Hire IQ by HackerEarth is a new initiative in which we speak with recruiters, talent acquisition managers, and hiring managers from across the globe, and ask them pertinent questions on the issues that ail the tech recruiting world.

Next up in this edition is Patricia Gatlin, Diversity Lead/Talent Sourcing Specialist, at Johns Hopkins. She is also the curator of #BlackLinkedin ✊🏾 where she mentions how biased the LinkedIn algorithm is due to which her DEI posts were not getting the same exposure as everyone else.

We keep saying the tech world needs to break out of its “boys only” mode and become more inclusive when the tech we use on an everyday basis could be the very reason that relevant voices like hers are not getting seen, or heard.

All the more reason for this conversation with Patricia—to learn about her journey and understand inclusivity and diversity in the tech world, at a micro level.

Settle in, and let’s get to it!

P.S. If you missed the previous edition of HireIQ where we sat down with Colet Coelho from Recruit CRM, you can read it here 🙂

HackerEarth: You mention on your site that #BlackLinkedin was born out of shared knowledge of how Black and brown voices are discriminated against by the AI on LinkedIn. Have you seen this discrimination on other social sites, too? Could you share a few examples of this discrimination and how it has affected your work in the DEI space?

Patricia: Yes, I have seen it on other sites such as Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, Facebook, etc.

Algorithmic bias is systemic and it creates unfair circumstances for particular users and promotes access to privilege.

At the root of it all, are the rules – the platforms’ IFTTT framework gets coupled with messages from a certain section of society who may be classist, racist, or phobic.

Let’s be honest, not everyone had a computer when they first came out but guess who did? White affluent males, and therefore they were the first ones in the race while everyone else was catching up. We fail to acknowledge that white males have the most disposable incomes because they are getting paid more. So, if you started with a UX being focused on your target audience being white and having white privilege then, of course, you’re going to see AI issues.

Every mainstream social media platform has discrimination built into it. For example, TikTok is a Chinese-based company in a society that is monoethnic, and consequently, they don’t have to live in a polyethnic society like America, and the platform too, isn’t built to accommodate the nuances of a polyethnic American society. In fact, most countries aren’t polyethnic. Most societies don’t deal with the same racial and cultural constructs that America does. If a society deems whiteness as the most virtuous then a video platform will be biased toward that. We live in a global world that centers privilege and access around whiteness.

There is a strong need to be proactive in my quest to support black and brown content over people who are not of color. When I’m building out a talent pipeline I can already assume that if I’m doing a Boolean or X-ray search of Google I will see white candidates first because most likely the algorithm is based on social constructs that don’t support black professionals. Even if you are using YouTube and you search for a video data engineer you will most likely see men, mostly white, and a few men of color.

Why? Because white men most likely had privileged access either to education, the job interview, or to have camera gear to shoot content about their job. As a DEI specialist, it’s my job to find the problem, address it, and correct it with whatever tools I can find. First, I must admit there’s a systemic or institutionalized issue for POC in Tech, and only then can I begin to deconstruct what that looks like for them.

Also, read: 10-Step Diversity Hiring Handbook

HackerEarth: Post creating #BlackLinkedIn, have you seen a change in the way your posts are being received online? Could you detail some of the wins of the movement for us?

Patricia: I have seen a change because the hashtag exists, and people know where to find mine and others’ content on the platform. I think the biggest win of the movement is BIPOCs’ finding each other on the platform, creating safe spaces, and connecting more; which is leading to more people landing opportunities through referrals or getting mentorship.

The hashtag has become a watercooler for us to hang out and tell our truths about what it means to a professional in and outside of the workplace.

We have a long way to go with growing support around it. In addition, I have put up an informative site and added a quarterly virtual event called, The Digital Cookout, where we get to gather and discuss hot topics from the water cooler (hashtag). Our last event was about over employment and how to navigate that as a black or brown professional.

HackerEarth: How do you think the DEI space has evolved since George Floyd and Black Lives Matter? In your opinion, is there an added emphasis on POCs in tech recruiting, or was it just a phase?

Patricia: The DEI space has dramatically changed, there are more activists now than before when everyone was just a human resource professional or community or social justice advocate. DEI has allowed activists, like me, to be considered ‘professionals’ and get paid for the emotional labor we do. Unfortunately, George Floyd had to die for people to really see how racism affects the black community in America. With his death, we saw Fortune 500 companies, and especially tech companies, pledge to become the change we so desperately need.

For some companies, it was just performative because they never put any action behind it or they simply just put money into it and left black and brown people to solve an issue they didn’t create.

