Recruitment can present a wide range of challenges, and the challenges are often critical for sought-after talent, such as experienced IT and software professionals. However, many of the potential pitfalls of recruitment can be avoided by being prepared for them and by good process planning. Qasvu, a subsidiary of Eilakaisla, focuses not only on recruiting IT professionals, but also on overcoming recruitment challenges for IT and growth companies. Based on our experience, I put together some of the most common challenges companies face when looking for talent.
🦄 In search of unicorns
Often, the biggest challenges in IT recruitment are related to the first step of the recruitment process: defining the profile. Conversely, many future pitfalls can be avoided by managing this step well. Realistic expectations about the skills, experience, and salary level you are looking for will help you find the right person. The more specific or challenging the role, often not all expectations are feasible, and some flexibility is needed. Perhaps the salary level needs to be reviewed or some skills requirements lowered.
👩💻 Looking for an experienced Azure talent for an office in Kajaani
Market knowledge is the starting point in IT recruiting. The recruiting organization should find out about the labor market in the area before starting the recruitment process or use a partner to help them do so. An experienced recruiter can already tell you directly (or at least find out) how much of the desired skills are available in the region and how much competition there is for them. In a nutshell, one could say that the market for Azure experts in Kajaani is not very comprehensive, but if the region is defined as the whole of Finland, experts are more likely to be found.
💻 Office policy or freedom of choice
Today's professionals want to control the way and where they work, so by strongly restricting work to the office, you give a competitive edge to companies with freer remote work practices. Location-independent working also has the advantage of broadening the market; if it is challenging to find talent in a particular location, you can expand your search to cover the whole of Finland or even abroad. But in most jobs, it's the results that count - and you can do that just as well from your office in Espoo as from your home office or even your summer cottage.
🌎 Finnish is a must
In Finland, the size of the labor market is limited and, especially when looking for specific skills, you quickly find that you can't find more than your fair share of talent in our country. So, it's worth taking a critical look at whether Finnish language skills are really necessary for the job. Flexibility in language skills opens a wider talent market and a multicultural work community is also an important asset that enriches the whole organization.
💰 Is a “competitive salary” enough?
Don't hide your salary, be as open as possible about the salary level you envisage for the job. Some employers are afraid of locking in a salary, but you can also open the salary level with a salary scale that varies according to the skills and experience of the person selected for the position. Open up the other benefits of the job in concrete terms.
📑 We want lots of applications!
A successful recruitment process does not necessarily involve receiving dozens of applications or contacting dozens of people in a direct search. Instead of going for masses of applications, focus on getting applications from the specific target group you want. It is much easier to handle 20 applications with quality and personal attention than 200. If you are contacting suitable candidates directly yourself or through a partner, make sure that this is also a quality first approach. It's better to contact 10 candidates in person than to slap 50 mass messages out there on LinkedIn.
👋 Oh no, Teppo didn't like it here
Job satisfaction and engagement are already established during the recruitment process. If a new employee leaves a company quickly, it's often because their expectations of the role and the organization don't match the reality. During the recruitment process, communicate honestly with candidates about the good and bad aspects of the job. Although recruitment, and especially the recruitment of IT specialists, is largely a sales job, the most important thing is always to ensure that the candidate is a good fit for the organization.
👎 Aftercare is half the battle
The most successful companies focus on building Talent Pipelines. By managing the recruitment process well, in addition to the person you select, you are left with, at best, a small pool of potential talent that could fit into your organization in the future. If you have the resources, continue to reach out to these individuals in the future.
Avoiding these pitfalls can help you improve the quality and results of your IT recruitment. For more tips and support on IT recruitment, contact us. We are an experienced and reliable IT recruitment partner that can help you find the best IT talent on the market.
The author Iina worked as a Senior Consultant at Eilakaisla. Iina started in recruitment in 2018 and enjoys working with more challenging profiles, direct search and sourcing.
