How to Overcome the Shortage of Tech Talent

Finding the right tech talent for your team can be extremely challenging. They need to be highly skilled, hardworking and also fit into your company’s culture. But in such a rapidly developing industry as the tech field, it can be difficult to find the right talent at the right time. 

Here are 7 tips to help your company overcome the shortage of tech talent.

 1. Expand Your Search

Limiting your search to the company’s local area can be one of the biggest factors behind a talent shortage. There are so many talented individuals all over the globe that can be added to your team. Finding and hiring tech talent from abroad doesn’t have to be rocket science. At Tallocate, we help companies get instant access to pre-vetted, qualified top tier talent, allowing you to streamline the hiring process for faster, better recruitment. 

2. Improve the Job Ad

If you feel as though your talent search has been unsuccessful, perhaps you should consider the type of job ad that you are distributing. Make sure that the ad is refined to include the skills that you find the most important, emphasizing the ones that are essential, and the ones that would be nice to have as a bonus. By being more specific, it will help attract the right people to apply and discourage those who might not ‘fit the bill’.

3. Modernize Your Strategy

Assess your hiring strategy and the budget you’ve assigned to the task. Consider how it can be better used to attract the top candidates in the industry. Top talent will be looking for a job that provides them with up-to-date technology as well as the opportunity to attend networking and key industry events. Building up brand name recognition is essential in attracting top talent. This can be done through the reallocation of spending towards better content development or even through event sponsorship to get your brand out there and in front of the right candidates.

4. Tell Your Brand Story

Remember that while you’re advertising for a job, you are also advertising your company at the same time. Make sure to highlight the exciting elements of your company and the unique goods or services you provide. Emphasize how your company is different from others, and the individual impact that each member of the team will make on the company’s progress. 

Equally, you want your talent to be in line with your company’s ethos, so emphasizing your brand story could be very useful for finding the right kind of person for your team. 

5. Adjust Where You are Looking

When hiring you might be tempted to go for the newly graduated. While they are keen to make their mark, they may not be the best fit for roles which require a certain level of experience. Yet, more experienced talent might not be actively looking for a new job, so you need to do a little extra work to reach out. 

This could be done through online forums, community websites and even industry networking events. This hiring approach can also include specific tech-oriented co-working spaces or even coding bootcamps. Sometimes you need to get creative in order to find the perfect candidate!

6. Understand the Talent

When a company releases an advertisement of any kind, they need to understand their audience. This is also true for job ads. Stack Overflow Talent conducted a global survey into the Developer Hiring Landscape which showed that a majority of tech talent are younger than 35 years old, and have started new jobs in the past two years. This indicates that candidates will most likely have less experience, which needs to be reflected in the job ad. Surveys can be essential to helping to understand the industry, and what the talent prioritizes. The industry is ever-changing and so is the talent within it.  
 

7. Reconsider your Requirements

Considering the fact that most tech talent are under 35, there might be a misalignment between a job ad and the talent. For this reason, it might be beneficial to look past the traditional qualifications that are provided on a CV such as work experience, and instead, put greater emphasis on personal characteristics that your candidate should possess. For example, this could include showing evidence of self-motivation, a good work ethic, and the openness to learn new skills. 

Finding Talent Can Be a Challenge

With the competitive nature of the industry, it’s important to go back to basics to assess the key characteristics you want in an individual to add to your team. By improving your job ad, modernizing your strategy and widening your search, you’ll be able to shut down that shortage in no time!