Not only that but, many companies secretly support the systematic injustice of black and brown people on the back end. If you donate to politicians or groups who actively support the phobia of blacks, LGBTQ+, women’s rights, etc. then you are canceling out your public displays of advocacy which makes it performative. There’s an added emphasis from those companies now to hire POCs and I’ve seen some great discussions, accelerators, and apprenticeships come out of it but I can’t speak for the results because it may be 2-3 years before we see it.

Also, read: Recruiters Versus Bias: Who’s Winning This War?

HackerEarth: With inflation and layoffs, do you think that the emphasis placed on creating diverse teams in the days right after COVID will be lost?

Patricia: No I don’t think the emphasis will be lost but I believe the reasons could be twisted. Let me explain, junior and mid-level professionals tend to make up the majority of BIPOC. In addition, departments and teams that are deemed unnecessary tend to house a majority of BIPOC for example talent acquisition, administrative, facilities, marketing, etc. When you look at who makes up those teams you will see women and people of color.

The issue with inflation is people are cutting their budgets, but this is the time for companies to start looking at their diversity pipelines and discover what they can do better. Instead, what I see companies doing is, hiring BIPOC in their mid-COVID pipelines for low salaries. They blame it on having a lean budget, but we all know the CEO isn’t getting furloughed. Some companies are targeting BIPOC because they know that inflation can make them desperate. Therefore, some are using diverse pipelines as a lure to keep their ships from sinking and not really because they believe in the mission.

HackerEarth: According to you – what are the top 3 global tech companies who are doing DEI right, and what can others learn from them?

Patricia: If I’m being honest, I don’t co-sign for companies I haven’t been hired to audit myself or been hired at because I have heard horror stories from employees at some of the best companies. We must stop seeing DEI as a badge of honor when it’s actually what should have always been done. You can have the trophy one day and the next it’s been taken away. Don’t incentivize DEI because people will start doing it for the wrong reasons. But if I had to give an answer, from what I’ve heard, Twilio, Microsoft, and Blend (no further comment than that).

Also, read: How To Build Safe And ‘PROUD’ Workplaces – A Personal Story

HackerEarth: What is the on-ground reality among POCs applying for roles in tech? Is there more trust among the community, or are there vital issues that they think are not being addressed?

Patricia: Inflation is not going away or slowing down for another 2-3 years if that.

Hiring freezers are real if you want to get into big tech. Yes, you might be able to snag a contract role but that’s not FTE and people of color need full benefits.

The tech industry has gotten more competitive due to TikTok influencers marketing six-figure salaries and luxury lifestyles. Tech is making it even harder to get an interview or get an offer because tech companies are combating career influencers who give out elaborate narratives about the industry.

We’re also not discussing the Gen Zs who don’t want to work harder but smarter and how that will affect retention rates in the future. Luckily there is more trust amongst POCs who are sharing amazing IRL information about what it means to work in this industry. I love BlackTechTwitter and all the Facebook groups for POCs in different fields. Yet, a vital issue is that there are even more gatekeepers in tech now because of all that I previously mentioned.

HackerEarth: What are 3–5 pieces of advice you have for organizations looking to improve the impact of their D&I strategies?

Patricia: When DEI professionals are burned out they can’t solve problems.

Put your money where the problem is, don’t just say you want to work on DEI strategies and not pay DEI professionals well and then not give them a team to support those efforts.

BIPOCs are just as capable as anyone else but they also need support before, during, and after the interview phase. For every employee it’s going to look different, for example, one might need relocation assistance even if they aren’t a director or VP. The others might need a buddy system or mentorship to guide them through working at your corporation for the first 90 days. Another might simply need a roadmap on how to climb the ladder at your corporation. Have a collaborative plan with your BIPOC so they can become pillars at the job and not just metrics. These are retention methods you should be considering.

Promote black and brown people at the C-Suite level. It’s that simple. Black women are the most educated group in America and eventually the world. Create a seat at the table or be prepared to be sitting alone. The world is becoming more diverse (brown) by the minute and Gen Z will not put up with the same things previous generations have.

Stop taking weeks and months to interview candidates, especially BIPOC because most people are living paycheck to paycheck. The average cost for a company to interview a candidate is 4k and the cost for a candidate to interview with a company given they make it to the last round is half of that. People can’t afford to wait months to go without an answer. Candidates can’t afford to do 3-4 rounds of interviews and an assessment that’s just overkill.

