Hiring Top Tech Talent: Here’s How You Stop Missing Out on Top Candidates for Engineering and Product Roles

The need to hire top tech talent that keeps pace with your growth needs is a challenge product and engineering leaders must face head-on. Easy to say, hard to do. How about having a closer look at your hiring process?

Some say that a longer recruitment process is more detailed and helps you find the best candidate. Truth is, top talent will often drop lengthy and even short processes to pursue other opportunities, leaving you with subpar choices, and compromising your company’s growth. Especially when they are not attracted to your mission or not aligned with what you have on the table.

Bad Recruiting Means a World of Missed Opportunities.

Ineffective hiring can have a significantly higher cost for your organization than you may realize. It is essential to be aware of this impact. Let’s look into four examples:

1 What’s the difference between applicants and headhunted talent? Does it really impact hire quality? Data shows:

• Applicant Quality: Only 2% of applicants on average receive interview invitations (Glassdoor). Relying solely on applicants increases the risk of hiring underqualified candidates.
• Headhunted Talent Quality: 85% of professionals are open to new opportunities, even if not actively job-seeking (LinkedIn). Headhunted candidates are often highly qualified and currently employed.
• Performance and Retention: Headhunted talent exhibits higher job performance (Journal of Applied Psychology) and a 30% higher retention rate (LinkedIn).

2 How can specialized tech recruiters in your PeopleOps team make hiring more reliable and consistent?

According to a survey conducted by LinkedIn, companies with specialized recruiters experienced a 28% increase in the quality of their hires compared to those without dedicated tech recruiters.

3 Is vetting a large number of candidates distracting for CTOs and hiring managers? How does it impact both their productivity and overall cost per hour?

A study by The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) reveals that on average, hiring managers spend around 6-9 hours per week reviewing resumes and conducting interviews. Considering the average hourly rate of a CTO or hiring manager, this amounts to a significant cost to the company.

4 How can recruiting negatively impact the product roadmap when leadership becomes distracted? Can it cause potential delays and disruptions?

Research by McKinsey & Company suggests that leadership involvement in the hiring process can lead to delays in strategic initiatives. If leaders are occupied with recruiting tasks, their attention and time are diverted from driving the product roadmap forward, resulting in missed opportunities, delayed product launches, and a loss of competitive advantage.

Yet, the big question remains: how do I find and hire the best candidates? Let’s dive in and check out the challenges and key aspects you need to be aware of, starting from the most critical ones to the less pressing issues.

4 Challenges Hiring Managers Must Overcome to Build High-Performance Software Teams

Challenge 1: “I don’t have an internal recruiting team or my existing team lacks experience in hiring globally.”

Solution: Ask for Help

Finding the right candidates can be challenging, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the region, local laws, and talent pool. Instead of struggling alone, seek help. Partner with industry experts, attend relevant events, and build a strong network.

 Recruitment agencies and specialized tech recruiters can be great partners. They have a deep understanding of the market and can guide you toward hidden gems.

• Wide candidate networks: A survey by Bullhorn shows that 72% of recruiters believe recruitment agencies have a larger candidate network than in-house teams.
• Time and cost efficiency: A study by Glassdoor found that the average time to hire for tech roles is 35 days. By leveraging the expertise and resources of a specialized agency, you can significantly reduce time-to-hire and associated costs.
• Niche industry knowledge: Tech recruitment agencies can help tech leaders identify and attract highly skilled candidates. According to a LinkedIn survey, 82% of hiring managers believe specialized recruiting agencies have a stronger grasp of job requirements.
• Access to passive candidates: Recruitment tech agencies engage with them through social media and professional networks, revealing possible underrated candidates that perfectly match your hiring needs.
• Evaluation and screening expertise: Recruitment agencies have experience evaluating candidates’ technical skills and cultural fit using several assessment methods. This expertise helps leaders in making informed hiring decisions.

Curious about teaming up with tech recruiting experts who act as an extension of your own team? Reach out to Ubiminds for a free consultation.

Challenge 2: “My company pitch isn’t engaging with top candidates.”

Solution: Employer Branding

To attract A players who are technical experts and aligned with your culture and values, you need compelling employer branding. Communicate your company’s vision, values, and how your product or service impacts the world:

• Showcase success stories: provide an authentic and trustworthy representation of your organization. Engage and advocate for employees. In turn, it will attract top talent through insights into your company culture.
• Highlight the challenges your team is solving: are you tackling meaningful and impactful issues? Potential candidates will likely find it motivating and appealing.
• Emphasize opportunities for personal and professional growth: this is important for candidates who are seeking long-term career development. It shows that your company values and supports their aspirations.
• Establish a strong online presence: a dedicated careers page, social media profiles, and employee testimonials are vital. It increases the likelihood of recruiting the best-fit candidates for your team.

