How to hire technical talent the right way(Part 1-Sourcing)
The world outside is changing faster than the world inside. New technologies emerging every day are changing how we think about work and life itself. With these new changes come new challenges & opportunities for the workplace. Many forums, for instance, have addressed the growing concern by employees about automation replacing them. HR is at the forefront of this transformation in many ways. They are the ones to lead the change internally, communicate to employees about the impact and how it will affect their jobs, and even more importantly serve the company strategically by developing or hiring staff with the new skills needed for the 21st century. But technical people are just not any hires. A few challenges make it hard for HR to hire technical talent such as;
i. We’re still using the wrong techniques. Most roles filled by HR are sadly still filled by evaluating resumes and comparing them against the standard job requirements. However, reports are continuously showing that these and interviews are highly ineffective. Especially for technical roles which are more demonstrative.
ii. We’re looking at the wrong places
iii. We’re not selling the right things the right way
“A lot of small tactical things make a much bigger difference than the executive strategy of committing to this big goal by 2020”- Sarah Nahm CEO Lever
Sourcing- Getting someone to the door
Like we say at Jobonics, a great company will go out of its way to impress you. Unlike other hires though, techies know they are in demand and thus require more convincing than usual. For HR to get sourcing right, however, they need to throw away the traditional rule book on hiring. All hires are not the same and thus should not be treated that way.
Most jobs especially admin ones receive over 500 applicants within days in Kenya. The traditional approach of job postings on job sites and then sieving CVs is simply not enough. It’s similar to companies just expecting good sales leads without marketing effort. Marketing supports sales and vice versa. This kind of sourcing also reaches out to just 15% of the actual talent pool since most of the top candidates you’re actually after are passive lookers. Employer branding is critical with millennials because you don’t pick talent. Talent picks you! Sourcing is thus moving from a reactive process to a proactive marketing one.
So if job sites alone don’t work, what does?
- Social Media-Techies are always online. And they consume everything from Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to Instagram! Find them where they already are online. A 2017 CareerBuilder survey found that 70% of employers now use social media to screen potential hires. Twitter, for instance, is a good way to do an initial reach out once you have evaluated someone’s knowledge of the subject matter based on their conversations online. Most candidates also are wary of LinkedIn because they know recruiters are watching. This poses a great opportunity for recruiters to see people in their true selves on other social media sites chatting away about neural networks to the World Cup! Social Media reveals more than 60% of what a CV will normally show. Especially critical aspects like values, personality, and interests. Millennials have also found interesting ways to showcase their work or ask for jobs on social media.
Being actively present on social media by highlighting your company brand will also show candidates that you’re tech-savvy. Posting ads in bite-sized forms on social media makes them easily shareable and increases visibility for your ads. According to Betterteam, nearly 95% of recruiters use social media to post and promote job openings, and 59% of employees say they chose their current work in part because of the company’s social media presence.
2. Content Marketing- Types include text, video, audio, or a mix. Distribution includes platforms like Blogs, Podcasts, tech sites, publications, industry-specific sites, email & newsletters. Techies know part of their employability involves keeping abreast of current trends & updates. DAILY. With so many tech blogs getting readership across the region, it makes sense to post jobs or even talk about your company as an employer of choice on these platforms. Such sites include Tech Moran, Wired, Quora, Medium, Cubed, iHub, Disrupt Africa, Dice, Stack Overflow, Github, & many others. An example is this great Talent Analyst job ad on Medium by First Round. Free of charge and reaches just the right caliber of candidates. You can also use these mediums to showcase the cool projects your company is working on. And if possible, let the employees tell their stories themselves. Examples of content you can share include strategy, opinions, analysis, product, customers, teams, information, research, feedback, testimonials, interviews FAQs, etc. Check out how Slack & Spotify use blogging to be more transparent about their work culture & get feedback from candidates. You can also read our 3-part series on how to improve your job advertising using marketing principles.
Great content is the best sales tool in the world- Marcus Sheridan
Today’s industrial marketers must learn to adapt with creative ways to implement and leverage new media. — Charli K. Matthews, Empowering Brand
3. Get social- Because tech is very intense work and frustrating, it’s not rare to find that techies love having a good time. Last Friday for instance after attending a networking event, my friend called me up for a drink nearby. He’s a data analyst at one of the Big 4 firms. Upon arrival, I was shocked to find a whole table of the IT department. We drank, danced, and even got time to discuss programming languages while at it! This might seem unconventional and it’s probably because it is. Remember, you are not just trying to get the best but competing with other companies. People also tend to open up more easily in social venues as opposed to interviewing rooms. 53% of recruiters also admitted that meeting in casual settings is one of the most useful interview innovations in the 2018 Global LinkedIn Report. Find out what your candidates are up to while job searching & meet them there.
4. Go Nude-Culture & compensation are the primary factors that will determine if you will hit your hiring goals. The Google Workplace song is not just a cliche. Yogurt machines and free laundry days with sliders in the office are fast becoming mainstream with startups. The 8–5 rule with timesheets and sign sheets just doesn’t work with most of these hires. Freedom is their mantra and they want a place that can inspire them, remind them to be human, and help them not go crazy! Give them that. Show them that. Everything from your job description to the office has to demonstrate your employer's values. Companies that are more transparent about their processes, culture, mistakes, and leadership are more likely to get quality candidates for their jobs. See how Gitlab & Slack are doing this or check out our new article on culture building.
Above all else, millennials are looking for(Dave Ulrich Twitter);
Challenging responsibilities
Autonomy to control their outputs
Participation in decision making
Visible & valuable recognition
Remember also that continuous learning & leadership go undisputed as well as one of the key factors influencing hiring decisions by techies. It’s thus no surprise why soft skills are being ranked the highest priority by talent developers in 2018. This is also because these are skills that machines can never have which will ‘secure’ your staff against redundancy.
