Overcoming challenges in hiring new tech talent in 2022
2022 presents unique challenges when hiring for IT jobs. Big changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and a major skills shortage are at the top of the list.
Yet there’s no need to panic. Overcoming challenges in hiring new tech talent in 2022 is all about a little flexibility and doubling down on a smart recruitment process.
Here’s everything you need to know:
The challenges of hiring new tech talent in 2022
There is currently a big skills shortage for IT and engineering jobs. Available roles outstrip available highly technically qualified talent in the UK by some degree.
There are also the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic to consider. Changing work arrangements prompted many people – especially those in technical fields – to wonder if a different work-life balance might be possible.
Some research is showing that companies are hiring people they have already fired, such is their struggle to attract new talent.
How to overcome challenges in hiring new tech talent
1) Review your job descriptions
Your job descriptions may have remained unchanged through several iterations of your team. It’s always worth reviewing them in-depth before you start to recruit for a new engineering or IT job role. For instance, does your advert include:
- A good job title that is reflective of the position and responsibilities
- Only relevant, necessary details
- Specifics about the position and what candidates can expect from a normal working day
2) Promote what makes your opportunity special
In a high-demand technical jobs market like that we’re currently experiencing, the ball can be a little more in the candidate’s court than it usually is.
A truly great candidate may have multiple roles they are considering. So what sets yours apart?
This doesn’t have to be record-breaking benefits and remuneration. It could also be how well your job description shows off your company culture, vision, and aims.
3) Consider redeployment, then recruitment
Think of ways you could open up positions more suited to candidates who are an ideal soft skills fit but will need training to perfect their hard skills (this is the way that many professional recruiters suggest hiring all the time, not just when high-skill candidates are in shorter supply).
Redeployment of existing team members to head up new teams or projects – giving in-house high flyers new challenges and stymieing any perceived career halts – can be a good strategy here.
This has the side (or potentially main) benefit of heavily encouraging any promoted or redeployed existing high-flyer to stay with you rather than exploit the current glut of IT and engineering jobs to explore other options.
Keeping those skilled and experienced software developers, civil engineers, and others as part of your team is great for your company culture and lets you maintain your institutional knowledge levels as you expand.
4) Be flexible when it comes to academic background
Gone are the days when most companies demanded that candidates were the product of certain universities or engineering schools. If you want to find the best candidates these days, it’s in your interest to consider a much wider range of academic training backgrounds.
If you were hiring for a web developer job, for instance, consider people who qualified from short training courses, Massively Open Online Courses (MOOC), coding “boot camps”, or even self-taught coders.
5) Concentrate more on soft skills in recruitment
If your recruitment process places a heavy emphasis on recruiting people who are already the most skilled they can be – testing coding ability, for example – you are going to be missing out on a huge range of candidates that could be a much better fit for an organisation.
A candidate’s skills and experience are things that are only going to improve over time. Their personality and how well they fit the rest of your team, however, are essentially set in stone.
Being flexible and erring on the side of more soft skills than hard skills is likely to continue to prove to be a great way to overcome the challenges in hiring new tech talent in 2022 and beyond.
Struggling to hire the ideal tech talent for job roles you need to fill?
Let’s talk. Ernest Gordon is a specialist IT and engineering recruitment agency. We use market-leading AI recruitment technology to pair you with the best professionals.
Set up a cost and commitment-free consultation with one of our recruitment specialists today to talk through the kind of candidate you’re looking for.