outside the box if they want to hire the best talent out there.

Also read: The Ultimate Guide To Social Recruiting

Make the IT skills gap analysis an ongoing activity

Solving the skills gap will only work out when you act on the data from the skills gap analysis and insights and bake it into your team objectives. You have to run the analysis on an ongoing basis for it to have maximum impact. Effectively, that means ensuring you build these insights into your approach for talent acquisition, talent reviews, and succession planning, as well as, of course, reskilling, upskilling, and career planning.

What are the reasons for skill gaps within a tech team?

Rapid pace of technological advancements: The tech industry is ever-evolving, with new tools, languages, and methodologies emerging regularly. Training and education systems sometimes struggle to keep pace with these rapid changes, resulting in graduates who might not be equipped with the latest skills.

Mismatched expectations: Companies often seek “unicorns” – candidates who are experts in multiple domains. This unrealistic expectation can create perceived skill gaps when, in reality, specialists with deep knowledge in specific areas are available.

Education system limitations: Traditional education systems might not always align with industry needs. They sometimes emphasize theoretical knowledge over practical, hands-on experience, leading to graduates who understand concepts but lack practical application skills.

Lack of on-the-job training: Companies that don’t invest in continuous training for their employees risk widening the skills gap. As technologies advance, without regular upskilling, even experienced professionals can find their skills becoming obsolete.

Geographical disparities: Tech hubs like Silicon Valley might have a surplus of specific skills, while other regions may face shortages. Companies not open to remote work might find it challenging to bridge this geographical skills gap.

Addressing the tech hiring skills gap requires a multifaceted approach, combining revamped education strategies, realistic hiring expectations, and consistent on-the-job training.

Closing the gap: How to upskill your in-house development team

There is one answer that stands out when asked how to close the skills gap—upskilling. 67% of Indian respondents say their organizations are prioritizing skill-building as reported by McKinsey. Now on to the next question; what specific upskilling methods can you add to best equip your developers with the skills of the future? Here is a mix of internal and external training programs that you could rely on to do the job:

Team-level workshops

Organize internal workshops for all your tech teams at reasonable intervals during which someone from each team shares their knowledge, tips, and tricks for how they resolved some problems. You could also ask them to prepare a presentation and quiz the developers attending these sessions to increase their participation. Another option would be to bring in professional training firms that hold seminars and provide hands-on experience for your developers. Asking industry experts to come and conduct workshops at your company would be a highly engaging and informative experience for your tech teams.

Employee mentorship programs

Pair senior and more experienced developers with freshers so they can pass on their knowledge to them. They can guide and teach junior developers, which also increases teamwork and knowledge transfer. A smart workplace mentoring program improves culture, keeps new hires engaged, and provides a supportive environment for learning.

External certification courses

Set aside a budget for external training courses. Encourage your teams to do courses on Udemy or Coursera that also hand out certificates on completion of the course. There are a variety of courses available for developers to upskill in or learn new skills like Full-stack, DevOps, Blockchain, and so on.

Employee skills assessments

This is where HackerEarth steps in. To be ready for the future is to be intentional about the steps you take right now. As an organization focused on driving innovation continuously, you have to start with your employees. Nurture them, engage them, and provide them with ample opportunities to upskill or re-skill at every stage of their career. HackerEarth’s L&D platform helps employees to assess themselves and identify skills gaps. Once these are defined, you can then curate individual learning pathways that will help your team upskill, grow and be ready for future challenges in the ‘present’. Continuously run employee skills assessments across 41+ programming languages and 80+ skills, and analyze progress with insight-rich reports provided by our platform. You can effortlessly benchmark your tech team’s performance and track their growth.

Also, read: How To Create An Automated Assessment With HackerEarth

Internal hackathons

Keeping your team sufficiently engaged given that everybody is working remotely is crucial for productivity. Our internal hackathons bring different teams together to enhance cross-team collaboration and participate in real-world challenges to brush up on their skills. Doing this will help close the gaps between their current skill level and your desired skill level. Also, your employees are more likely to stick with you because you are investing in their career development and coming up with creative solutions to keep them engaged.

Also read: What Makes Us The Tech Behind Great Tech Teams