Looking for quality candidates? Here’s what not to do.

The success of a company resides largely in the quality of people who work there, especially in the world of information technology. There are thousands of IT jobs available for prospective workers to choose from, and this translates into candidates having more power in the job search. Many of the old recruiting strategies are no longer as foolproof as they used to be. If you’re finding yourself with a lack of options in technology staffing, it might be time to scrap those old strategies, look for new ones, and enlist the aid of IT recruiting companies. Here’s a guide to which recruiting strategies you should be throwing out – and what you can usher in to take their place.

Focusing on Salary
Once upon a time, the only thing you needed to do to secure the best workers was dangle that high salary carrot. These days, however, candidates aren’t simply looking for higher salaries. They are prioritizing work/life balance, with more flexibility, more leisure time, the ability to work from home, stock options, and so on. With the sheer number of technology companies out there, salary can no longer be the ultimate deciding factor – you must expand the incentive pool.

Posting on the Wrong Job Boards
Most of the hiring process is online these days, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you should be posting on generic job boards and just hoping that a qualified candidate will appear. These types of boards do little more than give you hundreds of unqualified candidates. Be more effective with your job postings by placing them with IT employment agencies or IT recruiting firms that have connected relationships with the top-notch tech talent who are looking for the type of work you’re offering.

Ineffective Job Descriptions
You only get one chance to make a good first impression, and without clear job descriptions, you could be setting yourself up for disaster. Candidates looking for a true career know that duties and qualifications are only the beginning. They don’t want to simply check off boxes. They want to know the culture of the company. Unfortunately, employers far too often fail at this (seemingly) simple task, leaving prospective workers baffled when they come in for interviews – or deciding not to apply at all.

Cold Calling
The very term “cold calling” is an outdated one that has very little place in today’s recruiting world. Potential candidates expect to be called. More importantly, however, they expect to be heard prior to moving forward with any recruiter. It is far too bold for any decent recruiter to expect to have a real working relationship with an candidate without first calling and speaking with them directly about their professional aspirations and goals. Job seekers are sick and tired of “robo-recruiting” and incessant, meaningless email blasts telling them that they are the “perfect fit” for a role without knowing a single personal detail about them. Candidates want to know the person that is representing them and recruiters need to know their candidates in order to represent them effectively. When you build relationships in recruiting, there is no such thing as a cold call.

Failing to Reply to Applicants
Candidates don’t expect a dissertation as to why they are not the right fit for any given job. A simple thumbs up or down will suffice in most cases. And yet, a 2012 survey found that 75 percent of workers who apply to jobs never hear back from the employers. On the other hand, good recruiters know that if they do not follow up with a candidate to let them know they are no longer in consideration, eventually the candidate will assume they are not interested – and be none too happy with the firm that dropped off the map because one potential employer passed. Simply put, if you don’t follow up, you stand to lose a resource that has the potential to be mutually beneficial for years to come.

Trying to Engage Candidates with the Bandwagon Method
“The bandwagon method” is another (rather poor) strategy recruiters sometimes employ to get talent into their team, overtly focusing on flattery and boastfulness. It can be suggesting their open roles are exactly what the candidate is looking for in terms of validation and experience, or asking them to join because your team is the most elite out there, but at the end of the day it’s a patronizing practice that generally doesn’t work for top technical talent these days.

Not Working with IT Employment Agencies
For IT job seekers, it has become almost automatic to align with IT recruitment companies, knowing that they will be guided into jobs that match not only their current needs, but also future career aspirations. If your company hasn’t looked into partnering with one of these technology staffing centers, you’re likely missing out on the best candidates. The best technical talent placement agencies carefully work with both candidates and employers to ensure that the right match is being made and that both parties will benefit from the union.

Interested in finding the perfect fit for your business? Get in touch with the career strategists at OpenArc to fill all of your technology hire needs. Our recruiting professionals are committed to making your business their business, dedicating themselves to understanding your brand to align you with just the right personnel fit. OpenArc’s relationship-based recruiting allows you to benefit from a vast network of job seekers while dramatically improving the candidate experience. No matter what your staffing needs may be, let the team at OpenArc provide you with the support & IT recruiting strategy you need to hire your next top caliber crew member.