Ten ways to attract and hire the best Developers…
We all know that Software Development roles are some of the hardest positions to fill right now. They are in high demand, salaries are rising and there is a lot of competition to attract and secure the best talent.
Here are my tips on what to do to give you the best chance to hire:
Shout about your company – don’t be afraid to promote yourselves. People love to read success, hear about fun, interesting things you’re working on and more. Build your employment brand by showing who you are as a company.
Shout about your technology – what’s on the roadmap? What have you delivered recently that your proud of? Why was it exciting? What were the challenges? Show the world what you do and therefore what a prospective employee can get involved with.
Be flexible – home working, flexible hours, output based. Listen, I know this isn’t all for everyone and we’re all different but we are also working in a modern world and these things are expected. If you want to be competitive in a very difficult market then remove the blockers and see which ones you can make work. It changes the feel of you as an employer too, one that is modern and trusting rather than looking over their shoulder and clock-watching. You’ll find offering flexibility goes both ways and that mutual trust will pay dividends.
Test appropriately – conversational, not written. Don’t ask them to do two days’ work! The days of setting a project and expecting your interviewee to go away for a week and do it are over. You need to be more clever with your interview approach. The best interviews are simply a great conversation between peers. Let’s be straight, you know pretty quickly whether someone knows the foundations and principals of code, the rest are just tools that can be learnt. Talk them through a scenario and see how they troubleshoot with you, what their approach to starting a project would be or throw an issue at them and see how they would tackle it. Geek out and have fun! You’ll get far more out of that than a test or exercise.
Show support – training, progression, mentorship. The truth is that we expect more out of our employers these days. We want to feel included, get paid well, be valued, supported and learn, progress and grow. Have training tools (Pluralsight, etc.), set up a mentor programme where everyone has a mentor and can be a mentee and give your team time to train. The best package one of my clients offers? Friday afternoons to train, do passion projects, use pluralsight and read. Every Friday.
Build your recruitment brand – start with a web page about what it’s like to work with you. You market your business to clients, do the same to prospective employees. Have pictures of the office, the latest event, some videos and testimonials from employees. Have an interesting technical blog. Be thought leaders. Get involved with your local tech community. Set out your stall and show them why they should want to come and work with you and what they will be working on. Think about what you would want to see if you were looking for a job. Sell yourselves.
Be open – look for mind-set, not just current skills. Look for potential. If it takes six months to hire a seasoned developer, could a great junior be getting up to speed in that time? Do they need to have used your specific language? I placed a great .NET Developer in a React/Node role recently because he is a great DEVELOPER, he knows the foundations of code, can adapt quickly, has a solutions mindset and can pick up new tools with ease. The best coders are usually somewhat agnostic, take advantage of that.
Be quick – the best will have ten interviews within two days of starting their search. TWO DAYS! I promise it’s not an exaggeration. If a Developer puts their CV out there they will have ten missed calls in the first hour from recruiters and companies. 24 – 48 hours later they have interviews set up and are not looking for any new conversations. Within a week they should have two job offers. Refine your process, ensure it is thorough but swift and most importantly make time and be flexible otherwise you will continually lose out.
Stand out – Why you over everyone else? Don’t know? If not, you need to think about it. Recruitment is a two way street, a candidate needs to show you why you should employ them and you need to show them why they should chose to work for you. Get your sales pitch ready, be open, honest and let them look under the bonnet. Show them that they will be valued, they will progress, learn, innovate and have fun. Think about your current team, sell the culture of your people, who’s going to be a great mentor for them, who can they mentor, what will they be working on and how will you support and look after them. What do you do for your people, your customers and your community. Why should they get behind you and your brand.
Get someone brilliant to do it for you – engage with a passionate recruiter who will become your advocate. Someone who will get excited about your brand and promote you in a difficult market. A great recruiter will ask all of the above questions before talking about your role. They will then paint a picture to every candidate about why they should interview with you; the good, the bad and the ugly! Detail being the key. They will find out if you are a great match for each other and if you are, will show that candidate exactly why they want to work for you. They will get them excited and passionate before they have even met you and support your recruitment process, attracting the best people to give you the best chance of hiring them.
