Dos and Don’ts of Successful Tech Hiring

The IT industry has plenty of talent. But hiring is a complex business. While every candidate flaunts technical skills, only some are the right fit for an organization, team, or role. The moot point is how do you pick these people from an ocean of resumes?

Here are a set of dos and don’ts that can help you draw up and finetune your recruitment strategy.

The Dos of Tech Hiring

1. Work closely with a team: Understand what your organization’s focus and business and priorities are. Hiring can often be a tedious and monotonous process. You could just end up filling positions and meeting a head-count target. But when you know what the big picture is, then you can build a qualitative hiring strategy and process. You can’t do this alone. You need to work closely with your senior management team for this, with people in leadership roles and with your CTO and other senior tech professionals. That way you will get a business sense and you will also understand the technical skills that the roles demand.
2. Share growth opportunities: Candidates are not quite impressed with salary, perks and role clarity alone. They often look for learning opportunities. So, please present your organization’s potential for executing projects successfully. Share your tech stack with the candidates. Let them know of important client wins and case stories of how mandates were led and fulfilled. Make sure your company’s website is telling a powerful story of technical expertise and imaginative problem-solving. When candidates know they are going to be working on a team that is adding value to clients, they will believe they are going to be in a happening, thriving, learning environment. They will then want to join your company.
3.   Perform technology-enabled hiring: Put technology to good use to attract and hire talent. Social media is the best way to broadcast your opportunities. But go one step further. Use AI-based tools and applications to screen candidates and make the hiring process efficient and seamless.
4. Build good relations with all candidates:  When you are considering a candidate, make the entire process meaningful for them. Be open to them about how they are faring at each stage. Do not withhold information on the final decision. Always share the interview panel’s feedback with candidates – they value these insights immensely. Even if they are not hired, they go back feeling good about the way you treated them. This makes them good ambassadors for your company. Therefore, never keep a candidate in the dark when they are still being considered for a job with your company.
5.   See the big picture: Think about your organization’s future needs. While there may be an urge to meet deadlines and somehow recruit people to achieve operational targets, thinking long-term is always wiser. Understand what business projections your organization is making. And plan your recruitment strategy to meet those projections. This way your hiring process will be more qualitative and the retention rate too will go up.

The Don’ts of Tech Hiring

1. Don’t ignore the specific requirements: Don’t hire people with similar technical qualifications and skill sets. Make sure your employee profile is diverse. Hire specialists. Think like the manager or captain of a football or cricket team. Unless the team has players with different skill sets the team cannot put up a great performance. Similarly, specialist IT folks are required to meet the demands of different roles in different departments. For instance, among an IT firm’s client base, media companies will want to work with an IT pro who has a visual sense whereas a financial institution will want someone with banking and insurance experience.  Hiring diversely, and hiring specialists, enriches your team and makes it a high-performing one.
2. Don’t create a bad candidate experience: Don’t ever let your candidates down. This means do not stop communicating with them even if you have decided not to hire them. Treat them with dignity. They value and cherish that greatly. Also, remember, the IT industry is a place which is very dynamic. You never know when you will need to fill another role. And perhaps a rejected candidate may be the right fit. You don’t want them turning you down because they had a lousy experience the last time.
3. Avoid exaggeration and tall claims: Don’t say anything to a candidate that is not true. This means don’t hype up or exaggerate the potential of the job, the role, your company or the team. Be honest. The reason is simple. When candidates join a company and find that what they were told does not match with what they are experiencing, they always quit immediately. And they go out and talk about their poor experience with the company. You don’t want that happening.
4. Don’t neglect freshers: Don’t say no to hiring freshers. While hiring experienced professionals is important, freshers bring energy and enthusiasm to a team. This is what helps a team thrive. So, bringing on board young, fresh, talent is always a good idea. Remember, you too were once a fresher. And everyone has to start somewhere someday. So, don’t say no to freshers. Offer them a challenging role, give them a reasonable stipend and see how they work hard and blossom.

Employee referral program

In addition to those dos and don’ts, an exciting employee referral program helps in improving your recruitment funnel. Employees who are motivated and content are great ambassadors for any company. When they speak to potential candidates, the candidates are more convinced and enthused to join a company. This way the recruitment process gains momentum and attracts quality talent. Incentivizing employees when candidates referred by them are recruited is a good way to encourage more employees to refer more candidates.
Conclusion
Working diligently on your hiring process is what keeps it efficient. So, even when you say no to candidates, stay in touch with them. Track their career growth and moves. Even if a candidate is not the right fit at the moment, they may be needed for another role in the future. So, having a bank of candidates in hand, with the database always being current, is a good way to make sure you can meet recruitment targets on time, every time. 
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