This article has been updated on March 1st, 2023.
The tech industry has always grappled with finding skilled talent. While the demand continues to skyrocket for IT professionals, the available talent pools keep diminishing. In fact, a 2022 ManPower Group study shows employers struggling to find qualified tech talent. Global talent shortages reach a 16-year-high as 3 in 4 employers report difficulty finding the talent they need—and IT and data roles are the most in demand. So what happens when a niche role in your engineering team suddenly falls vacant? Filling that role instantly remains a pipedream. Filling that role within a week still seems farfetched. Beginning your recruiting efforts after a requirement occurs will not cut it anymore, especially in today’s competitive market. This is where having a robust talent acquisition strategy in place will have your back! In this article, we aim to explore how to –
- Reduce the impact of talent shortages on your organization and still remain competitive
- Proactively build a strong talent acquisition strategy to help attract talented developers
Settle in and let’s get to it!
How does recruitment differ from talent acquisition?
While both terms are used interchangeably, they mainly differ in their approach. To put it simply, recruitment is a short-term objective and talent acquisition is a long-term plan. To quote, “Recruitment is linear, talent acquisition is an ongoing cycle. ” Recruitment is limited to hiring candidates to fill a vacancy that exists in an organization. It begins once a role falls open. Predicting an organization’s hiring requirements, even before such a situation arises, is essentially what talent acquisition aims to do. Think of how you plan for a vacation. You anticipate the length of your trip, a rough itinerary, and other important expenses ahead of time. To get the best deals on tickets and accommodation, you do your research, plan, and book everything in advance. That is what a talent acquisition strategy is to hiring.
- List down your future hiring requirements
- Identify skill gaps in your teams
- Expand your talent pools with passive talent
- Plan and allocate your recruiting budget
- Budget in upskilling initiatives to better retain your current talent
Also read: 5 Tips From Recruiters To Fix Talent Acquisition Issues in 2023
Why is building a robust talent acquisition strategy important?
With an effective talent acquisition strategy in place, the organization can transition smoothly over its growth curves, with the confidence that as and when the need arises, a reliable pipeline of talent awaits. That’s how you hire the right people for your organization. Such strategic hiring empowers recruiters with both time and resources, which are both invaluable to recruiting. Recruiters can take their time to carefully plan out –
- How best to leverage the right tech recruiting tools to source and attract quality candidates
- Better engagement with potential candidates, well in advance, to cut down on the time it takes to fill vacant positions
- A strategy to foster diversity in the workplace
- How to boost productivity in your organization and save costs by hiring the right people
In the absence of such a planned approach to recruiting, companies often find themselves needing to hire at short notice with limited resources, often resulting in poor hires. A carefully thought-out long-term recruitment strategy will enable and empower the organization to hire superior talent. If you are serious about employee retention then invest in a good talent acquisition strategy.
Also read: 7 Recruitment Trends That Will Impact Talent Acquisition in 2023
How do you build a strong talent acquisition strategy?
Talent acquisition strategies are not generic and there is no rulebook that dictates how best to strategize. There are, however, certain best practices that can be adopted and customized to suit an organization’s requirements. Here we list some of the best talent acquisition strategies that HR departments follow.
#1 Assess and analyze the business using data
First and foremost, it is important to have a comprehensive understanding of your business, its long-term growth prospects, average monthly or yearly hiring load, past turnover trends, etc. to better understand periods of high or low demand. With tons of data available at their fingertips, recruiters are leveraging big data analytics to better assess and analyze issues associated with high turnover rates and the possible solutions to these issues. With a better understanding of the issues and their solutions, recruiters are able to make more effective hiring decisions through data-driven recruiting.
Also read: Optimize Your Hiring Process With Recruitment Analytics
#2 Leverage cross-team collaboration
Recruiting cannot happen in a vacuum. It is important to collaborate with other departments to leverage their skills in better tailoring your talent acquisition strategies. For instance, the marketing department can help you with print and digital recruiting materials that can be used to attract potential candidates. Have in-depth discussions with your hiring managers to get a detailed understanding of the job role you’re hiring for. Another vital source of information and insight are your current employees in roles similar to the ones you are looking to hire for. They are a treasure trove of information and can provide insights into the work culture of the company, what drew them to the company, what would attract them to a new role, and where would they go to find it. Collaborating in this manner with the various departments of your business can not only help you understand certain aspects, hitherto unknown, of your business but also provide you with fresh perspectives and insights into your strategizing.
