Recruiting Strategies to Snare Top Talent

Insights to Improve Your Recruiting Strategies

Are you wondering how to attract top talent in IT and computing? In 2015, the economy is rebounding and knowledge workers expect more than ever from their workplace. For top technical talent, it is a “seller’s market.”

If you need to improve your enterprise’s recruitment posture, there has never been a better time to take on a challenge most executive recruiters shy away from: Coming to grips with the psychology of today's high-tech applicants.

How Top Technology Talent to Choose Between Offers

It wasn't that long ago when there were dozens, if not hundreds, of applicants for every opening at a Fortune 500 firm. Now, high-powered technology talents are seeing the trend reverse in their favor. How can you make your recruitment offer stand out?

No matter their area of specialization, computing pros tend to value certain perks:

• Respect.  First and foremost, top tech talents want respect. Most of these professionals feel their skills give them the right to rise in a meritocratic system. They dislike being talked down to and want to be convinced their contributions are valued from the start.
• Autonomy  Not every firm can give coders “free hours” to pursue their own projects, of course. Still, most top-performers in the field want to be assured they’ll have freedom to develop innovative, flexible solutions for the challenging problems they face.
• Work-Life Balance  Tech pros are perhaps the quintessential deadline workers, many putting in 12-hour days to deliver on projects. Still, they’ll balk if they sense that an enterprise is always in crisis mode. Perks like vacation, healthcare and retirement are highly valued.

How do these factors relate to your efforts to attract tech leaders? It’s simple. Many tech-specialized companies prioritize autonomy and work-life balance in the corporate culture. Very few, however, have recruiters whose recruiting strategies can speak to tech pros in their own language.

Tech pros pride themselves on their category knowledge. They sense it when a recruiter has no clue about their skills or ability to contribute. All recruiters who plan to tap high-powered Silicon Valley talent should study up on the latest trends and terminology.

Simply being able to sort “MySQL” from “PHP” can go a long way toward convincing a top contributor –- who might be browsing through wall-to-wall offers -– that your enterprise will truly value his or her insights.

To “Close the Deal,” Deliver a Challenge

Although most people pass up the opportunity, anyone could learn a little technical jargon. To have a true “meeting of the minds” with talent, one that sparks mutual cooperation, be ready to pose a challenge that ties it all together.

Before interviewing a prospect, review your firm's priorities and get an idea how he or she might fit in. Then, hit your interviewee with a "stretch goal": The basic outlines of an upcoming project, for example, or a looming challenge with no clear answer.

Now, you have a chance to learn more than you might from a month of traditional interviews. Not only can you see how prospects respond to the unexpected, but also whether their eyes light up in the face of a real challenge.

A good prospect will appreciate it!

Need expert recruiting trusted by top tech firms? Anderson Sterling Associates offers 30 years of cutting-edge recruiting strategies. Our process is often faster and more efficient than what can be achieved in-house -- and we can even recruit from your competitors. Call us today.