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The Biggest Challenges When Hiring Engineers

This year is predicted to be a great year for software engineers, but not so much for the employers hiring them, with 61% of recruiters suggesting this will be the biggest challenge in 2022, according to a Coding Game survey. While employers have to fight for tech talent in 2022, software engineers stand to benefit from a lot more freedom about where and who they work for. When Coding Game asked how easy tech professionals felt it would be to change jobs, on a scale of one to ten, they gave an average answer of seven.

“Good engineers have a choice on where to work, and if your ‘talent competition’ does things in a leaner and more effective fashion, that right out of the gate makes it harder for you to hire the right people. Not to mention it often leads to a lot of wasted effort.”

Claus Jensen, Chief Innovation Officer at Teladoc

The IT sector is facing increasing labor shortages. The software engineer shortage is the result of the rapid acceleration of digitalization and the penetration of technology into more industries. These dynamics have led to companies looking for the same IT workers across industries. Giving the growing demand for software developers, one could say that software engineers have become a valuable resource for any company. When hiring a software engineer for your company, here are the most common challenges that you may face as you complete your IT team.

The 5 Challenges of Hiring Software Engineers

Lack of formal education

The lack of formal education is one of the top challenges when looking for a tech professional. While most IT specialists have a degree in Computer Science, there has been an increasing number of bootcamp graduates in the last few years. While there is a positive view on hiring those specialists, most companies are still not too keen to recruit bootcamp graduates or tech professionals without extensive working experience.

Limited pool of candidates

Employers struggle to find qualified developers as most of them lack certain skills necessary to do the job. The most common skill sets that recruiters find difficult to hire are analytics, big data, security, and legacy systems, according to TalentNow. The fact that 86% of IT professionals with a good skill set are already employed makes it even more challenging to hire a skilled candidate.

High recruitment costs

Recruiting software developers is not only time-consuming but also a very costly process. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, it can take an average of $4,129 and 42 days to fill a new position. Moreover, tech candidates are known to expect high salaries and compensations when joining a new company. The shortage of qualified developers gives companies no choice but to risk recruiting software developers that eventually may not be a good fit or hiring freelance workers for a short term. While for giant companies this may not be a big deal, for startups, additional costs can become an obstacle to company’s success.

“It’s very hard to find talent that is affordable for building apps for my level of clients. I ended up hiring freelance people - this way you get someone who is really excited about your project at the beginning, starts building it, and then sort of fades away.”

Drew Dorgan, globalHMA/Workhorse Development Owner

High competition

In today’s talent-driven market, employers are competing with tech giants, other large organizations, and smaller companies. Strategies that were once used to reach candidates no longer work because too many companies are trying to access the same pool of tech candidates. Almost every company needs IT specialists, and each company provides different benefits to attract top talent. Large companies clearly have more resources to offer better working conditions, making them much more attractive to candidates than smaller startups.

Speed of recruitment

With high demand for software developers, speed of recruitment is essential. Companies need to get candidates in front of them quickly before someone else hires them. According to CareerBuilder, 66% of candidates don’t even wait two weeks to hear back from an employer before they move to another opportunity.

The Roadmap to Hiring Software Engineers

Hiring managers should keep all these challenges in mind when hiring engineers so that they can improve their recruitment process and make their job propositions more attractive to tech talent. Below are some of the things to consider to stay competitive in the tech job market.

Take time to assess all you have to offer to potential tech employees

You should first take the time to consider what your company has to offer that other companies do not. This step is essential for startups or small companies that may be unable to compete on salary or use its brand image to attract top talent. Below are some of the things to consider:

  • Do you offer education and training programs that lead to industry certifications?
  • Do you offer a flexible/remote work schedule?
  • What type of recruitment benefits do you offer?
  • Do you offer any workplace perks like fitness membership, free food or snacks, or technology stipends?
  • Do you offer employees bonuses or an annual incentive program?

Identify the things that set you apart from competition and list them in your job post to make it more attractive to potential employees.

Consider hiring more for skills and less for experience

Assessing candidates based on skills rather than their education or last job title can help fill critical roles with top talent. We’ve already discussed how educational requirements create a barrier to in-demand tech jobs. Employers are looking for employees with higher education, neglecting bootcamp graduates who may eventually have better skills and higher ambitions. Tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook hire bootcamp graduates, as have other notable tech companies such as Scribd and Vimeo. HBR suggests hiring for skills in the future of recruitment.

"We're truly entering an era where it's less 'who you know' and more 'what you know.' These are long overdue changes that will benefit both candidates and employers in the long run. Hiring based on skills instead of factors like college name or the candidate's geographic location will bring stronger, more diverse talent to the table."

Amanda Richardson, CoderPad CEO

Hiring Software Engineers with Employa

At Employa, we help to find potential candidates, advertise open positions, as well as select the most suitable resumes. We provide ATS add-ons and agency services focused on sourcing, screening, and ranking tech candidates. Our team is always dedicated to helping clients meet their recruitment needs, enhance the recruitment process, and empower the candidates. We can reduce your time to hire and increase your chances of hiring great talent.

Need Employa to advance your tech recruiting?

Whether you need a recruitment service or upgrade existing recruitment software, Employa is ready to help.

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