Top 5 Ways to Attract Tech Talent

At Senitor we like to use a data driven approach to recruitment, which is why we offer all our clients’ access to tailored reports through LinkedIn’s Talent Insights tool. We have visibility of every talent sector across the globe, with insights into which companies employ the highest levels of tech talent, where they win and lose this talent to, talent pool gender diversity data, hidden gem hiring locations, average tenure for specific talent pools and much more. 

One of our favourite insights is the employer brand tool, which shows us recent candidate survey responses for what employer value propositions are most important for this talent, because it essentially highlights exactly what companies need to do to stand out and attract the very best tech talent. We thought we’d share the top 5 results in this blog to highlight the best ways you can attract tech talent!

#1 - Salary and benefits

While many tech candidates aren’t solely motivated to move role just for money, excellent compensation and benefits came out top for the most important value proposition, so if you want to attract top tech talent, you need to pay the market rate or above to secure them. The same goes for retaining talent, if you aren’t reviewing salaries regularly then you’ll risk losing key players from your tech team:

Tips:

1. Use UK IT Jobs Watch (or reach out to ourselves) for free salary benchmarking to ensure you are ahead of the pack.
2. Be transparent about the salary and benefits package from the get-go – avoid advertising a role with a “competitive” salary and put the actual salary range in £ / € for the candidate to see.

#2 - Flexible working

Unsurprisingly this one certainly climbed up the rankings following the pandemic, and it’s very much here to stay in the tech world! Flexible work arrangements (i.e. when and where you work) is the second highest motivator for tech candidates, so if you are failing to offer remote, or at least, hybrid working, you could be narrowing your talent pool enormously!

Tips:

1. If your role is fully remote, you can ask us to conduct a talent pool search to uncover hidden gem locations for talent to help you target your recruitment advertising / talent search in the right areas.
2. Highlight your remote working policy at the very top of your job advert and ideally be specific, hybrid working of 4 days on site a week is very different to 2 days on-site  a month for example, so be clear from the get-go.

#3 - Career growth

The third highest EVP desired was the opportunity for career growth within the company, meaning a lot of tech candidates are keen to join companies with clear progression opportunities or a visible presence of tech employees moving through the ranks previously.

Tips:

1. Ensure your employer brand content features success stories of tech employees to show how candidates can progress in their career with you.
2. Discuss career ambitions in the interview stages and highlight how you support your employees with career development (e.g. path to progression, training and accreditation, salary reviews etc.).

#4 - Job security

The tech industry has sadly been impacted by mass redundancies in a number of organisations, so it is no surprise that candidates can be wary to make a move with a company that doesn’t highlight evidence of safeguarding jobs or providing some levels of security. It’s unrealistic for all clients to promise complete job security, but there are ways you can reassure candidates with this.

Tips:

1. In the age of social media, there is nowhere to hide when it comes to handling redundancies – it could be an angry Glassdoor review or even a viral TikTok (Google Cloudflare Brittany Peach if you haven’t seen this shocking video yet), so if you are forced to let an employee go, as an individual or as part of mass redundancies, you need to handle this with care and empathy to avoid reputational damage.
2. Highlight positive employer brand stories that back up the way that you do offer job security for your people – this could be website content, videos or blogs.

#5 Work life balance support

Similarly to the flexible working option, tech candidates are looking for employers who offer real support to balance work and personal life. Obviously having working from home / remote working options is a big one, but this can also extend to benefits such as on-site amenities and flexible working hours.

Tips:

1. If you offer any benefits that support work-life balance (e.g. an on-site gym, autonomy to choose your working hours, paid leave for medical appointments etc.) make this visible on your careers site to help you stand out.
2. Revisit your company values – if you truly champion work-life balance and want to support this, it should form a part of your company values and culture blueprint.

Interested to see what the other value propositions tech candidates are looking for in their next role? Reach out today for a tailored insights report or download our free talent reports for the UK and Ireland today.