#3 Allow technology to aid you
On average, recruiters lose 14 hours per week completing tasks like scanning resumes, uploading candidate data, and sending emails manually. If you invested in smart AI-powered tech recruiting tools, they can do the heavy lifting for you. It saves you a lot of time and resources. With tools like HackerEarth, be it using our product for shortlisting candidates through coding assessments or conducting remote coding interviews, it helps remove human bias out of the equation. Additionally, it makes the process more efficient and effective. To be ahead of the curve when it comes to AI and automation, it is important to take an inventory of your recruitment tools — applicant tracking system (ATS), candidate relationship management system (CRM), onboarding system, career site — and check whether these are indeed providing the quality of insights that you expect them to deliver.
#4 Work on your employer branding
Employees diligently check out a potential workplace on social media sites and read employee reviews on sites such as Glassdoor to get the real scoop on companies before applying for a job. Update your company’s policies to offer flexible working schedules, remote work options, a casual Friday, or even paid sabbaticals. Such attractive perks go a long way in keeping the employee motivated at work. Apart from these, HRs need to strategize in collaboration with the marketing manager how best to align the employer brand with the corporate logo and brand on social media, job boards as well as print and digital media. Any piece of literature that bears the company’s logo is subject to scrutiny. Hence, it is very important to put a lot of thought into everything that is being communicated on behalf of the company.
Also read: How Tech Recruiters Can Build Better Employer Branding With Marketing
#5 Reevaluate the effectiveness of your talent acquisition strategy
To remain successful, companies have to conduct regular audits, leveraging data and technology to see the effectiveness of the strategies that have been put into action. While there are several metrics used by various companies to evaluate their strategies, the most significant ones are cost, time, quality, and quantity.
Cost as a metric
A detailed analysis to determine cost inefficiencies in your process is crucial to measure the success of your strategies. Cost is an effective metric to measure quality since financial resources are limited and, if one cannot function within a budget, it is prudent to reevaluate it.
Also read: 6 Steps To Create A Detailed Recruiting Budget (+Free Template)
Time as a metric
Time is a little more complicated metric to measure the success or failure of a strategy. For instance, some processes reap rewards in the short term, while others do so over a longer period of time. A detailed, case-by-case study is essential to determine the effect time has on the effectiveness of strategies.
Quality as a metric
Quality, like time, is a fickle entity. Each organization would have a different interpretation of what it means. While one organization would value obedience, another may value innovation and yet another may define it by leadership and cultural fit. Whatever your organization’s definition of quality is, it is important to measure the success of your strategies against the quality of hire.
Quantity as a metric
Hiring more employees than necessary is bound to take a toll on company resources. However, hiring inadequately will severely affect the desired outcome and can have a damaging effect on the morale of employees. Quantity is, therefore, a great way to measure the effectiveness of strategies.
A good talent acquisition strategy is always in flux
Crafting a talent acquisition strategy is imperative to the success of your business and to ensure that recruitment as a process is conducted not merely on a need basis but as part of the strategy. Recruiters cannot afford to be reactive in their hiring. It’s all about the early bird catching the worm, and proactive recruiters landing the best, most talented candidates! However, there is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to building a strategy for talent acquisition. We hope the tips mentioned in this article will help you create and tailor a strategy according to your business requirements.
FAQs on how to refine your talent acquisition strategy:
#1 What are the essential components of building a good tech talent acquisition strategy?
A good tech talent acquisition strategy should focus on the following aspects:
- Engagement: Even before a vacancy opens up, tech recruiters need to start creating a dialogue with the developer community. This can be done by participating, sponsoring, or organizing events like hackathons where developers can network.