About Patricia Gaitlin

My name is Patricia (Sonja Sky) Gatlin. I’m a New York Times featured activist, DEI Specialist, EdTechie, and Founder of Newbies in Tech. I live in the entertainment capital of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada. I’ve worked 10+ years in Higher Education and 3+ years in Tech. I’ve recently merged the two fields and currently work part-time as a Diversity Lead sourcing and recruiting STEM professionals to teach gifted students. In addition, I’m a full-time Coordinator flexing my project management, instructional design, and community engagement skills. My goal is to inspire people and become a Chief Diversity Officer and Tech influencer.

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Cybersecurity is among the most critical aspects of building an online business and it goes without saying it needs to have an expert to make sure everything is in place. Without good cybersecurity experts, it becomes an extremely difficult task to protect your company’s data, servers, software, and other electronic systems from hackers and other cyber attacks. As per Accenture data security breaches have surged by 11% since 2018.

As of today, we are in a world where almost everything is online and electronic devices are important as food, we can’t live without them. This goes without saying that our information is online too but the threat of cyber-attacks or stolen data still looms over us.

This is why cybersecurity interviews should be as thorough as any other interview for a tech role. When hiring a cybersecurity expert, you should know what the role requires, what to ask, and what you should look out for in a candidate.

What is cybersecurity?

Cybersecurity is the practice of protecting computer systems, networks, and data from digital attacks. These attacks aim to access, change, or destroy sensitive information, extort money from users, or disrupt normal business processes.

In essence, cybersecurity is about safeguarding the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of information. It involves a combination of technologies, processes, and people working together to create a secure environment. To stay protected from modern digital threats, it’s also wise to secure yourself with a VPN when accessing online systems or handling sensitive data remotely.

Key areas of cybersecurity include:

Network security: Protecting computer networks from intruders.

Application security: Ensuring software and applications are free from vulnerabilities.

Data security: Protecting sensitive information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction.

Endpoint security: Protecting individual devices like computers, laptops, and smartphones.

Cloud security: Safeguarding data and applications stored in the cloud.

Importance of a thorough tech interview for cybersecurity candidates

As mentioned above, almost everything is online. To keep up with the ever-growing online population and to make the best out of this opportunity, businesses need individuals who are well versed in coding and other related aspects.

Moreover, it’s not just about coding and tech, you also need someone who can think on their feet and come up with abstract solutions for abstract problems. As a recruiter, you will find a ton of applicants with outstanding resumes, but a lot of them may not translate to practical application.

This is why you need to be thorough with your cybersecurity interview questions to hire the best candidates only. You can also make use of HR tech software and tools to smoothen the process of tech interviews. For instance, you could use FaceCode, a useful tool by HackerEarth that lets you take online interviews with an in-built code editor that can be used in real-time and comes with a lot of other features as well.

Apart from that, asking the right questions and looking out for optimal answers will get you the best candidates possible. Asking the right questions also opens up the avenue for good dialogue and helps the candidates understand the role and brand better. The answers provided will help the interviewer understand candidates better.

It also helps recruiters understand the extent of the candidate’s abilities and their interest in/towards the brand.

Also Read: Hiring DEV Talent: SQL Interview Questions

Interview questions to ask cybersecurity candidates

Here’s a list of 20 cybersecurity interview questions that you should ask if you want to hire the best candidate:

#1 – State your personal achievements and certifications in cybersecurity.

This is an important question, it will help you understand the candidates’ qualifications and experience. It will give you a brief look into their academic journey in cybersecurity as well from which you can ascertain if they’re a good fit for the role or not.

Any candidates who have put in the work will clearly stand out from the rest.

What Should You Look Out For?

Keep an eye out for applicants who have certifications that could close the gap in your cybersecurity system.

Don’t just look at their qualifications, look for candidates who are willing to learn on the job as well, why?

Because you need someone who can constantly grow with the organization.

#2 – Tell us, If you were a hacker, how would you steal our information?

This is a unique question and in simple words, you should look out for unique answers.

Cyber-criminals, typically are able to get into several well-protected systems because they’re either one step ahead or are extremely abstract in their thinking and if you want to keep your systems/data safe, you need someone who can match their abstract thinking.

You need someone who can understand the way they think and should be able to come up with solutions for the same.

What Should You Look Out For?

Look out for practical yet hypothetical problems with solutions. Also, someone who can read patterns and predict future trends in the digital world will be of great help, undoubtedly.

#3 – What is effective cybersecurity? How would you quantify it?

