How to hire the best technical talent for your company

As technology continues to evolve, the demand for tech-based roles also increases. 

It’s a common challenge for employers being non-technical experts themselves to identify and hire the best technical talent. 

Moreover, the software as a service (SaaS) industry is expected to continue growing globally. In the US alone, it’s estimated to increase up to €191 billion in 2025. Meaning, job vacancies are only going to get more competitive as we head into the future.

The days of traditional recruitment are null and long gone. Companies require a more effective approach to overcome their talent shortages.

It all starts from the core 

Before anything, it’s important to start from the core to lay the foundation. 

That means starting from your side by understanding your technical HR needs in full transparency. To do this, there are a few things we suggest.

Set clear HR objectives

Having objectives guides your decisions and ensures you’re focusing on the right areas.

More importantly, it allows you to monitor your progress and follow a strategic plan to achieve your goals. A few examples of this may include:

• Hiring tech-skilled employees
• Cultivate a thriving work environment
• Retain a diverse workforce

In order to set effective objectives, it’s a good idea to meet the criteria from the SMART acronym:

• Specific: what type of technical employee do you need exactly?
• Measurable: how will you measure progress and recruitment effectiveness?
• Achievable: do you have the resources necessary to make it achievable?
• Relevant: is it relevant to your organization’s needs?
• Timely: when is a realistic deadline to achieve them?

This helps you stay on track and to ensure productivity. Once this has been established, we can move on to the next step. 

Know what your ideal candidate looks like 

How do you hire the ideal candidate without knowing what they look like?

It’s important to identify what you need from an employee to ensure they’re capable of taking on the job responsibilities to a good standard. 

When you have a strong understanding of this along with how you can reach them and why they should be interested, it’s easier to lay out a roadmap to how you can find the best person for the role. 

Some of these basic details to outline include:

• Skills
• Preferences
• Experience 
• Personality traits
• Qualifications

Write a good job description 

A good job description shows more than just the duties and responsibilities. 

It should clearly set the expectations and make a strong first impression to connect with potential candidates. That means including key details about your company culture, employee perks, and value propositions.

However, make sure that there’s enough information for the reader to determine whether or not they’re qualified to make an application.

Get feedback from your current employees 

To attract the top talent, you need to appeal to their interests.

One way to find this information is to directly ask your current employees for feedback about your company and workplace. There’s no better way to understand and gain insights about your audience than to ask them yourself. 

Using this information, optimize your recruitment process accordingly. Make it more inclusive and tailored to the talent pool you’re trying to build.

Craft a compelling story

What makes you special compared to the other employers who are competing for the same candidate?

Because essentially, you’re marketing your organization to a specific group of people. 

In other words, employer branding. This refers to your brand reputation and how you market yourself to your ideal job seekers.

Having a compelling story to share motivates and inspires the right kind of professionals. The best candidate is not only someone who meets the job requirements. But, someone that’s self-motivated and ingrained with the company culture.

That being said, here are a few tips to craft a powerful employer brand story:

• Reveal the human side of your work culture
• Highlight employee perks and benefits
• Showcase your unique selling points
• Align with your employee interests

How to hire the best technical talent 

1. Assess candidates based on job skills

Evaluating the quality of a candidate’s job skills is an integral part of the hiring process.

That’s because it allows you to measure their expertise more effectively as opposed to making speculations. It also helps you find the best person, not in terms of their resume but based on ability and practicality. 

As a result, you’re more likely to accurately predict performance and measure future potential.

Here are some quality assessment examples to consider:

• Programming languages
• Software engineering frameworks
• Data science

If they don’t meet all the desired criteria, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re unqualified. In some cases, you can find those gaps and bridge them with enough training and professional development.

2. Assess other competencies

Aside from testing the essential hard skills, another key factor are the other competencies and qualities of an applicant.

For example:

• Aptitude
• Soft skills
• Psychometrics
• Motivations

Taking this into account with the previous point, diversity hiring has almost become a necessity in today’s workforce. In order to reduce unconscious bias, it’s crucial to make decisions based on actual data regarding the applicant’s on-the-job skills and core competencies.

This is where technical assessment platforms come in.

3. Prepare valuable interview questions

An effective question will provoke the interviewee to think with minimal space to rehearse. This way, you’re testing their intuitive ability and knowledge.

To prepare insightful questions when you’re not a technical expert yourself, it’s worth reaching out to subject matter experts for assistance. Or alternatively, use screening tools such as Testlify to browse a handpicked list from their library to drive quality assessments. 

4. Research your competitors

Competitor analysis broadens your perspective and provides insight into what works and what doesn’t. Within each of their processes, you may find gaps you can fill to optimize your own recruitment process and marketing strategies. 

Even though all organizations are different, it doesn’t mean you can’t research what’s working for your competitors. 

Use an unbiased technical assessment platform

Hiring the best candidates is going to take time and consistent action. Building a strong reputation doesn’t happen overnight either. 

It’s difficult to assess someone’s coding or software skills when you’re not a coder yourself. 

That’s where the right talent assessment tools come into play. 

With Testlify, they help you recruit and mold a diverse workforce with only the top technical talent that’s a match for your organization.

Sign up for free to eliminate the probability of wrong hiring forever.