COVID-19 led to a lot of recession and shrinkage in a lot of sectors and industries in the US. But while the labor market is shrinking, there is a certain shift in jobs and opportunities. A lot of companies are still hiring, especially IT companies looking for engineering talent. And recruiters in these companies need to adapt their strategies for hiring to the current situation.
If your recruiting team can reinvent the interview process, the employer brand, and the work from home culture, you have a much better chance to successfully hire top software developers.
Tech recruiters should become familiar with all available sourcing strategies and resources to be able to find top talent during these times and for their companies to come out of the pandemic stronger than before.
Demonstrate your Work From Home culture
Before even starting the interview process, you need to highlight everything that makes your company a great place to work. Candidates will appreciate the opportunity, especially those that have been laid off work and will be working remotely for the first time in their life.
Here are several good tips on how to showcase your WFH culture:
- Build a dedicated career page or section for your engineering department
- Create a committee that is accountable for improving your work-from-home processes and culture
- Create or update your company profile on TheMuse and BuiltIn, and reach out to local newspapers and content creators to feature your company in some of their content.
- Embrace and emphasize best practices for remote working and introduce customized wellness solutions for your teams so that candidates that your company is real action, not only words. Make sure that you include these on the dedicated WFH page on your website.
- Ask your current engineers to participate in dedicated tech projects and hackathons. These can boost team morale and help elevate the company brand.
To be able to have a great WFH culture, you should also aim to source candidates who already are experienced at working remotely.
Be present on job boards and monitor layoffs in the tech industry
Savvy tech recruiters always have their fingers on the pulse of the IT community. There are several job boards you could use to connect with top tech talent and look for opportunities. For example, Glassdoor recommends having your job listings as ‘remote’ and have provided new features such as the opportunity to post a designated COVID-19 update for your company. AngelList has made it very easy for employers to browse new tech talent, and Parachute aggregates smaller lists which you can import candidates straight to your Applicant Tracking System. You could also add your company to the lists available on First Round Capital for companies that are hiring.
Unicorn matches tech talent with the right companies. You will also be able to find various levels of expertise so that you can look for entry-level candidates as well as senior roles and anything in between. Because of the help Unicorn gives applicants with relocation, you will have a much larger talent pool to choose from. You can even hire remote workers from anywhere in the world. Each Monday, you get an email with all of the new candidates who meet your search specifications, helping you to stay ahead with new talent. Unicorn also has a meticulous candidate screening process, guaranteeing that you have a selection of qualified candidates.
Use software tools built for COVID-19
After you have communicated the WFH culture of your company and added the job postings to job boards with high traffic, it is time for the interview process. Use some of the interview tools that offer discounts due to COVID-19.
For example, Workable released a remote video interview capability that allows candidates to record their responses to pre-set questions at their own convenience via video. This feature allows recruiters to surpass the initial phone screenings. And after you can schedule interviews easier with its recruitment solution with which you can conduct real-time interviews through a video conferencing solution. We recommend GoRemote, a solution that has been developed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to help organizations transition to remote working.
Hiring the right person can greatly impact your company’s bottom line. Research shows that top performers are 400% more productive when compared to an average worker. These top developers are usually responsible for 80% of the work that is done by your team. As you can see assessing a developer’s skill before you hire them is crucial.
You can screen candidates for job-specific skills like coding as well as more general skills like soft skills by using assessment tools such as Killercoder. Killercoder comes equipped with numerous pre-employment assessments that help you hire better.