One of the cybersecurity interview questions that need not have a correct answer, you should ask this question to understand your candidates’ definition of effective cybersecurity and the parameters he/she would follow to quantify the same.

Of course, every answer will not be the same, but this will also help you differentiate between people who’ve had practical experience and those who haven’t. Although answers may vary, a good candidate will use practical examples and offer practical parameters for measuring different aspects of effective cybersecurity.

What Should You Look Out For?

Look out for the methods they use to define effective cybersecurity and more importantly, you need to know how the candidates rate and understand the different parameters involved.

#4 – When building firewalls, do you choose closed ports or filtered ports? Explain why

Talking tech terminologies and understanding them are two different things, this question helps you understand if the candidates have sound knowledge of the basics. Anyone who has been in this field will answer this question with relative ease.

#5 – Tell us about a time when you had to resolve an issue after finding a vulnerability issue in your company’s server.

The answer to this question will tell you how good the candidate is at figuring out problems and weak spots in the server. You will also be able to assess them on their problem-solving skills.

What Should You Look Out For?

The ability to take initiative, and always trying to be one step ahead are two things you should look out for here.

#6 – If there was a massive security breach? How would you inform your superiors of the situation?

One thing has always been clear in business, communication is everything, it does not matter how skilled you are, if you cannot communicate with other people within the organization, then you are not helping the organization grow.

It also helps you see how well the candidates can communicate the problem to people who aren’t well versed in tech.

What Should You Look Out For?

Look out for the ability to explain tech terms in a non-technical way. Someone who can explain the gravity of the situation without disrupting any peace.

#7 – Tell us about how well you work with a team. Give an example as well.

Working together with other employees and teams when necessary is an important part of the job description, you need individuals who can build rapport and work with other team members as well. A lone wolf is of no use to a company.

What Should You Look Out For?

It goes without saying that you need to keep an eye on someone who can be a great team player.

Again, look for moments of hesitation when you ask this question, it could indicate they may not play well with a team.

#8 – Did you ever identify an incoming cyber-attack? If so, how did you handle the same?

This can give you an insight into how good the candidate is at identifying incoming attacks, be it internal or external threats. Also, it gives you a picture of how they are handled from which you can ascertain their effectiveness and the candidates’ ability to think/act quickly.

What Should You Look Out For?

Intricate information about the cyberattacks and the candidate’s responses to the same.

#9 – What do you use in your home network?

A simple yet effective cybersecurity interview question, it will help you understand the candidates’ personal preferences in tech and how they make use of it. It is also an indication of how well the candidate’ knows the tools he’s using.

What Should You Look Out For?

Keep an eye out for how the candidate uses his/her setup, even if they don’t have the latest setup, what matters is how effectively they use their current ones.

#10 – What do you think is this organization’s cybersecurity risk?

Of course, he may not be able to give the most accurate answer given the fact that he doesn’t know all the details involved. But if the candidates recommend a one-for-all solution, that is not what you’re looking for.

You need someone who can do a risk assessment with the relevant information and accordingly comes up with an effective solution.

What Should You Lookout For?

Look out for candidates who ask for certain specific information when they’re faced with this question, you want people who will understand your system and its intricacies.

#11 – If you were our cybersecurity expert, what would you want from our company to get the job done?

In this question, it’s not just about obtaining software and quoting prices. You should look for the candidates’ interest to work with other teams for better outcomes.

You should understand if the candidates’ request is feasible or not and if it is, is it worth spending that money?

What Should You Look Out For?

Candidates who don’t just name tools and software but know how to make effective use of them and are able to come up with viable solutions.

#12 – How will you prevent a brute-force attack?

one of the cybersecurity interview questions that will help you understand how good the candidate is when it comes to preventing an attack. It will tell about the preventive measures that the candidate is familiar with.

#13 – Has there been an instance where you’ve taken down your company’s network while testing?

Although that shouldn’t happen, it is quite unavoidable. For candidates to admit the same and their experience may not be the best thing to do, but the truth is quite the opposite.

If a candidate opens up about an incident where he took down the company server, it reflects honesty and you need honest people on the team. Everyone makes mistakes, but they should be accepting of it as well.

What Should You Look Out For?

It’s simple, look out for genuine answers that reflect their honesty.

#14 – Are cybersecurity certifications the most important?

A ton of candidates nowadays come with multiple certifications, but do they think it’s the most important?

Their answer will tell you a lot about them. Of course, certifications are important but the experience will always matter slightly more. The reason for asking this is, that you need someone who understands that practical cybersecurity problems aren’t like certification courses.

