Soft Skills

War to hire talent

Money is not the only motivator that attracts the best talent. Hiring managers need to understand that other factors also matter to top performers, writes Smita Sah

Hiring in the IT industry is nothing less than a war these days. Poaching and headhunting have become the preferred weapons of recruiting managers. Companies are working on elaborate strategies to attract and hire the best candidates, yet their success rates are low. This is especially true in the case of core technology organisations engaged in chip design and systems design. It is a simple law of demand and supply at play. Nevertheless, a little thought on the part of recruiting managers to understand which reward factors contribute to attracting the best talent can go a long way in improving their success ratio.

Hiring the right candidate begins at home with the clear detailing of a recruitment requisition template consisting of:

• Must-have technology skill-sets
• Desired skill-sets and experience
• Domain knowledge
• Team leadership experience
• Soft skills requirements

The above information should be used to prepare a compelling job description. Recruiting managers can use this information to present the appropriate opportunity to the candidate rather than engaging him in a role that does not meet the candidate’s own aspirations.

Opportunities abound for today’s IT professionals, and they have become very discerning when it comes to accepting an offer. When considering an opportunity, an IT professional is likely to consider some or all of the following factors before he even forwards his resume:

• Growth and learning opportunities, including on-the-job training, mentoring, job rotation and formal training
• Technologies he will get the opportunity to work with
• Project opportunities, including the first and likely second assignment
• Flexibility and control over what they work on, and who they work with
• Onsite opportunities
• Exciting projects, products or services offered by the organisation, especially recent customer successes
• The organisation’s value propositions
• Long-term and short-term goals of the organisation.

Defining the above should be an organisational-level exercise which should be reviewed regularly.

Recruiting managers need to understand that money is not the only factor which motivates a candidate to seek a job change, though most IT companies need to pay competitive salaries to attract talent. Several studies carried out by experts have proved that top performers never accept a job based only on the compensation. By focusing on the money, recruiting managers get distracted, and therefore fail to provide the candidate with what he really values in a job. Identifying what would excite an employee in a job can be an effective way of increasing the success ratio.

Before the interviewing process begins, it is a good practice to give the candidate a realistic salary range, and ask him about his minimum salary requirements. With so much hiring happening all around in the industry, recruiting managers should assume that the candidates will get other offers in addition to theirs. It would therefore be wise on part of the recruiting managers to do a competitive offer analysis to make sure that the offer they make is better than their competitors’ the first time out.

Recruiting managers need to make sure that the entire hiring process is professionally handled. Most IT professionals have exposure to the best of work cultures and practices. Therefore, the way they are treated during the screening and selection process has a huge impact on their decision whether or not to accept an offer. Cancelled or postponed interviews, dull interviews with repeat questions, and delayed hiring decisions send a negative message to candidates with choices.

Interviewing a candidate is an art in itself. Make sure the interviewers have gone through the resume of the candidate thoroughly before they interview the person. Be sure to provide the managers with some facts that they can use as exciting examples during their interaction with candidates. For example, at e-Infochips, we share our ‘Lagaan’ soft skills training programme and ‘Pegasus’ leadership skills programme with fresh-out-of-college recruits, and it is received very well by the candidates. Educating the interviewers must be an integral part of an IT recruitment manager’s job role. Above all, people who are involved in any kind of interaction with the candidate should themselves believe in the company with enthusiasm and conviction.

Beyond the interview, we find that a docket with photographs of events, picnics, outings and get-togethers, articles which employees have contributed to magazines, and details of conferences where they have presented papers is a great way to let candidates get a feel of the organisation. Showing them around the office, taking them to the office cafeteria for lunch, and introducing them to a few employees can significantly impact the final decision of candidates.

Word of mouth is a powerful tool in hiring. IT professionals are very well networked through e-mail, chat, bulletin boards, e-groups, etc—and they talk to each other when they get an interview call to find out more about the organisation and its practices.

When you are interviewing an outstation candidate, it is a good practice to keep aside some time for him to go around the city. Depute someone with the candidate to drive him around. Talking about relocation pains such as shifting, housing, etc, and how you are committed to minimise that for any outstation employee, will also help him make the decision.

Once the offer has been made, engage the candidate. Have his would-be team members call him on phone. Invite the candidate to company gatherings and events, and send him company souvenirs such as T-shirts, caps and mugs. For outstation candidates, arrange for accommodation; explore schools for admissions for their kids. Have a database ready on schools, teaching standards, which board they follow and the like. In short, be there for them.

Last but not the least; managers and recruiters need to do some serious analysis if a candidate does not accept an offer. Do not start the blame game wherein hiring managers blame the recruiting manager who in turn blames the compensation and the candidate and then both just accept that such “things happen.” Instead, managers should learn from the experience and use this knowledge to better their chances the next time they make an offer.

Smita Sah is HR Manager at e-Infochips