IT Recruitment: Tech Hiring Challenges for 2017

…and how to beat them

by Riia O’Donnell

It’s a new year with new potential and new challenges. Development is underway, marketing plans are rolling out, budgets are reset to zero, and it’s time to restart your IT recruitment to add talent to your team.

Unless you’re letterhead says Google it’s likely you’re competing in the dog-eat-dog, cutthroat marketplace of hiring the best IT talent your budget will allow. IT recruitment in 2017 will be challenging, but here are some ways to beat the system and hire the best of the best.

Locating Talent

Whether you’re looking to fill a vacancy, build an existing department, or start from scratch, IT talent sourcing is all about location, location, location. Casting the widest net to locate talent is critical. Limiting your search to the mundane sites puts you in direct completion with all the other players searching the mundane. Of course, go to the standard sites and social media, but be creative and expand. Google Portfolios (just Google xx developer portfolio) reveal detailed work portfolios and often downloadable resumes. Crawl the chat rooms and gaming sites for talent. It’s smart to cast a wide net to see what you can reel in.

Attracting Talent

Now that your net is cast, what do you have on your IT recruitment lure that will catch their eye? What differentiates you from all the others? What do you offer that puts you over the top? Money is important, but often candidates are looking for more – flexible work schedules, remote capability, work/life balance priorities. Talk to current employees about the best selling points of your company and brag about it. Consider a video linked to your ad with staff members boasting all your selling points, or even quote employees in written ads. Standing out from the crowd can net standout employees.

Time Pressure

Everything that needed to be done yesterday is breathing down your neck for tomorrow. The pressure to get hands on keyboards is great, but the cost of a bad IT hire is greater. Getting the right staffer can be the difference between beating the competition to market or wasting resources looking for that one bad line of code in thousands. It’s critically important to make sure talent – not time – dictates your hire. Relieve the pressure by using Rankdone testing to get the right hands writing code fast.

Creating a Corporate Footprint

You know what a great company you have, but how do you get the word out? A strong corporate footprint is recruitment tool in itself. Every communication, from the shortest help wanted ad to the longest press release, is an opportunity to boost your brand. Are you eco-friendly, ultra-chill, type A driven? Can you gamify the application process? Let the world know what sets you apart, what makes you great, where you’re going and who you are, and talent will beat a path to your door.

Evaluating Talent

Evaluating available talent should be a methodical process, but with the pressure to hire it can often be rushed – a costly risk. The better option is to use Rankdone to verify skills before you even schedule an interview. Are they who they say they are? Can they do what they say they can do? Rankdone skills testing verify each candidate for you. Our tests are created by top talent who know how to trip each other up. The result – you know which candidates are qualified before you make a single call.  IT recruitment evaluation is a breeze with Rankdone’s testing platform.

2017 promises to be a great year for startups and established companies. Find out how Rankdone beats the challenges of finding the talent you need to drive innovation in your company this year.