What Should You Look Out For?

For candidates with relevant certifications and experience to back it up as well.

#15 – Do you have an emergency procedure in place?

Cybersecurity professionals must concentrate on both regular surveillance and application as well as long-term planning and development. This is done to prevent cyberattacks and if a cyberattack happens, they should have a contingency plan in place.

These cybersecurity interview questions will help you understand if the candidate can think one step ahead at all times.

What Should You Look Out For?

Keep an ear out for practical contingency strategies and also for prior experiences that state the same.

#16 – What is the difference between IDS and IPS?

This will help you understand how well the candidate knows his basics. IPS is basically to scan and identify incoming cyberattacks. IDS is a monitoring system.

What Should You Look Out For?

For a detailed difference between the two as they are different and yet they work together. Someone who knows will be pretty experienced.

#17 – Explain system hardening.

This refers to software and methods used to protect vulnerable systems in the organization. You need someone who can compress the attack surface effectively.

What Should You Look Out For?

A practical example of them hardening any system and how it helped.

#18 – Polymorphic viruses: What are they?

You need someone who can not only identify attacks but identify viruses as well, especially the ones that can change after it infects a file.

As an organization prone to this risk, you need someone who can identify this and provide a solution for the same.

What Should You Look Out For?

Practical ways of identifying polymorphic viruses and effective solutions. Also, look for any experience related to the same.

#19 – Explain active reconnaissance.

This refers to reconnaissance by the attackers. But this isn’t a direct attack, it’s a recon mission of sorts, mainly to steal data.

You need someone who can differentiate between different types of attacks and provide positive outcomes for the same.

What Should You Look Out For?

For any experience of the same and how they handled it.

#20 – How would you strengthen our company’s cyber defense?

You need someone who will proactively suggest effective solutions to safeguard to company’s systems and servers.

What Should You Look Out For?

Questions about the current system to make said suggestions, will help you understand how well the candidates can understand your system and provide defensive solutions for the same.

Artificial intelligence has generated a lot of buzz lately. Popular AI techniques like computer vision and object recognition have revolutionized the scope of working across healthcare, science, retail, and education to improve the accuracy of success.

More than just a supercomputer generation, AI recreated human capabilities in machines. Nowadays, AI-powered software is used to automate the daily set of business operations and ease product hassles of departmental stakeholders. One of the departments for which AI works wonders is human resources (HR).

Many recruiters and HR professionals have decided to transcend into an AI mechanism for better optimization of business assets and growth. In practice, some have already integrated artificial intelligence software with their existing tech stack and employed a better-qualified workforce without stretching their budget or time.

Hiring a qualified candidate for any important role demands cross-communication and the correct exchange of information. Invest in a viable talent intelligence software that can help strategize your candidate sourcing for maximum engagement and conversions.

How does AI-based recruitment solve hiring challenges?

The entire office suffers when talented employees leave. Never mind the cost of hiring, onboarding, and upskilling a new member. Having a talented coworker leave increases the risk of employee attrition and a questionable reputation.

As the great resignation continues, many companies are turning to AI-driven HR software to increase retention rates and reduce costs. Looking beyond the conventional HR practices and managing every part of the software engineer lifecycle is a key to increasing talent acquisition margin.

Many modern and secure AI recruitment solutions easily connect the dots between companies and suitable candidates for particular job roles. In some cases, Data-driven recruiting and HR analytics use tangible company analysis and skills insights to solve recurring recruitment challenges and create high-quality talent pipelines.

All in all, AI fights employee turnovers for the better and optimizes recruitments to increase employment opportunities.

Also read: Common virtual recruiting pitfalls and how to avoid them

Components of an AI recruitment strategy for software engineers

Hiring activities of a company are mainly outsourced to third-party AI recruitment agencies that run machine learning-based algorithmic expressions on candidate profiles. ML algorithms are pre-trained on massive datasets that increase the candidate selection efficiency and reduce the endless sifting and browsing of resumes.