At Ubiminds, we have the knowledge and skills to assist you in attracting talent and making your pitch more captivating through:

• Employment marketing to passively attract potential candidates
• Active participation in communities and local market networking
• Hosting our own Ubiverse conference that focuses on international careers

Want to know more? Book a quick chat with us.

Challenge 3: “My interview process isn’t 100% effective in assessing tech skills.”

Solution: Choose Potential Over Experience

Don’t solely rely on a candidate’s past experience to gauge their potential. Consider their problem-solving abilities, technical aptitude, and willingness to learn.

For example, try assessing candidates through real-life scenarios take-home assignments, or collaborative projects. These practical assessments provide deeper insights into a candidate’s abilities and alignment with your team’s dynamics.

• Are traditional interviews a thing of the past? A study published in The Journal of Applied Psychology shows that take-home assignments can provide a more comprehensive evaluation of a candidate’s abilities.
• A fair way to evaluate technical skills? HackerRank’s 2021 Developer Skills Report suggests that 79% of devs believe take-home assignments are an excellent way to assess technical expertise.

Lawnstarter, a marketplace for outdoor home services, ask candidates about codes/tasks they developed that make them proud. This way they feel more comfortable with the interview, and it helps streamline the hiring process.

Partnering with a specialized tech recruiting agency can be a game-changer. We at Ubiminds are experts in identifying and assessing technical talent, going beyond traditional interviews. You can count on us when it comes to:

Want to find and hire the best talent for your team hassle-free? Let’s chat!

Challenge 4: “My engagement model and compensation aren’t attractive.”

Solution: Sell Opportunity Instead of Compensation, but be Realistic

While competitive compensation is essential, it’s not the sole driving factor for top candidates. That’s why you need to highlight the unique opportunities your company and the role offer such as:

• • Cutting-edge projects: showcase how your team is working on groundbreaking projects and offer candidates the opportunity to be part of cutting-edge solutions that shape the future.
  • Mentorship programs: let them know how your company guides and supports professionals in their career growth.
  • The chance to make a significant impact: highlight initiatives that have a tangible impact on the company, customers, or even society.
  • Commitment to work-life balance: this is a unique selling point that can turn the tables and sway candidates when the compensation isn’t attractive.
  • A supportive company culture: describe how individuals can thrive, collaborate and feel valued, contributing to a sense of belonging.

Be realistic about compensation: consider offering performance-based bonuses, equity options, or extra perks to sweeten the deal.

Or… you can leave it all to Ubiminds. We’ll do the rough work for you throughout the hiring process. Here’s a glimpse of our services:

Best Practices to Find and Hire Top Tech Talent:

• How to align expectations at every interaction: ensure clear and transparent communication throughout the hiring process. Set expectations regarding roles, responsibilities, timelines, and growth opportunities. You can do this by adjusting email messaging, having straightforward job descriptions, scripting interviews to cover all relevant aspects (cultural fit, motivation, skills, etc), and even providing candidates with a comprehensive FAQ file.
• How to widen the net: don’t limit yourself to traditional channels. Explore diverse talent pools, including underrepresented communities and non-traditional educational backgrounds by leveraging online forums, industry-specific communities, and partnering with minority professional associations (Women in Tech, Black Girls Code, LGBT Tech, etc). Don’t forget to embrace remote work options to tap into a global talent pool by advertising job openings with remote work flexibility.
• How to assess based on real-life: move beyond traditional interviews and incorporate real-life assessments. Assign practical projects, conduct technical challenges, or simulate work scenarios to evaluate a candidate’s abilities and team fit. For example, you can ask a candidate to bring a technical problem they were proud to solve and ask them to walk you through the solution process. That way you’re able to assess their coding logic, efficiency, and ability to come up with effective solutions.
• How to be transparent: Giphy is a great example. They provide candidates and partners feedback and visibility throughout the whole process – it’s important for them to know whether they’re a fit or not, and when possible, why not help them improve on possible gaps? So, if a candidate demonstrates potential but falls short in specific areas, provide feedback on those areas and suggest resources or strategies for improvement. This gesture shows a commitment to their professional development.

Take action and bring these tips to real life to enhance your hiring process and draw in the exceptional talent that your company and product truly deserve. Don’t settle for anything less than the best. With Ubiminds by your side, you can forge a team of extraordinary engineers, developers, designers, agilists, and product professionals through our #OneTeam approach.

Cinthia Tissot

Cinthia Tissot acts as Head of Talent Acquisition & PeopleOps at Ubiminds, crafting organizational culture, talent, and development. Her extensive people-first leadership spans tech, customer service, transportation, and consulting. Proficient in recruiting, training, and more, she drives our human capital excellence.