My Top Tips For Attracting Tech Talent To Your Business

A perfect storm of increasing demand and a declining workforce over the past few years has made attracting tech talent much harder.

Issues including a diminished workforce post-Covid and the impact of Brexit making it harder to recruit from abroad has negatively contributed to the UK’s widening skills gap in the tech industry. Furthermore, an increasing desire to take advantage of the latest technologies, such as cyber security, cloud infrastructure, and AI technology, has meant that the number of professionals available in the sector is too small to meet the demand. Thus creating a situation whereby businesses are stretching themselves to compete for a limited number of qualified tech professionals.

In my 10+ years working in IT and technical recruitment, I have helped multiple businesses establish the best routes to market. Recruiting IT talent isn’t a transactional activity (much to many people’s surprise!) – I spend large amounts of time supporting businesses to build candidate-centric interview and assessment processes, that identify the very best IT professionals whilst attracting that tech talent at the same time. By working with businesses on their internal employee value propositions, their hiring processes, and talent acquisition strategies, I support businesses in opening up and engaging vast pools of talent.

How to attract tech talent: Define your EVP

What is an EVP?

Your EVP (Employee Value Proposition) is essentially what you as a business can offer candidates and employees. It forms part of your company’s ‘brand’, and covers the aspects of your company culture, compensation, career development, and benefits that will make candidates want to be part of your team.

Why is it important?

Recruiting tech talent can be really tricky for businesses. With 72% of businesses experiencing difficulties in hiring tech talent in 2022, your EVP will form a crucial part of your talent acquisition strategy to find IT talent.

For employees who are looking to change jobs in the next 12 months, the top 4 reasons they give for leaving their current jobs are the need for better salaries, improved work/life balance, career progression, and increased flexibility. In order to both attract tech talent and then retain it, a strong EVP is vital. According to a survey by BambooHR, 31% of workers leave a job within the first six months, and 68% of those depart within the first three months. Therefore a strategic recruitment and onboarding process can reduce these high turnover rates by helping new employees feel connected to their roles and valued by their employers.

How you can create an EVP

Firstly, I would recommend taking a step back to evaluate the types of tech talent you want for your business and what motivates them. You will then need to consider the following:

• What is the salary range for this job role? Is there a bonus scheme or anything similar available?
• What career opportunities can you offer tech talent at your company?
• Are your company’s values and mission statement clearly defined?
• What does your employee benefits package currently look like?
• Do you offer remote or hybrid work or would you consider it for the right IT professional?

Developing your company’s EVP can be time-consuming and complex. However, a recruitment agency like VIQU, can help you define your EVP and then promote it to attract tech talent.

Promoting your EVP

Having a fantastic EVP does nothing if candidates can’t see the evidence of it.

Using social media is a key way to communicate your company benefits and values. Don’t shy away from posting company socials, employee appreciation, and internal promotions. These can all help you when recruiting tech talent. By showing evidence of your company culture in your social media, it is a great way for attracting top talent and getting them excited about your company.

Attracting tech talent through your EVP

Flexible Working

A popular working benefit you can offer as part of your EVP is flexible working options.

There are many different types of flexible working such as remote, hybrid, 4 day work week, as well as flexible hours. So it’s important you consider what works best for your business

Recent statistics show that the IT industry is leading the way in remote working, with many in the sector preferring to work remotely. Candidates are attracted to remote/ hybrid options because they offer the possibility of better work-life balance, with commuting no longer taking hours away from them each week.

Even for businesses, flexibility seems to be a more popular option for many. The big 4 day work week trial in the UK, spanning from June to December 2022 ended with 56 out of 61 companies in the trial deciding to continue with shortened hours. Many companies noted that productivity and performance had not been affected by working one day less a week and for a number of companies it actually improved.

By offering remote working as a flexible working option, you will be opening yourself up to a much wider pool of candidates. If there is no obligation to come on-site, you will find candidates from across the UK, even outside of the UK, applying. With such a tight labour market, this can be an easy way to access a larger pool of candidates.

Keeping this all in mind, if you do decide to start offering remote positions, firstly consider curating a remote hiring strategy. At interview stage, you’ll need to have specific questions to make sure the candidates would be suited to the setup. Remote working is a very popular policy, however, it does not suit all businesses and workers.

Wellbeing

Glassdoor has reported that over 40% of employees choose their employers based on their ‘health and wellness’ benefits. This is not a statistic business should ignore! Offering health and wellness benefits is clearly a must when attracting tech talent.

An easy way to do this is by offering an Employee Assistance Program (EAP), which often includes helpful benefits such as counselling sessions, or a free helpline. Other options might include discounted gym packages, company sick pay, health insurance, or a paid ‘mental health day’ option. This kind of program can convey to your candidates that you prioritise and value your employees, signifying a healthy work culture.

Career development and growth

Showcasing how as a company you are invested in a candidate’s career growth is a great way of attracting tech talent.

Even if you are unable to offer high salaries or discounted benefits, offering regular training opportunities is a great way to show candidates that you value what they can bring to your company and see them as a long-term asset to the business.

Furthermore, if you are unable to find or secure IT talent at a specific experience level, consider hiring someone with less experience. You can offer upskilling and career growth to the level you need. This is both an attractive proposition for a new hire as well as a great way of filling the skills gap you have in your company.

Recruiting tech talent: Your recruitment process

One aspect of why you may be falling at the first hurdle when recruiting tech talent is your hiring process.

Job descriptions

This is often the first introduction candidates will have to your company and brand. 24% of job seekers have said they were turned off by the job advert’s tone. Job descriptions that resonate with the candidates you want to employ are a key way of attracting tech talent.

Including the salary is of the upmost importance. According to statistics, 78% of people are put off by job adverts without salary expectations. Especially for talented and experienced IT professionals who are in high demand, they will choose to apply somewhere else where the salary and benefits are more transparent.

Furthermore, recruitment agencies like VIQU, can help write and optimise your job description. With an important understanding of what is essential to you, but also the motivations of why tech professionals want to switch roles, we can curate your job advert to attract the top candidates.

The interview process

When finding the right IT professional, you often need skills assessments and a multi-stage recruitment process to be sure you are selecting the right person. However, there shouldn’t be more than 3 or 4 stages at most. Long and complicated processes can be a big turn off for candidates. They will probably be interviewing with multiple companies, so you must strike the balance between making sure they are the right fit and not taking too long and losing them to a competitor.

Stay efficient by hiring an IT recruitment agency to optimise your recruitment processes. By taking up the bulk of the small admin tasks for you, and even conducting first stage interviews on your behalf, can help you save time. Thus, giving you the ability to make quicker and sharper decisions on the candidates you want.

IT recruitment agencies can also help keep your candidates engaged with regular communications and updates. With competition between businesses so high, you need to make sure your candidates don’t get disinterested and poached by anyone else.

If you are looking at methods and approaches for attracting tech talent to your business this year, our specialist team of IT recruitment consultants have the expertise to support your efforts. Please contact us here for advice and support.