They say your next hire is already hired, and nowhere is that more
true than in the tech industry. The unemployment rate for coders
in the US is a microscopic 1.9% (compared to 4.1% overall), meaning
that the ratio of passive to active job seekers is higher for the tech
industry than for almost any other sector.
At the same time, competition for top talent in this area has never
been steeper—not least of all because established players in the
industry are competing not just with one another, but with a steady
flow of fast-growing startups and a host of other industries that are
just now discovering a need for employees in coding roles.
This situation has put technical job seekers in the driver’s seat in an
unprecedented way. The onus is very much on employers themselves
to catch candidates’ attention and explain why their company
would be a great place to work, which means that there’s more
pressure than ever to go where your passive job candidates are and
familiarize them with your employer brand and EVP. Often, this takes
the form of posting paid and organic content on social media sites
like Facebook and Twitter—but it can also look like corporate career blogs, Reddit posts, and a host of other channels that are a little off
the beaten trail.
Given the way, the tech industry tends to operate, “off the beaten trail”
shouldn’t be too scary of a proposition. In fact, it should probably be
comforting that the problems we’re outlining all have technological
solutions.
Yes, transitioning from traditional recruitment methods like posting
on job boards and contracting recruitment agencies to full-on
social media recruitment means that your recruiters will have a lot
of content to define, create, and spread—but there are ways to
automate those tasks.
Sure, high numbers of impressions and clicks from passive job seekers
will require a certain amount of tracking—but high-quality reporting
and ATS integration can help give you more data than ever before.
Broadly speaking, conditions in the current hyper-competitive talent
market are going to require recruiters to function more like marketers.
As a result, companies will have to empower those same recruiters
with technology designed to make that possible. In an industry that
prides itself on progress and innovation, this should be seen as an opportunity to get smarter and more efficient, rather than as an
onerous requirement.
Still, there are open questions as to how you should go about
attracting these passive job candidates, how you should craft your
employer brand to meet their needs, and how you should implement
technology to empower recruiters. Our aim with this eBook is to
explore those questions and suggest promising answers to them, all
while providing practical advice to companies seeking out scarce
coding talent.
Success in a competitive field is all about your people—the ones
you’re seeking out, and the ones who are already members of your
team. Consider this your practical guide to making sure that those
two threads dovetail.