- Employer branding: A strong employer brand helps in attracting top talent to your organization. This includes showcasing your company culture, values, and mission.
- Recruitment marketing: Using various channels to promote job openings, such as social media, job boards, and networking events, is important in reaching potential candidates.
- Candidate experience: Providing a positive candidate experience, from the application process to onboarding, can help attract and retain top talent. Effective assessment methods, such as skill tests, coding interviews that involve pair programming and other practices can help amplify the candidate experience.
- Diversity and Inclusion: Bake in diversity and inclusion policies into your hiring process to attract a wider pool of candidates and create a more inclusive workplace culture.
- Data-driven approach: Using data to track the effectiveness of your recruitment efforts and make data-driven decisions can help optimize your talent acquisition strategy over time.
#2 What are important things to consider when creating a global tech talent acquisition strategy?
- Define your talent needs: The first step is to identify the types of roles that need to be filled and the skills required for each role. Determine if you need to fill these roles with local hires or if it’s better to relocate or outsource talent.
- Determine your target markets: Identify the geographic regions where you want to source talent from. Consider factors such as the availability of talent, the cost of living, and the cultural fit.
- Develop your employer brand: Create a strong employer brand that showcases your company’s values, mission, and culture. Use social media and other platforms to promote your employer brand and attract the best talent.
- Use multiple channels for recruitment: Consider using multiple channels for recruitment, such as job boards, social media, employee referrals, and recruiting agencies. This will help you reach a broader pool of candidates.
- Consider language and cultural barriers: When recruiting globally, language and cultural barriers can present challenges. Consider having a multilingual recruitment team or partnering with local recruitment agencies to help overcome these challenges.
- Implement an efficient screening process: Develop an efficient screening process that helps you identify the best candidates quickly. Use pre-screening tools and technology to help automate the process.
- Provide a great candidate experience: Provide a great candidate experience that showcases your company’s culture and values. This will help you attract and retain top talent.
- Monitor and adjust your strategy: Finally, monitor your recruitment strategy regularly and adjust it as needed. Use analytics and data to track your success and make data-driven decisions.
#3 Define a good tech talent acquisition framework
Here’s an example of a tech talent acquisition framework:
- Define your candidate persona: Identify the specific skills, experience, and cultural fit you’re looking for in a candidate. This may include programming languages, industry experience, project management skills, and more.
- Create job descriptions: Craft clear and concise job descriptions that accurately reflect the role’s responsibilities, required skills, and desired experience.
- Source candidates: Use various sourcing channels such as job boards, LinkedIn, and networking events to identify and attract candidates who meet your ideal candidate profile.
- Screen candidates: Use phone screens, technical assessments, and behavioral interviews to evaluate the candidate’s qualifications, skills, and fit for the role and your company’s culture.
- Assess and interview: Use skill-based take-home assessments to shortlist candidates based on their assignment score, and move them to the interview round.
- Close the offer: Once a candidate is through, extend an offer that’s competitive and fair, with salary and benefits packages that reflect the candidate’s value.
- Onboard new hires: Provide a comprehensive onboarding program that helps new hires acclimate to your company’s culture and sets them up for success in their new role.
- Measure success: Track your success in hiring top talent by measuring your time-to-fill, the quality of candidates, retention rates, and employee satisfaction.
#4 How can technology help with your tech talent acquisition strategy?
Technology can play a significant role in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of your tech talent hiring strategy. Here are some ways you can use technology to enhance your hiring process:
- Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS): Implement an ATS to streamline your hiring process and manage candidate applications. This can help you organize resumes, track candidate status, and automate communication.
- AI-powered assessments: Skill-based assessments can help you qualify candidates from a large pool. AI-powered assessment platforms can benchmark candidate results, so you can pick the best candidates that fulfill your skill requirements. They can also weed out manual errors in the assessment process.
- Video Interviewing: Video interview tools with built-in IDEs and real-time coding features can help you check coding skills on the fly through the use of code stubs or pair programming methods.
- Virtual Reality (VR): Use VR to create immersive experiences that showcase your company culture, work environment, and team collaboration. This can help candidates get a better sense of your company and the role they would be playing.
