2021 saw an unprecedented shift from the stabilization period of 2022 and the impact the pandemic had on companies strategies and their approach to staffing objectives. Towards the end of 2021 from I’d say Q2 we saw an astonishing rise in the demand for technology talent globally which has transcended 2021 and has only increased in the first few weeks of 2022.
So what does this mean for you as a hiring manager, a business owner or even as a candidate?
From a hiring perspective it means you have to start to think differently, gone are the days that just the merit of your technology and a catchy logo will attract the top talent to your business. You have to create a complete candidate attraction process that sees smooth yet efficient interviewing processes, driven by people that have a consistent and shared understanding on how to vet the candidates that best suit the culture of your company. Culture is the key to hiring in this day and age, there is a lot of white noise around technology now with multiple vendors claiming to have the same silver bullet to solve all of the challenges faced by enterprises and end users alike, the key differentiators come from your culture, your values and what life looks like in your organization for each individual that joins it.
I still see some of the same mistakes being made, where the hubris of the organization or the hiring team is a blocker to making key hires. Approaching hiring with the mentality that every candidate should be desperate to work for their respective company; this however will lead you to falling behind on hiring goals as you miss multiple candidates, unless of course you have backed that up with an outstanding cultural/values proposition that every candidate fully understands and is brought into above/beyond the other processes they are likely to be considering. So it’s really important that you understand what makes your team and your business unique from a values and culture perspective, and more importantly how you can articulate that to each and every candidate that touches your process. Some of the top companies in the world have a very clear strategy around how they articulate their culture: Nike, Disney and Apple are key proponents of their culture and values and how important it has been to the success of their organization and their hiring strategy over the course of time.
From a process perspective, if you over complicate your processes and create an interviewing strategy that has too many stages and stakeholders you are very likely to lose talent to your competition, regardless of how ‘cool’ your tech is. We are seeing that 3 stage processes are finding the most success in terms of making key hires, any more than that and you % chances of making that hire drop significantly. How can you achieve a 3 step process if you haven’t already done so? Well firstly you can choose an interview panel of people you trust, educate them on what exactly the perfect hire looks like and how to vet that, I would also recommend some external interview training so there is consistency across the panel. Having a buddy system is also a good idea where two stakeholders in the process attend the same interview. I have seen this method prove successful in the past 12 months and is one I would recommend.
Don’t get hung up on the now, it’s important to be present and articulate the current state of play in the business and the team you are asking people to join, but what happens next? Where is the technology going, what happens in 12 months time? How can you articulate to candidates what the future might look like and how they can play a big part in that journey? Technology changes so quickly and today’s hottest technologies that are in the most demand will in 12 months be yesterday’s legacy equipment, candidates know this and will want to know that they won’t be working at a sinking ship in a year’s time. So be sure to have a clear understanding on how to articulate this to candidates in a way that you are comfortable with.
Ultimately if you can’t convince a candidate in your interview process that your business can lift their careers, give them satisfaction and purpose whilst enjoying a positive work/life balance you are going to struggle this year to hire/retain talent.
From a candidate perspective, if you are reading this as a candidate you can see that you hold the cards at the moment. I am sure you already know that though! There are countless opportunities and multiple companies battling to hire the same profile, if a company can’t articulate to you what makes them special, their culture, values and more importantly they don’t evidence to you that you will be valued and what your life could look like should you be successful in their business, is that really the company for you? There is a lot riding on making the right choice with your next role so a company should really be doing all they can to make you feel assured enough to join their organisation and prosper.
Rekall Consulting can help you as a candidate or an organisation looking to acquire talent with culture based hiring strategies. We aim to understand the culture of both our clients and our candidates so that we can put people into the organisations that best suit their values.
Get in touch today.