Let’s look at how AI skills up the candidate game of a particular company in detail :

• Pre-screening chatbots: AI conversational chatbots can bridge the gap between the recruiter and the applicant. It replaces the “recruiter phone screen” stage in the hiring process and screens candidates with a human touch. Built with evolving NLP technology, it screens a candidate’s ability to fit into their contesting roles by recognizing their pattern of communication.
• Resume parser: The resume parser scans candidate resumes and social media profiles to analyze their experience and education. It generates specific codes and parses information according to the organization’s competitive shortlisting guidelines. It also categorizes a few samples for further processing and internally sorts them to produce the required output.
• Filtering: The resume samples are further filtered based on custom criteria of age, background, qualification, etc., and forwarded to the concerned team. This candidate data can be stored in the cloud using reliant blockchain technology. The samples are clustered together to obtain a small set of profiles submitted for final evaluation.
• Automated panel assignment: As the profiles finalize, an automated evaluator panel is assigned to individual candidates for further screening. Softwares such as Greenhouse recruiting and Skillate help connect evaluators with candidates for additional rounds of interviews. Such cloud-based solutions aid in faster execution of interview rounds and declaration of results while saving up time and effort.
• Automated candidate assessment: Candidates usually appear for a pre-assembled cognitive aptitude test to check their cross-skill ability. Now companies are preparing these tests using AI writing tools that curate extremely logical questions to test candidates’ reasoning ability.
• Automated candidate scoring: After the test, the machine learning algorithm analyzes the correctness of every answer and populates an unbiased and trustworthy score. It recommends the score to the assigned panel, who then amends it to a normalized score.
• Personalized campaigns: Given the success of candidate evaluation, the system rolls out offer letters to selected software engineers with a note of personalization to make them feel connected and satisfied with their achieved milestone.
• Dashboard and analytics: Advanced reports track every stage of the recruitment funnel and provide data-driven metrics regarding hiring campaigns to optimize future outreaches.

Investment funding to build better AI recruitment solutions

The potential of AI recruitment has been witnessed by different stakeholders and investors around the globe. A considerable percentage of the workforce operating in large software industries has witnessed this transition successfully and opened doors for new funding opportunities.

B2B SaaS companies like XOPA, a Singapore-based AI recruitment platform, announced $4.2 million Series A funding led by ICCP SBI Venture Partners. Phenom, another global HR technology company, raised over 100 M in series D funding, giving it a valuation of over 1 billion! This drastic revolution has impacted the decision-making of top investors and funders for better ROIs.

Meeting the tight budgets of a particular organization and easing the hiring stress on the HR professionals has made artificial intelligence more portable for employment.

Challenges of using AI in recruitment

Ethical concerns and bias

One of the most significant challenges in adopting AI for recruitment is the potential for bias and ethical concerns. AI algorithms rely on historical data, which can contain biases related to race, gender, or socioeconomic factors. If not carefully managed, AI systems can perpetuate these biases, leading to unfair and discriminatory hiring practices. It’s crucial for organizations to implement strict ethical guidelines and continuously monitor AI systems to mitigate these risks.

Data privacy and security

AI in recruitment relies heavily on collecting and processing vast amounts of candidate data, including personal information. Ensuring the privacy and security of this data is paramount. Organizations must comply with data protection regulations and invest in robust cybersecurity measures to prevent data breaches and protect candidates’ sensitive information.

Skill gap and training

Implementing AI in recruitment requires the upskilling of HR professionals and recruiters. Many organizations face challenges in providing adequate training to their staff to effectively use AI tools and technologies. Bridging the skill gap and ensuring that the recruitment team is proficient in utilizing AI systems is essential for successful implementation.

Transparency and explainability

AI algorithms can sometimes be seen as “black boxes” where decisions are made without clear explanations. Lack of transparency and explainability in AI-driven recruitment processes can lead to distrust among candidates and employees. To address this challenge, organizations need to ensure that their AI systems are transparent, and decisions can be explained to candidates and stakeholders.

Finding the balance between automation and human insight

Finding the right balance between AI-driven automation and human judgment can be challenging. While AI can streamline and enhance many aspects of recruitment, it should complement, not replace, the expertise of human recruiters. Ensuring that AI augments human decision-making rather than substituting it is a key challenge for organizations embracing AI in recruitment.

By addressing these challenges effectively, organizations can harness the benefits of AI in recruitment while maintaining ethical standards, data security, and the human touch necessary for successful talent acquisition.

The promise of a better-engineered workforce

AI is a cue card to a tech-optimized future of recruitment. It is the ultimate go-to that can help build an employer’s brand faster and recruit a skilled workforce.

Not just recruitment, AI can seamlessly automate, manage and scale your workforce planning and payroll management to diversify business outcomes and set a new trajectory for sustainable growth. It can be your strength to navigate through the complexities of the new world order and ignite a light of empathy in an otherwise computerized recruitment process.

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

The future is now!

