Article: Technical recruitments - What’s your sourcing strategy?

Talent Acquisition

Technical recruitments - What’s your sourcing strategy?

What must leaders do to pump in technological proficiencies in their organization? Read to know the fundamental tech sourcing strategies which can help create a pool of tech talent.
Technical recruitments - What’s your sourcing strategy?

“Lately, I have been scanning lot of job boards, LinkedIn and other social media sites to find a Blockchain Engineer and an Information Security Analyst, but still no luck,” utters the Talent Acquisition (TA) Head of a tech firm.

Finding the right talent in tech is indeed a tough nut to crack owing to the qualitative demand and supply gap. And the majority of leaders can very well empathize with this situation when it comes to tech hiring. We often find ourselves struggling to get the right technical talent for our company and it is quite evident with recruiters worldwide too who are majorly struggling to find skilled candidates for filling up technical positions. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, the demand for software developers by the year 2026 will grow almost 3.5 times faster than that of other occupations. This means that the challenge will continue to surge and become more competitive to navigate as time goes by.

To add to the challenge, the harrowing process of resume screening, interviews, and other traditional methods will no longer suffice with the changing technical landscape. In fact, even candidates are tired of these processes which can stretch for long hours and sometimes, even days. So, it is imperative for the Talent Acquisition process to take a whole new turn. And alongside, let us explore few areas on what all new hiring strategies can be planned to help address the problems associated with sourcing the right tech pool.

Make your TA team speak the right language

While trying to connect with tech candidates at the sourcing stage, it is highly recommended to be ready to share details that describe the job in a way which makes sense to the tech guys. Your team’s tech recruiter must know the technical details in depth. Many a time, there’s a gap of what is required from the job role versus the available skill set. Hence, hire tech specialized recruiters who speak the right language as there is no quicker way to lose a candidate’s interest than to describe something that the recruiters themselves are not sure of. One of the primary problems recruiters face is the inability to verify what the candidates proudly proclaim on their resume. Just understanding the difference between Java and JavaScript isn’t enough. To make your sourcing more effective, you need to familiarize your recruiters with terms frequently appearing in developer online profiles. A recruiter who specializes in finding tech talent will not only bring you the right talent, they will also make a good first impression on behalf of your company.

Hackathons, an impactful sourcing strategy

Not only Hackathons allows recruiters to judge a candidate’s technical skills, but also screen them on the parameter of how candidates approach a business problem. An Indiana-based file-sharing company ‘SmartFile’ hosted a hackathon named “Bake-off”, where developers were supposed to create an app for the company’s API. However, the digital marketing manager of the company was not looking for someone who won the contest. Rather, by observing the approach those candidates demonstrated during the process, they were measured and grouped under important skills like being a team player, risk-taking appetite, positive attitude in a high-stress environment and motivation levels, no matter they won or lost.

Another merit of Hackathon is that organizations not only get an excellent platform to assess candidates in a real-time environment but also build brand awareness and network with other professionals in the industry. Through a virtual hackathon, IBM promoted artificial intelligence abilities of their cloud-infrastructure service, Bluemix. IBM made full efforts in spreading awareness to about 160 million people through social media which paved the path for 5,520 registrations. A strategy like this enabled IBM Bluemix to spread the word about their product as well as source tech talent too.

Have a local network

And lastly, do establish a presence in the local tech space. A prospering tech community brings in a lot of people with similar interests who get together to socialize and then carve a way to connect to talented, passionate tech people. In case there are a lot of tech companies in your vicinity, then create a local connect immediately. There is no harm in creating a social circle through ‘Meet Up’ groups and other networking events. Remember, good community members, help each other. Make use of the tech community to your advantage for hiring.

Use sourcing tools

Effective sourcing tools bring a smile in every recruiter’s face. Platforms like Hired, CareerBuilder, Talent Bin and Zillionresumes are being used often to source the right talent. Another tool named Sourcing.io has a large database of engineers. This helps to browse using filters and focuses on social recruiting by looking through team’s online connections. HiringSolved too helps find candidates across the globe. It has the capacity to perform searches in any language and it lets the search happen ‘by example’ to find candidates who are similar to someone the recruiters upload onto their system. Finally, Github is a platform which is well-known for developers. It is a place to look through candidates’ projects and technical codings of IT professionals.

In short, have a smart overall sourcing strategy! Use AI tools and platforms to leverage various sourcing strategies mentioned above. However, make sure to have a smart and long term strategy to fill in the ambitious growth goal.

(Know more about what's next in TA at the People Matters Talent Acquisition Conference 2019 on 29th May at Mumbai. Click here to register.)

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Topics: Talent Acquisition, #PMTAC

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