As more and more people become dependent on technology as a way of life, tech people are a hot commodity these days. Companies are beefing up their hiring process to get the best talent first, so their business gets ahead of the curve.
If you’re a startup, you might find this situation working against your favor. Since many candidates might be looking at bigger companies first rather than smaller ones, you might be losing a large chunk of potential employees to large corporations.
Another possibility is that you’re not optimizing your hiring process and candidates do not see your potential as a great employer. Remember that it’s now a candidate-driven market out there where jobseekers are deemed as critical as employers are when it comes to choosing the company they want to work for.
But with the right strategies, you could have more success in getting the right tech talent to work for you. Here are a few of the best recruitment practices that have worked for startups, which you could apply to your budding organization.
Look for passive candidates
Passive candidates or those who are not actively seeking for a job could be your potential employees because they have not really made themselves visible in the job market.
Without other companies at their heels, you could be the first one to get their attention, especially if you come with an attractive pitch about your brand, as well as how they could be a part of your business’ success story.
Consider rehiring
Sometimes, you come across a rare recruit who had to leave for some reason.
Rehiring your star employees is a logical decision, considering that they have already experienced working for your company. That said, you need to make sure to give every employee a fair treatment so that when they leave, you will have gained an ex-employee who will be willing to reconnect with you anytime you need them.
Rehiring an ex-employee requires a different approach. First, take note why your target former employee left the company. If it’s an internal issue involving workplace policy or compensation, make sure these issues are already resolved before you talk to your prospect. If it’s an issue between him or her and other employees, maybe rehiring is not the right thing to do.
Next, assess if the position best suits your ex-hire and how your team will react to this rehire. Ask yourself if this move will benefit your company and present employees in the long run. It’s also best to take a second look at your current team and find someone you might have overlooked for the position
Find great candidates on social media
We all know the influence and reach that social media wield on people of today’s generation, which makes social hiring no longer just a recruitment trend but a strategic step in the process.
A good majority of recruitment consultants are creating professional networks on social media where a high percentage of promising candidates can be found, as they try to explore new job opportunities on channels that they are most familiar with.
For HR professionals, LinkedIn is a top recruitment tool. This social network offers different hiring strategies like Advanced Search where you can look for people based on their skills, locations, and job titles using specific keywords
On Facebook, create social media campaigns for your company’s hiring process. Focus on making visualized content like videos or photos since these types of content get more engagement than the normal text statuses.
Twitter is also becoming a good network for people who are looking for jobs, so make sure you’re visible on this platform. Create hashtags that potential candidates can search for, post engaging tweets and start a collaborative interaction with people who showed interest in your job posting.
Use niche job sites/boards
Posting on job boards may be a traditional approach to hiring, but it still works even for IT recruitment. You’d want to leverage this strategy especially because job sites are one of the first places that jobseekers go to.
Niche job boards, in particular, help you narrow your search, as these platforms are targeted at specific groups or profession. Some of the elements that make a neat job post include a killer job title, a compelling introduction to the job, a brief profile of your company, and an outline of the application process.
Additionally, Facebook and LinkedIn can also be used as a niche job board. Create groups or pages targeted to a specific industry. Invite passive and active candidates to these communities to widen your network. This strategy allows you to connect with different professionals who are experts in their field.
Have an office space that the people in the industry would want to work in
For many employees, the office is an extension of their personal space. It’s not only a place where they work but also an environment where they could simply be themselves.
Being a startup may be an advantage because it could mean you won’t have that traditional office set-up found in other companies.
You could have an open space layout that tech companies like Google and Facebook are also fond of, but be sure everyone is prepared to respect certain boundaries as well.
Seek referrals from your employees
If you love the employees in your bunch, then you’ll likely see potential in their colleagues or peers who work or think as they do. You could ask them for referrals who have the same level of technical skills and work ethics so that you’re more or less confident that they can perform well in the organization.
To increase the success of your referral program, you have to set clear guidelines including how to get incentives for your employees who are acting as your talent scouts. You could also train your employees to represent your company in their referral efforts best.
You might want them to highlight, for example, that your company rewards creativity and innovation as core values among your employees, so only those who think they can make it to the cut will be encouraged to advance to the hiring process.
Promote excellent interns to become regular employees
When getting interns, make sure these budding professionals have the right skills and determination to survive in the tech startup industry. Include the managers in the decision process to make sure you’re on the right track.
Once you already have a set of deserving interns, keep tabs on them because they could be your future employees. Take note of their strengths that may serve as good reasons for you to hire them once their internship ends. Similarly, you’d also need to keep track of weaknesses they might have shown so that you could help them address those issues when they finally go onboard.
Interns don’t naturally become excellent. Good training and proper leadership skills make them outstanding interns that will surely benefit your team in the future.
Consider outstanding remote talents
Remote workers are growing in number (and strength) for many startup companies. Many of them will not have second thoughts being part of a small organization not as a regular employee but as a freelancer, which could help you cut overhead costs.
Telecommuters, remote talents, and freelancers usually have multiple company affiliations as their clients, so you should be prepared to manage them from a distance, especially when it comes to ensuring that they can meet quotas and deadlines.
Partner with a recruitment firm
Establishing a startup and overseeing the creation of your team at the same time is not easy, and for many entrepreneurs, one of the best options is to team up with a recruitment consultant.
Getting a recruitment firm can free you up from the nitty-gritty of finding and screening talent and allow you to focus on developing your business model and relevant areas in company operations.
A recruitment consultant has the proper know-how in networking with potential candidates whether it’s on social, job sites, career fairs end events, and identifying which of them are a right fit for your organization.
Make your CEO the chief recruiter
In every organization, the CEO is expected to set the bar for integrity, high-impact performance, and all the positive values you’d want in a team.
When the CEO is also acting as the chief recruiting officer, there’s a higher likelihood that the quality of recruits will live up to these standards. CEOs have years of industry knowledge and experience that can help distinguish deserving, talented recruits.
Hiring the right talent is always a challenging task for many companies, but possibly more so for your startup firm. Not only will you have to square it off with more established business brands like a David vs. Goliath battle of sorts in attracting talent, but you also have to make sure that you’re making the right decision for the people you hire.
The strategies discussed here can provide you a good head-start in establishing a system that you can apply for your startup’s IT recruitment goals.
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