Every aspect of handling a business has seen a significant change in recent years and quite a lot of it is due to a storm of post-COVID technological advancements. From AI, and machine learning, to HR tech, every aspect of running a business is being revolutionized.

The recruitment industry is no different – the strategies used by HR professionals to recruit skilled candidates are currently seeing a massive change. Not all of it is tech-related; quite a lot of the changes are about employing new and impactful strategies to engage talent.

In short – this is about employer branding!

But what is employer branding in recruitment?

A relatively new concept that is making the rounds. It’s a key factor to help brands remain influential and maintain a good reputation among consumers and potential employees alike.

In fact, reputation matters so much that, according to a 2017 study, 67% of men and 86% of women in the US will not join a company with a poor reputation. Furthermore, do bear in mind that recruitment is fast becoming more like marketing. Hence, using the same strategies for employment branding is now becoming an essential part of the hiring process.

Marketing + employer branding… but why?

The answer is simple, to attract the best talent there is. With start-ups popping up around every corner complementing the high scarcity of skilled candidates, recruiters are forced to re-strategize and adopt new strategies.

As a recruiter, you must understand one thing, treat candidates like you would treat a customer and the job role is the product you are offering them. This can be done with a great recruitment strategy and employer branding.

Multiple top-tier brands have already adopted this strategy. For example, Starbucks has quite successfully created a great work environment. They use their social media handles to let the world know how good their employees are.

Additionally, they also have a separate social media handle to connect and interact with job seekers. This is a great example of an employer brand.

Employer Brand: A Definition

The term “employer brand” is used to define an organization’s reputation from the perspective of potential candidates/employees and is also used to convey the brand’s values and how they treat its employees.

Employer branding refers to the process of how an employer brand is made and maintained.

Employer branding has a direct impact on recruitment numbers as brands with a good reputation attract and retain more employees. Furthermore, they’ll also witness a significant increase in employee satisfaction as compared to brands with poor reputation.

As per TalentLyft, around 83% of employed individuals will quit their current job if they get an offer from another organization with a better reputation. This clearly shows how important employer branding is.

How Building An Employer Brand Will Help Your Business

When recruitment branding strategies are a huge part of the recruitment process, it comes as no surprise that there are a slew of benefits that follow. From attracting and retaining top talent to boosting your organization’s performance, there are many.

But it will all only come together when you implement an effective recruitment branding strategy. Mentioned below are a few pointers on how to build a strong employer brand.

Low Cost Of Hiring

As per these statistics by LinkedIn, you can reduce your organization’s cost-per-hire by a whopping 50%.

If you’re thinking it may also reduce the quality of candidates, in the same report you can also see that a good employer branding strategy attracts more qualified candidates. Taking simple steps such as letting everyone know about your workplace values through social media posts and similar activities can go a long way in attracting top talent without much investment.

Also Read: The Ultimate Guide To Social Recruiting

Better Chances Of Attracting Top Talent

A follow-up to the previous point, a good employer branding strategy makes it easy for recruiters to connect with skilled and exemplary candidates.

Typically, a lot of effort and resources would go into attracting, hiring, and retaining top talent, but the winds are changing direction now. By creating a good employer brand you can attract top talent without hassle. All it takes is maintaining a positive work culture and letting people know about it.

Improved Retention

Employer branding isn’t only used for attracting top talent, it is also used to improve retention rates and decrease employee turnover rates.

By bonding with potential employees during the hiring process, you’re promoting a good level of engagement with the brand and when employees are engaged/interactive, it boosts productivity levels as well.

Increased productivity also means decreased employee turnover rates and improved retention rates.

More Brand Credibility

With a great employer branding strategy, the brand’s credibility improves as well. It’s common knowledge that customers would not like to interact with brands that have a bad reputation. This means if you want customers to interact with your brand, you need credibility.

When you employ a good employer branding strategy, it can create a ripple effect in boosting the brand’s credibility.

Boost Organization’s Performance

When a brand has a good reputation, people are more likely to interact with them and buy its products/services. But the same cannot be said for brands with a negative reputation. Let’s take Apple, for example. A big brand with a great name managed to besmirch its name briefly due to a scandal, where they purposely slowed down old versions of iPhones and this negatively impacted their brand name and business.

In 2017, as reported by LinkedIn, it was seen that brands with great employer branding saw their revenue increase by 20% and this speaks volumes.

Tips To Build An Employer Brand

If you want to build an effective employer brand, then remember, it’s the small things that matter most. For instance, you should give employee reviews the same attention you give customer reviews. Similarly, there are other things you can do to improve employee experience and become a great employer brand.

