Struggling to Attract Experienced Candidates to a Small IT Firm: Any Advice?

Dear All,

I am working in an IT company, which is a small organization with around 40-50 employees. I am the only HR person, and my main responsibility is recruitment. However, I am facing challenges in attracting experienced candidates to join our company. Many qualified individuals prefer larger companies and are not interested in attending interviews with us. Additionally, my company does not allow me to provide requirements to consultants; they expect me to handle the sourcing on my own, which is proving to be very difficult.

I would appreciate it if you could provide me with some ideas on how to attract candidates to our organization.

Thank you,

Rekha

Hi Rekha,

I can very well understand your situation as I faced it. Make sure that the specifications given by your tech team are clear like age, experience, salary, etc. Try to sit with them and understand the importance of the role and their key result areas (KRAs). Don't try to poach experienced candidates from branded companies. Instead, you can consider candidates with less experience from big companies as they might opt for exposure and position. Most importantly, if the requirement is urgent and important, the only thing you can do is offer the expected salary; they will definitely demand more.

In my case, I found the best resource from a big company with short exposure for a good position, and he is performing extremely well. Even if the company is small, branding can help you attract good candidates. Utilize postings on job portals, job fairs, and paper ads (if within budget limits).

ALL THE BEST :)

Hi Remi,

People with more than 5 years of experience probably don't seek hikes because they already have high packages and are looking for a safe and secure future. Hence, they would prefer big companies rather than small and medium-sized ones.

So, I suggest an idea that may help you. "Employees with 2-4 years of experience would be seeking challenging work and also looking for salary increases. Therefore, instead of hiring one person with 6 years of experience, consider hiring two employees with 2 years of experience. I agree that experience is valuable, but with motivation and delegation, you can always develop managers from good employees.

So, consider individuals who are semi-experienced.

Regards.

Hello,

Thanks for your reply. We went to the job fair twice, but still, we didn't get any candidates. No one accepted the offer. The two job fairs were really a waste. It was just a brand building.

Regards, Rekha

Hi Rekha,

You conduct market research to find out the CTCs offered to employees in big companies with relevant experience and suggest to your management to provide a decent hike. This will help you attract more candidates, and at the same time, you can also ask your existing employees to help by referring potential candidates.

You can also propose the idea of a referral scheme for candidates who bring in or refer prospective candidates.

Hope this idea works with your company.

All the best! Cheers, Sowmya

Offer them the liberty to make decisions, independent decision-making ability, and do give them the privilege. In small organizations, almost everyone has multiple responsibilities, which can portray that you allow your employees to make independent decisions. Even with 40-42 employees present...

Please let me know if you need any further assistance.

Hi Rekha,

The best way to approach the recruitment of senior or experienced technical people to your company is to first put yourself in their shoes and understand what one would be looking for in a change. Monetary benefit is definitely one of the top priorities.

But as an individual looking for a change, salaries being on par with the market, the next things are the key factors that will determine why someone should join your company.

These factors include giving more responsibilities and/or leadership roles, job security, market trends, and the company's clients apart from the market trends.

Take the best examples of your company from the above factors and sell them to the candidates. You are more of a salesperson selling the position in your company rather than just a mere recruiter.

You need to do selling in phases. Like first emphasize the company profile and then talk about the growth of the company and milestones achieved. Make a presentation on that, practice yourself, and then start the recruitment process.

Next, you need to sell the position. Highlight the responsibilities and role and the importance of the role in the current scenario and its future prospects. (You might need to spice up the role to attract people to the position).

Then start developing a relationship with the candidate such that he is true to you and gains confidence in you until the recruitment closes.

I am assuming that you are able to source candidates but not able to bring them on board because of the size of your company.

Hope this helps you.

Vijay

Hello everyone.

I'm asking you all for a favor. Since the topic under discussion has been recruitment, I thought you could help me out. Well, I have recently joined (as a recruiter) a leading MNC (manufacturing industry) in the world, based in Bangalore. We have decided to participate in a job fair to be held next month. As we are a manufacturing company, we are mostly looking for mechanical engineers.

Could you kindly help me in preparing a checklist for participating in the job fair? I want to make it really big as it's my first assignment. Kindly assist. Budget is not a constraint. Please revert.

Thanks and regards,
Deeya

Hello Rekha,

I am currently working in Chennai. Could you please share how you attended the job fair and how you obtained information about it? I am interested to know whom to contact and how to reach out for such opportunities. Kindly provide me with details on job fairs at: gopinathan_mr@yahoo.com

Regards,
Gops