Published by: Will Pike
Having worked at Tangent now for over 9 years, I’ve worked with Global Fortune 500 companies all the way down to assisting local London Start-ups with hiring a variety of technical talent. I can safely say that over the past 12 months I’ve never seen such a candidate driven market.
This trend is rife in the technology market, as technology becomes more and more attractive to graduates and seasoned professionals now see a clear path to next generation solutions/hardware, its left a lot of businesses scratching their heads thinking it never used to be this hard to hire people! The companies who aren’t are, probably going to be very soon realising “this is a candidate driven market...”
Even having fantastic benefits doesn’t seem to solve the issue as this is common place now. Flexible working, company car, strong holiday allowance, etc are all now part and parcel of an offer letter which just doesn’t have the same effect that maybe they did even 18 months ago. Having a great product, solution or hardware is a great start but there are lots of good businesses with great products. So, how do you market yourself to the best candidate pools?
Now, I hear you saying to yourself it all sounds like doom and gloom I’m never going to hire anyone again or it’s going to cost me triple the price. There is a solution! Below are some things that at Tangent we’re doing with current customers to ensure we again stay ahead of the curve for them.
- Work with the RIGHT recruiters. Whether you use external partners or have internal talent acquisition team make sure you are using a partner who not only understands the market but has a network of trusted candidates. A LinkedIn license is no longer enough!
- Understand that the candidate now might come first. We don’t expect clients to jump through hoops for candidates as the professional relationship must be maintained however understand that you are probably not the only company on their list! Show flexibility and understand that their time is just as important as yours and ensure they feel valued from the 1st minute of the interview.
- Skill-Set. The market is evolving so quickly now and so is skill-set, customers (and you know who you are) will look for 100% fit on paper for a role. This does not secure you the best candidate for that role. Even some of the most harden coders will still need to integrate with the organisation, stakeholders and potentially YOUR customers. Have a good balance of technical skills and soft skills even if that means sacrificing a “nice to have” technical skill that you can teach.
- 50 Interviews. Unless you are a bank or hiring Executive level positions I can never understand drawing out an interview process to the point where everyone is bored. My 2nd point was understand the candidate, if you are inviting them back and forth for 7 stages of interview with every department, they will either lose faith in your business to make a decision or simply take another role with a competitor or act faster than you. I appreciate that everyone needs their say but you waste valuable time over complicating the process.
- Appreciate vanity. It’s a strange thing to say however I’ve seen more and more cases of job titles do matter. We live in a generation where contribution may not be enough and in-fact recognition in a job title is more important. Lateral moves on “paper” are not as attractive to some candidates as move from “mid” to “senior” even though the package and responsibilities are exactly the same. It’s a tough one to get round in some cases but can be the difference from a yes or a no.
Here at Tangent we are helping our current customers with all of the above and not just running with the crowd. We’ve already seen major transformations with clients hiring the right talent much more efficiently. Get in touch today to find out how we could do the same for you.