• Build a delightful hiring process

If you want the best candidates to join your organization, you need to have a good hiring process. When the recruitment process is enjoyable and engaging for the candidate, the enthusiasm is carried over when they’re hired and this improves employee performance and increases retention rates as well.

You must make the candidate feel valued. Apart from using HR tech tools, there are other things you can do to make the process delightful as well:

• Pay attention to employee experience

Among the most important points, always pay attention to employee experience as it matters a great deal. The experience of the employee always affects engagement with other employees. With good employee experience, you can see improved engagement levels, and good engagement levels translate to higher productivity.

Furthermore, employee experience also affects retention rates, if employee experience isn’t up to the mark then employees will start to quit, thus increasing employee turnover rates. But with positive employee experience, retention rates will improve.

• Providing perks that matter to the employee

Employee benefits and perks are crucial. Your employees need to feel rewarded for everything they’re doing for the organization. As per this report by Aflac, nearly 49% of employees look for new job opportunities if their current employee benefits and perks aren’t satisfactory.

Benefits and perks, typically, are extended to the employees’ families as well, covering everything from health to financials. Perks are a little different than benefits, perks are added benefits and brands nowadays are leaning toward offering several great perks like flexible working hours, work-from-home options, and other similar benefits.

Let’s take Google, for example. They’re known for offering great employee perks like flexible work schedules to building in-house gyms for employees. They also offer sleep pods for employees to take power naps and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

With work-from-home taking over, the perks offered are even more attractive, like, lack of micro-management, hybrid working options, options to choose your login and logout timings, live workout sessions, free food delivery coupons, and much more.

With great perks

… how great is that?

• Offer learning and development opportunities

The opportunity to learn and grow is a major deciding factor for candidates when they’re on the hunt for a job. As per a 2020 survey by Stack Overflow, it was seen that 59% of candidates are looking for an opportunity to learn and develop their skills as well.

In addition to that, when you ask employees to learn and develop additional skills, they are engaged and they also cement their place as valuable assets who deliver quality great results.

• Align your Employer Branding Strategy with Overall Brand Strategy

Remember Employer Brand and Corporate Brand are two different sides of the same coin. A corporate brand’s main aim is to increase sales and bring in revenue, whereas, an employer brand maintains focus on the recruitment and retention of employees.

Employer branding strategy involve understanding if the workplace is good enough for employees, introducing inclusive policies, and looking out for barriers in the recruitment process. So to get the best result, it is important to align their objectives and prioritize both of them equally. If they aren’t, then it could affect your recruitment process as well as your business operations.

• Seek the expertise of the marketing team

As previously mentioned, recruitment has become more like marketing in recent years and it only makes sense to take the guidance of marketing experts.

You should be able effectively to market the job role and the brand to potential employees and candidates. Incorporating content based marketing into your strategy ensures that your efforts respect candidate preferences while building trust and transparency. With the help of a marketing team, you can do the same in the most effective manner.

With strong competition on the rise, an effective marketing strategy aligned with your recruitment goals will help you attract and hire top talent.

• Monitor employee reviews as much as customer reviews

Just like a customer who reviews products online before purchasing them, people research brands before sending over their job applications.

The best way to know about a brand’s workplace environment is to read online reviews of the same. Of course, getting a positive review from every employee (past or present) may be impossible but how you respond to them also tells a lot about your brand’s values.

On the off chance you come across a credible negative review, make sure you address it.

Building an employment brand is as important as building your organization’s corporate brand. If you can recruit top talent then the success of your corporate brand increases as well.

How HackerEarth can help build an employer brand

• Innovative assessment tools: HackerEarth’s cutting-edge assessment tools enable companies to showcase their commitment to hiring the best talent through merit and skill, reinforcing the image of a quality-focused employer.
• Enhanced candidate experience: The platform’s user-friendly interface and efficient process enhance the candidate experience, reflecting positively on the employer’s brand.
• Customizable challenges: By offering customizable coding challenges and skill assessments, HackerEarth allows companies to align their recruitment process with their brand ethos and values.
• Global reach: The ability to reach a wide, global talent pool with HackerEarth’s platform showcases a company’s international presence and appeal, enhancing its brand image.
• Data-driven insights: The platform provides data-driven insights into the hiring process, showcasing the employer’s commitment to transparency and informed decision-making.
• Diversity and Inclusion: By facilitating unbiased and skill-based assessments, HackerEarth helps companies in promoting diversity and inclusivity, which are key aspects of a modern employer brand.