Are you searching for the right tech candidate to join your organization? There’s been a lot of press devoted recently to the “war for talent” going on in our field. Although the job market is definitely still “hot” for tech candidates as we head into the fall, you can still find great people to join your team.
Here at Market Street Talent, we have a lot of experience finding great candidates – and we take pride in our ability to match them with the right cultural fit. That’s why today, we’re offering some friendly advice to help you attract and hire the right person. Adopt the following best practices to find the right tech person to fill your available position.
1) Offer development opportunities as part of the job description. Great tech people are naturally interested in professional growth. They’re creative, motivated problem solvers. If you can demonstrate the growth potential in a position, or offer a package that includes education or training opportunities, you’ll attract these IT types.
2) Find the talent on your team and develop them. If you have a great tech person in your organization that’s ready to grow, try giving them additional responsibilities and room to take it to the next level. It’s often easier to fill the entry-level position they’ve outgrown that to look for a new expert.
3) During the hiring process, bring in professionals from your organization outside of the IT department to discuss hiring positions. You want to collaborate when possible. Isolation doesn’t usually yield great results. If you want to hire a tech person with great communication skills, you should be interviewing them from the first day alongside the people that will be most impacted by their work.
4) Search for the signs of talent in the right places. Check resumes for the important tech skills, but also be on the lookout for good communication, successful past team experience, and positive response to change.
5) Have the right conversations. When you talk with potential candidates, you want not just to focus on a list of tasks, but also the large picture about current organizational problems, how they impact people, and how updated code – or network administration, a new app or website, or better IT support – could solve organizational problems. When you find a candidate that understands that they’re delivering value (instead of just a finished product), you should hire that person.
6) Look for the person that isn’t afraid to suggest solutions. This person might be asking questions about the ‘traditional’ way things are done. You want a self-starter that is confident enough to work with you, not just take orders.
7) Be willing to accommodate flexible styles of working. Do you want to attract talent? Then you’ll need to be willing to let great engineers work on their own, or coders to collaborate. It’s the best way to pull in the right people. This might also mean allowing an exceptionally talented candidate to choose to work from home one day a week.
Bonus tip: Use a great Recruiting Firm like Market Street Talent to find the best candidates. We invite you to get in touch there is anything we can do to help you find the right person. We look forward to hearing from you!