For this to work effectively, on the contrary even if techies are always mobile & online, the 70–20–10 learning approach works for them. This approach holds that individuals obtain 70% of their knowledge from job-related experiences, 20% from interactions with others, and 10% from formal educational events. Holding open learning events for devs on their topics of interest can also serve as a way to expand your talent pipeline. Another program to highlight to devs is also reverse mentorship programs where they are paired with ‘older’ staff to teach them new stuff.
5. Events & Communities- The tech industry is one of the most interconnected. Collaboration is the backbone of the community and thus the rise of ‘open source’. User groups, hackathons, workshops, and social events exist for almost every technology that exists e.g Bitcoin Kenya, Ai Kenya, Python Ke, Django Girls, Facebook Developer Circles, Nairobi Design Group, Java User Group, Nairobi Women in Machine Learning & Data Science, Black in Ai, etc. Some are online as pages or WhatsApp groups and others meet physically. Partnering with these groups can serve as an easy gateway to a targeted niche group especially if you get ambassadors to work with you. You can even go as far as hosting a recruiting event to just let the community know you’re hiring.
Events will also serve to grow your network. As well as tapping into your employee network through the networked alliance. Referrals have proven to be more effective & cheaper than other sources of hires and the trend is also common with tech hires. Invite past employees while at it and get them involved. Check out career & job fairs, and campus recruiting events, in your community.
6. Social Proof-People trust people, not institutions. Since most technical hires are also made through referrals, it makes sense then to work on your brand because bad news travels faster than good news. It sometimes takes just one tweet or screenshot of your terrible email for a trend to be up in an hour. Monitor your reviews online and make sure to be on top of all negative publicity. Even if not HR-related. A brand is everything to millennials. With information publicly available now for sharing, candidates are more skeptical of what you’re sharing and will investigate both the good & the bad. Do an online & offline search to discover what candidates think & say of you.
If potential employees see good or bad reviews from their peers, the chances of generating interest with them are higher or lower. DO NOT ever underestimate how small this new world is.
7. Use tech-specialized recruiters- Have someone who’s hiring your techies who knows what they’re talking about. This may sometimes mean collaborating with the existing tech talent in the office or hiring recruiters with experience in tech industries & firms. This will make a good first impression on the candidate and they will not feel like they are just another candidate for HR to interview or a job to close. Emotional branding is about the fact that the human mind makes decisions in 2 ways-rational & emotional. Appeal to both during your engagement!
8. Freelance Sites-With telecommuting and remote working being almost a norm with technical hires, checking out freelancing sites such as Upwork can be beneficial in helping you get some new applicants and even check their reviews.
9. Expatriates- Not a widely sought-after group by recruiters but actually since Africa doesn’t offer training on most of the upcoming technologies, many learners are forced to study and work outside to gain those skills. Some of them return home and look for opportunities to ‘give back’. Joining expatriate groups online & offline can give you access to an untapped talent pool of highly skilled tech professionals.
10. Diversity Hiring-Diversity in tech is not a new agenda. It’s now the biggest priority for hiring managers in 2018. If you’re looking to improve your diversity numbers, more targeted efforts in sourcing need to be made. This can include University Fairs and diversity groups like Black in AI or Black Girls Code for instance.
11. Develop & Nurture Partnerships- Forming long-lasting relationships should be the mantra of The Alliance. Sadly this is not the case as work overload, poor systems, and ineffective recruiting strategies reduce HR to just skimming through CV batches. Hiring developers is a long-term engagement. It’s a courtship that can sometimes mature even in years just to get the one. Patience is key here. But it is key to always keep investing in the relationship and stay in touch. Keep track of your contacts, talent pipeline, and past employees through the use of technology tools. Be authentic all the time otherwise, your intentions will be known and you’ll look like a fraud like this guy here.
In conclusion, you’ll notice that most of these techniques are outbound. A trend Dave Ulrich refers to as ‘HR outside in’. The organization is slowly opening up and allowing the world to get in. It also means HR teams need to get out into the world and interact firsthand with their customers. An approach commonly referred to as ‘GET OUT OF THE BUILDING’ by Steve Blank in Lean Manufacturing and involves discarding what you think you know about your customers and ‘genchi genbutsu.’
Genchi Genbutsu is a key concept at Toyota and the Toyota Production System; it means “go and see for yourself.” Lean Startup By Eric Ries
Without strategy, content is just stuff, and the world has enough stuff.- @arjunbasu
All in all, the most important trend in HR for the future is engagement. The future of HR is not more tech but rather more interactions. Avoid assumptions. Don’t generalize. Approach all hiring with an entrepreneur’s mindset-Build, Measure, Learn. Get out of the building and go see for yourself. Some tactics may work for others but not for you. And lastly, use as much data as possible and avoid gut decisions. By tracking your hiring process you will be able to identify the sources that are working for you and gain a better understanding of the numbers & reports you’re receiving.
As Mark Zuckerberg said, “Data settles all arguments.”
“First, remember that “Metrics are people, too.” We need to be able to test the data by hand, in the messy real world, by talking to customers. This is the only way to be able to check if the reports contain true facts. Managers need the ability to spot check the data with real customers. It also has a second benefit: systems that provide this level of auditability give managers and entrepreneurs the opportunity to gain insights into why customers are behaving the way the data indicate.”
- Pg 147 Lean Startup Book by Eric Ries
Combine these with the other sourcing methods like;
- Boomerangs & Alumni Programs
- Employee referral programs
- Resume mining
- Cold calling
- Talent Pool- Current & leads who never applied
- Ads- Offline & online
Got any more ideas? Share them below
Read part 2 here on long-term talent sourcing strategies.
