Competition for high-quality software developer talent is at an all-time high. It means that companies are looking for any edge they can glean to get ahead.
Many businesses want to streamline software engineering recruiting processes and modernize hiring practices. If you are looking to do the same, it is important to ensure you implement such changes the right way to stay ahead in the game.
Below, you will find several actionable engineering hiring tips to help you get a leg up and improve your talent acquisition. With each one, try to think about how it would suit your business and how enhancing your hiring can help you bring in top engineering talent. By the end of the article, you will also learn how an RPO provider will help you create an effective recruitment framework moving forward.
Understanding the Challenges of the Software Engineering Recruiting Process
Software development recruitment is one of the most difficult areas when it comes to talent acquisition. Its nature lends itself to several specific challenges only found in highly skilled roles. By understanding and responding to each of these, you can then start to develop better talent acquisition strategies.
This career demands very professional, hard-working individuals. There is a lot of technical knowledge even a new engineer will need from day one, and that's without considering your internal processes. This can make these positions very hard to fill and harder to retain people as they try to find a company that is simpler to work with.
Also, the competitive nature of the tech job market means recruiting the best engineers is a major challenge. The talent pool is very limited as more companies need engineers to develop software, and fewer are available for each business.
Effective recruitment in the modern world requires more than posting job ads and waiting for applications. These days, recruiting the best engineers means making both your business and the job look a lot more appealing than in years past. Job expectations are at an all-time high even without thinking about the compensation package you intend to provide.
Once you find good candidates, you may also want to consider specific needs you have that the employee might not fulfill on day one. A period of upskilling might cause further delays, so bringing in people with the right knowledge is important from your first step. Or, you may need to incorporate a mentoring and onboarding process into your company, which can take time away from other tasks.
Create a Powerful Developer Employer Brand
Develop a brand identity for yourself, not only for consumers but for those who want to work for you too. It can often be thought of as a "work vs play" metaphor, with those working for you upholding the same brand values as those who buy your goods or services.
When you promote yourself in hiring spaces, try to highlight what about your working brand identity makes you unique. These should relate to your company's values and your mission as a business. This way, you can present the epitome of what you would like to be and create an achievable objective that even new hires can aim to fulfill.
Also, get people who already work for you, or have worked for you in the past, to talk about their experiences. These can help to showcase a good working environment, presenting you as an approachable company.
At the same time, make sure that you continue to generate a strong online presence. Use both your website as well as any other online locations, such as LinkedIn or external discussion groups, to present yourself. Show yourself as having strong outreach and being a part of a larger community to make yourself look like a brand people want to engage with.
You should also be proactive about your career page and website blog. Make sure that you post content regularly enough to appear as though you are not "dead", as you don't want possible recruits to think you are stagnating.
Develop a Data-Driven Talent Pipeline
During every step of your hiring process, make sure to track data on everyone who applies. This could include the:
- Demographics of individual applicants
- Universities potential hires attended
- Previous companies
- Age ranges of applicants
In many cases, you can leverage this data to help you find even more potential recruits.
For example, you may learn that several out-of-university candidates are coming from the same location. In such a case, you can make a more active effort to reach out to the university and get in contact with applicants before they graduate. You can then offer them a job on graduation, ensuring you have a new junior hire ready to work with you.
If you have online applicants, you can also get analytics on how long it takes your forms. You may find that people bounce after a certain amount of input, or that a specific application step causes significant delays. Use the data you get to streamline every step of recruitment, from the first time the applicant engages with you to hiring.
Investigate a CRM system that allows you to use this data in a useful way. Many such databases can allow you to manage relationships long-term. This lets you keep track of listed skills and contact recruits when you discover a need for them.
With such a collection of data, you can bring new hires in for an interview without needing to advertise it on a wider scale. However, be aware of how local hiring regulations handle such a practice.
Lastly, review your talent pipeline based on any data insights you get from this analysis. This way, you can always ensure you have the best process for your own needs.
Leverage Professional Networks and Social Media for Outreach
Use external websites to help you both discover and contact professionals who might not otherwise have heard of you. Sites where you might want to do this include:
- Twitter/X
- YouTube
Depending on who you wish to reach out to, you may also want to consider Reddit or TikTok. The audiences of all of these locations are very different, though. So, ensure you understand their communities and abide by the regulations on each platform.