#5 How can you incorporate DE&I in your tech talent acquisition strategy?
Baking in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) into your tech talent acquisition strategy can help ensure that your hiring process is fair and equitable and that your team represents diverse perspectives and backgrounds. Here are some ways you can incorporate DE&I into your tech talent acquisition strategy:
- Ensure your job descriptions are inclusive and avoid gendered or biased language.
- Expand your sourcing channels beyond traditional job boards to reach underrepresented groups like developer communities in HBCs (Historically Black Colleges).
- Engage with diversity-focused organizations, attend diversity job fairs, and consider partnering with universities with diverse student populations.
- Train your interviewers to be aware of bias and to ask inclusive questions that focus on skills and experience.
- Create structured interviews that ask the same questions to all candidates to avoid unconscious biases.
- Identify objective selection criteria that focus on skills, experience, and cultural fit, and avoid using criteria that may perpetuate bias or exclude underrepresented groups.
- Set diversity targets and measure your success the same way you would measure TTH and cost benefits.
- Create a workplace that’s inclusive and welcoming to all employees, regardless of their background, and make this part of the employer branding activities.
#6 How do you create a tech talent acquisition strategy?
Creating a tech talent acquisition strategy involves understanding your company’s technical needs, defining clear roles and responsibilities, and leveraging various recruitment channels.
Begin by analyzing your current technical team’s strengths and gaps. Collaborate with department heads to forecast future tech needs. Then, tailor your job descriptions to attract the right candidates. Utilize online job portals, tech-specific platforms, and engage in networking events and tech conferences. Regularly review and adjust your strategy based on the results and evolving needs.
#7 What are some best practices in technical talent acquisition?
- Writing clear job descriptions that precisely define technical roles, responsibilities, and requirements to attract suitable candidates.
- Using a mix of job portals, networking events, tech conferences, and referrals to source candidates.
- Implementing technical tests, coding challenges, and interviews to assess technical and soft skills.
- Positioning your company as a desirable place to work, emphasizing culture, growth opportunities, and unique selling points.
- Promoting opportunities for professional development, ensuring talent remains updated with industry trends.
#8 What are the biggest challenges in tech talent acquisition?
The biggest challenges in tech talent acquisition currently are:
- The skills gap. There is a shortage of skilled tech workers in the market, which makes it difficult for companies to find the talent they need.
- The war for talent. Many companies are competing for the same pool of tech talent, which drives up salaries and makes it harder to attract and retain top talent.
- The high cost of hiring. The cost of hiring tech talent is rising, due to the factors mentioned above. This can put a strain on company budgets.
- The long hiring process. The hiring process for tech roles can be long and drawn-out, which can discourage candidates and lead to lost opportunities.
- The lack of diversity in the tech workforce. The tech workforce is still disproportionately white and male, which can make it difficult for companies to attract and retain a diverse range of talent.
#9 How do you build a tech talent acquisition pipeline?
Below we have listed the steps involved in building a tech talent acquisition pipeline:
- Sourcing: Actively seek out candidates using job portals, social media, tech platforms like GitHub or Stack Overflow, and through referrals. Sourcing candidates should be a regular process and should be done even when there is no active open role. Thai way, recruiters and engineering managers can keep a handy database of prospective candidates ready.
- Engaging: Maintain regular communication with potential candidates, even if there isn’t an immediate vacancy. This helps in building relationships for future roles. Hackathons are a great way to engage and connect with developers, and improve brand recognition within the developer community.
- Screening: Regularly review and update your screening processes, by employing a robust platform for conducting technical tests, and soft skill assessments.
- Onboarding: Companies see a high percentage of drop-off during the waiting period i.e. when they are waiting for a developer to finish the notice at their previous employer and join their company. It is necessary to keep engaged with the developer even during this period, and help them onboard to the new company through regular communication. The onboarding process can continue when the developer formally joins the company and is introduced to different departments and functions.
- Continuous learning: An oft-missed part of the talent acquisition process is the provision of continuous learning opportunities to developers, so that the can grow into new roles and skills and attrition can be kept low.