Tech talent: 6 Tips to attract tech talent

Selma Mohr 3, Dec 2019 4 min
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Tech talent: 6 Tips to attract tech talent

79% of IT leaders say acquiring good IT talent has never been harder. (Enterprise Technology Trends Report – Salesforce)

Technology talent drives innovation and businesses forward. It’s no secret that tech talent is more selective when it comes to job offers and employer choice. 

Attracting top tech talent is about creating a perfect job offer package and candidate experience. The talent in the IT Industry receives many job offers and in turn analyses these offers while comparing more than just the salary. 

1. Meet monetary compensation expectations: 

Of course one part makes up the salary or monetary benefits. They have to at least meet the market rate. 

2. Career Benefits & Growth: 

Be transparent about the opportunity for career growth is important when attracting/retaining tech talent. Whether this is taking on new projects or providing personal development training/workshops/courses. This is something a potential employee analyses and the more defined the career growth is, the better you become in attracting talent.

Provide flexibility in the work of tech talent. Showing that you value quality work more than work hour policies helps to appeal to tech talent. Home office days could also be a benefit.

Other career benefits that engages tech talent include: child care, discounts on technology, relaxation areas, on-site cafeteries. 

3. Networking: 

Establishing a network in the tech community online as well as offline. Online community forums can be useful to contact tech talent, such as Github or Stack Overflow.

While offline, it is important to show presence at meetups, workshops, social events and hackathons. It can be a great opportunity to find and speak to top talent. 

4. Workplace culture: 

Workplace culture plays a huge role in the decision making of talent. Our talents at Lionstep ask for photos of the office and the team. They are curious to find out how the work environment would be. This includes questions like: How big is my team? Who am I reporting to? How diverse is the workforce? The more transparent this is presented to the talent, the better. 

For spreading awareness on the employer brand, a career-specific social media presence is helpful. Search engine optimization can also direct talent to the company, by being present on search results for certain talent, and on job search volume. Candidates check online reviews, such as Glassdoor or Kununu. Monitor these ratings and improve them if necessary.

5. Employee Experience:

Tech talent wants to work with relevant, up-to-date technology that interests them. IT candidates care about the technology they use and develop. They already learn a lot about a company based on the technology it uses. 

“84% of IT leaders say improved employee technology is critical for their company to compete.” (Enterprise Technology Trends Report – Salesforce)

6. Recruiting Process:

After going through all the factors mentioned above, you do not want to lose tech talent during the recruiting process.

Describe the job clearly. Ideally the recruiter knows its way with technology or “speaks the same language”. Otherwise the talent thinks the company is unprofessional and has no idea about technology.

Cover the employee value proposition (EVP) categories, which include:  work, rewards, organization, opportunity and people.  Since the IT industry is especially a candidate-driven market, active and passive candidates should be approached in your recruiting strategy. 

At Lionstep, our recruiters talk to more than 15,000 candidates annually. They have matched talent with companies in various IT positions. We learn from our data, and try to receive as much feedback as possible during the recruiting process. We discover our talent pool expectations, wants and no-go’s by analyzing the data. 

Statista has analyzed the main reasons for technology role candidates to decline an offer in 2019: better pay package at a competitor firm, opportunity to be attached to a bigger brand, better perks/work culture, better quality of problems and challenges, poor recruitment experience. Of course these insights might not be the same for your business. Find out why talent declines your offers to improve the recruiting process.

Looking for your next candidate? Find out how to optimize your recruiting with Lionstep. Connect with us.

Attention‼️ Currently, scammers are contacting random candidates on WhatsApp on behalf of Lionstep. Read more about it in our blog

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