Start by sharing relevant content on such sites. Promote your employer brand by telling people what you are doing and how you are doing it.
You should also comment on other content to make you aware of your existence in the space. This can act as an "advertisement" to your customers as well as those who might want to consider you a future workplace.
Once you have built up a following based on these actions, you can engage more directly with the community. This may involve asking open-ended questions or making an active effort to reach out to specific people.
LinkedIn also has a job search system that enables you to post job ads and receive applications. These can ask for as much detail as you wish to request, though be aware that a lot of the information will already be on LinkedIn itself. Try to balance getting information for your analytics and making it simpler for people to apply.
As well as engaging with people online, you can also attend networking industry events. These can help you to find candidates who are not necessarily looking for jobs. They allow you to talk about your goals and achievements in a more casual setting, letting you bring up the hiring process in a more natural way.
Conduct Practical and Relevant Technical Interviews
When you start interviews, ensure any questions relate directly to the software engineering field. Include interview steps such as the following:
- Coding tests
- Project-bases assessments
- Portfolio discussions
- Creative problem-solving examples
These can reflect real-world development challenges and help you assess candidate strengths. The coding tests will also help you evaluate their technical skills and how they apply specific coding strategies.
During interviews and tests, make sure any process that you use is structured and consistent. This ensures that the only difference between candidates is their ability to perform the role, not any external factors.
After interviews, if you decide not to go with a candidate, you can still use this as an opportunity. Many companies choose to skip offering feedback, preventing candidate growth. If you instead provide notes on where an individual could improve, this allows for two major benefits:
- Candidates will think better of you and talk highly of your hiring process to others
- They may decide to train in areas of weakness and return as an improved candidate
The only downside is a lack of time for many people, which is why it is common to investigate working with a talent solutions partner. These companies can get you the hires you need while you focus on the rest of your business.
Ensure Strong Onboarding for New Engineers
When you bring candidates on board for the first time, you want to make it a simple process that prevents feelings of concern about switching jobs. As such, speak to those who you hire over time to see where any bottlenecks lie in:
- Applying
- Being hired
- Steps on the first day
- Company orientation
- Transfer of knowledge
- Training in processes
- Feedback and personal improvement
Each of these areas presents areas of potential difficulty for a new hire that you can analyze with the intent of improving.
Ensure that your training processes represent you as a forward-thinking tech company that can help people get on their feet. This then allows you to develop hires over time and for them to consider you a worthwhile place to grow as an engineer.
It is not only new software engineers who might want this either. As technology continues to evolve, you will find that most hires will want to ensure they know the latest coding methods.
One great way to do this is to set clear goals and expectations for individuals during their probation period, or their first ninety days. This gives them a clear SMART objective they can focus on and get up to speed on the company's methods. It will also help them focus their learning on the specific things you need them to do to complete these goals.
Adapt Recruitment Strategies for Remote Engineers
In the past five years, the world has seen a major uptick in the number of developers who prefer to work remotely. This means that if you do not choose to include hiring remote workers, then you are likely to be cutting off a large portion of potential talent. As such, it is beneficial to ensure that your hiring processes are also remote-friendly to make the most of this situation.
Modern technology allows you to facilitate this process, not only during hiring but also as you train a new worker. These can give you transparency as to how well a candidate is likely to perform when not in an office environment.
Additionally, virtual collaboration tools and project management software are becoming ubiquitous. These allow managers to communicate and have visibility even among remote teams.
Once you have these systems in place, highlight them in your job ads. Such policies and benefits appeal to individuals who prefer remote work or thrive with flexibility.
As time goes on, also make sure to stay updated on the latest trends and best practices when it comes to remote hiring. As it is only now coming into its own, this means that there is plenty of space for ongoing improvement.
How Hire Velocity Can Boost Your Growth Today
Streamlining your engineering recruiting process can mean hiring the best team is both fast and free from challenges. The above strategies can help you get there, but for many, they might not be viable for many reasons, including a lack of time.
Hire Velocity can work with you to create developer hiring solutions that work with your existing processes. We want to help you get the best people onboard. So contact us and learn more about what we can do for you today.
