Hiring the right candidate is more challenging than people realize – especially when it comes to hiring for IT and digital roles. Heavy workloads pressure hiring managers to ensure they make the right choice the first time. In a historic 50-year-low unemployment environment, the majority of hiring managers are ill-equipped to source candidates: identify and entice the high-end, niche talent they need. They frequently encounter a range of common hiring problems that often lead to a serious error: on-boarding the wrong hire…if they even make it that far.
Considering the rising cost of bad hires, estimated at around 30 percent of an employee’s annual salary, it is critical to understand the hiring problems you will likely encounter and develop a plan to handle them. In our 20-year history, System Soft has identified six common problems for hiring IT and digital talent.
- Limitations Around Experience – It’s hard to find candidates that can effectively speak to the experience on their resumes. Although they may look good on paper, it’s a major red flag if a candidate cannot explain and demonstrate examples of the experience outlined in their resume or portfolio.
- Lack of Niche Skills – High-end, specialized talent is incredibly difficult to find or is simply not on the market because they are all already employed.
- Culture Deficit – Finding candidates with the required technical expertise and skill sets is a challenge made more problematic by the need to mesh well with a client’s culture. Technical expertise and previous work experience are typically the main decision drivers for hiring departments but they often don’t take into account how the individual would mesh with the group they would join, potentially spelling disaster for team morale. Interestingly, one of the top reasons people are terminated or resign is due to a culture conflict.
- Candidate-driven Market – Enticing and retaining high-end talent is just hard under tight budget restrictions. In a candidate (seller) labor market, the landscape is hypercompetitive for the best talent. If you can’t offer competitive salary and creative benefits, you won’t get who you need. It’s as simple as that.
- Lack of Specialized Recruiters – Most are often not trained to understand IT or digital experience so lack the skill set to accurately source and vet these candidates.
- Lengthy Hiring Process – We are now in the era of digital transformation and user experience – gone are the days when candidates invest the time to submit lengthy applications for employment. If that’s the process, they simply stop applying to your jobs. Multiple rounds of interviews that delay decision making by weeks or months are outdated. Many companies are finding that by the time they complete their decision making processes, candidates have accepted other offers.
Hiring skilled talent that fits your culture should not feel impossible. Understanding these hiring challenges your business will face is the first step to significantly boost your sourcing success.
If you are currently struggling to hire a contractor or internal talent now, contact System Soft Technologies – we have discovered how to overcome the challenges and bring you the talent you’ve been looking for!
