Both looking for developers and hiring have changed majorly in the last years, and strategies that were successful in the past could use some novelty and upgrade lately. Times change and hiring methods change as well. In a digital era, there are many excellent ways to recruit, and useful strategies to implement – from emphasizing the company culture to thinking creatively and communicating in a simple and valuable way, our strategies do the job excellently. Let’s see how you can improve the recruiting process with slightly different approaches.
Emphasize the work culture of your company
The first thing that any candidate would focus on is the company culture and how company culture reflects through the job advertisement. Flashy words, complex sentences, and delicate phrases are not all there is – a practical, creative, and friendly tone goes a long way and allows for a more organic and valid approach.
Proper employer branding will attract exceptional developers worldwide because everyone wants to work for a company that respects its employees. So, you need to accentuate all the best things in your company and truthfully present them with accurate substance and meaning.
The company culture consists of all people included with the brand, and the talent you assess now will likely be a brand ambassador for your company. Keep this in mind.
Make the job ad stand out
When the pandemic seems to be at an endpoint, the pool of job seekers has never been more filled than now. Due to the increase of this worldwide and the job offers, attracting top developers could intimidate you at first.
Since everything is digital everywhere you turn, and people spend a lot of time on social media, that is one place where you can display the perks and benefits of your company and the job ad is a great way to do it.
Try to keep it simple instead of too wordy. Try to have a friendly, casual, yet professional tone of voice in the ad instead of demanding or strict, which pushes away most applicants. Go for distinctive, original, simple, or unique visuals along with the ad. Everything matters once it is up and published, so avoid the mistake of making plain, boring, and strict job ads.
Learn that less is more when it comes to assessing
To those looking for a job, it is incredibly discouraging to reach some level in the interviewing process to find out that the recruiters use unfavorable hiring practices for free samples through complex and numerous tests and tasks. At this point, many job seekers abandon the process altogether, despite having a chance to get the job.
Global recruiting should be about finding the best candidates and using all the opportunities. It would be a shame to lose a great potential team member just because they needed to jump through hoops and prove their skills.
Instead, try to assess yourself as a manager or recruiter – would you resolve numerous issues and complete many tasks from start to finish and still sit in the dark for the final reply?
Another valid point to keep in mind is that you can test someone’s skills with preliminary or partial tasks, and there is no need to assign large project chunks. Complex skill-testing takes time, and a lot of information, so what you get back from the candidate could cloud your judgment.
The best advice is to try and test skills and not start the recruitment process with the notorious free sample hunting in mind.
Communicate with the candidates about their future and expectations
You can learn a lot about a potential team member through genuine, polite, and semi-casual communication. Use this opportunity during the recruitment process to ask where they see themselves in a year or two, what they will learn, and what will make them proud career-wise.
Global hiring, in general, should be all about benefits, left and right, both to management and team members. The main perk of international hiring and remote work is that higher levels get happy and very productive tech experts who manage their own freedom and time. Let the potential members feel the pleasant work culture of your company, mention how you respect their time, do not focus on micromanaging overall, and grasp every information the candidate gives you about themselves.
When you get to know a candidate as a person, not just the workforce, you can already think of possible roles to assign based on their personality too, not just technical skills.
Think broad and reach out in more places geographically
There are hidden gems talent-wise globally to those willing to broaden their research and improve their recruiting strategy.
You might need to find the best places for hiring software talent or look for another expert, but regardless of what you need, be open-minded and go for diversity and inclusion. Many recruiters and managers avoid certain geographical spots due to various misconceptions or imposed limitations. Sometimes, they could be justified, but most of the time, employers wrongly think that they don’t need to focus on most parts of the world.
One self-explanatory and straightforward example is recruiting tech experts in Ukraine. With the current world events affecting that part of the world, those who offer jobs convince themselves of how people in times of adversity are anything except passive candidates. Despite challenging and unfavorable situations, you will be surprised how great a work ethic a person delivers despite setbacks and large issues.
By outsourcing and recruiting in critical places or categories of workers, you get a gem talent for your company, but you also positively affect someone’s life.
Keep the application process simple and streamlined
A strangely composed application form is another thing that pushes off potential candidates to join your company. There is no point in creating multiple layouts for filling out several forms or manually entering the resume. At the same time, the candidate also attaches the resume and portfolio in another section.
Simplify the hiring process, and get rid of such unnecessary and tedious stages in the application forms you use. When less is more regarding testing, the same notion applies to the whole application process. For example, a double-received resume will not do you more good than a simple attachment resume via email.
Explore the developer market properly, and do not miss out on good workers just because your first application stage includes signing up, creating accounts, making double efforts for something that can be done in one step, and so on.
Include possibilities for upgrading skills
Luckily, there is one outdated opinion that starts to wear off, referring to people’s desire to upgrade themselves for the job they have or will have.
In the past, with old-fashioned hiring trends and lack of respect in the workplace, it was not surprising to see people waiting to clock out, rush home, and leave work out the door, so to say.
But, nowadays, employers are more respectful, workers are happier, and when the job is not a stress-causer, any worker is willing to learn more and earn more. Job seekers are always glad to hear that they can get a training or particular course to fit the job role perfectly and keep the job longer.
Such opportunities sound just as good as the job offers – if you can provide a course or skill upgrade to a new member, it leaves a great mark on your company culture, as welcoming and focused on productivity and self-fulfillment.
Conclusion
You can efficiently conduct the whole recruiting process if you know what you are looking for, which doesn’t apply to the vocational title.
Whether you need a successful hiring and retention strategy for software talent, or something else, the focal point is strategy. Without planning, the recruitment process can quickly become a fiasco with possibly wrong choices and many unsatisfied candidates.
Think outside the box and give up on any outdated and old-fashioned strictness. Make the application process easy and quick, and during the interviews, try to get to know the candidates, not just inquire about their education and experience.
You can never go wrong with a personal approach and good recruitment strategy to maximize professional success in the long run.
