Canada’s tech talent can be compared to our real estate market – in hot demand with a supply shortage.
Canadian employers are crying out for qualified developers to lead the charge into technology-centered workforces and customer experiences, and the need has never been more palpable.
With interested employers facing fierce competition to attract top talent, a few strategic tweaks to your recruitment approach can help you get a leg up.
Start with these 6 tips for helping you land top tech talent in 2021:
1. Look outside the box.
With developers in short supply, and top talent already in roles, you’ll need to put yourself in the driver’s seat with a more proactive approach to recruitment. Simply posting on your careers site is not going to cut it for many of these roles. Headhunting allows you to find the right people for your organization, and then tailor an offer equally attractive to both parties.
2. Leverage existing contacts.
Lean on your network, they’re there for a reason. Reach out to contacts you know and trust for connections to people who may be looking for work or e-introductions to contacts with desired skill sets. If you don’t have an employee referral program in place - now is the time to implement! An employee referral program gives incentive to your current employees to reach out to their networks as well - which is proven to be an effective way of finding new talent.
3. Interview alongside a qualified tech lead.
Interviewing technical talent is much different than interviewing a client service lead. For example, most of us know there are front and backend developers, but can you differentiate the critical skills required of a Sitecore developer versus a Wordpress one? Do you know the right questions to ask, and can you spot deep digital experience on a resume that correlates with what you require internally? In short, if you aren’t fully comfortable talking the talk with applicants, bring another technical brain to the table to drive deeper digital conversations.
4. Be prepared to invest in additional training or upskilling.
Find a balance between the must-have skills versus the nice-to-haves in a dev resource and consider closing the talent gap through additional training or upskilling a candidate. For candidates that are fairly green, consider the advantages of being able to mold a junior resource through team collaboration and shadowing another senior tech lead.
5. Do your homework on expected compensation.
There’s no two ways around it – developers come with a price tag, and with a hiring market desperate for their skills, we're seeing successful candidates asking for larger than normal compensation packages. Come to the table educated on industry and role averages for salary and benefits, and make an offer that’s both competitive and fair if you don’t want to risk losing a potential applicant.
6. Act quickly.
Pre-pandemic, hiring managers had the luxury of prolonging the recruitment process for weeks or months, in favour of finding the right candidate. In these market conditions however, a lag of just days can be the difference between landing your front-runner or losing them to the competition. Be decisive, communicate next steps clearly with candidates, and don’t leave people hanging.
