As we ease into a post-pandemic world, the future of tech recruitment is dynamic. Industry leaders are upgrading their hiring practices to meet the modern landscape; diversity, skills-based hiring, and HR technology remain forerunners of hiring strategy.
Analyzing emerging tech recruitment trends and adapting to the new landscape is critical to optimizing tech talent acquisition efforts. And in this article, we’ll explore the evolving trends that are defining modern tech recruitment.
Remote-first hiring remains prominent
Remote screening practices have been successfully used pre-pandemic, typically to filter talent pools before on-site evaluations. Decreasing the pool’s size increased hiring efficiency and cut costs significantly.
But when COVID-19 hit, remote hiring practices made up the entire tech recruitment process. Candidates were evaluated from start to finish on remote platforms, and final interviews were conducted using virtual meeting software.
Now as we move towards a post-pandemic era, remote-first hiring remains prominent thanks to its value-addition. Virtual technical screening accelerates hiring velocity, improves efficiency, cuts costs, and enhances the candidate experience.
Diversity hiring gradually gains momentum
Unfortunately, the tech industry is still lagging in implementing diversity and inclusion practices. Big Tech is gradually revamping its hiring practices to encourage inclusivity, but the pace is slow.
However, some megacorps, including Microsoft, Ford, IBM, and Dell Technologies, have stepped up their neurodiversity hiring efforts. These organizations are creating more inclusive work environments for neurodiverse talent, which includes people with ADHD and autism.
The benefits of diversity hiring are well documented – organizations with diverse workforces generate greater revenue on average. This is credited to enhanced innovation and a wider pool of experience.
Thus, while diversity in tech organizations has increased in recent years, the numbers are still lacking. This is partly due to implementation failures; diversity and inclusivity practices must be implemented organization-wide to be successful.
But as industry leaders continue to revamp their diversity practices, we can expect more organizations to follow suit in 2022. Diversity and inclusion are gaining momentum, but they’ve yet to snowball.
The role of HR technology and AI
With the global artificial intelligence revolution, no sector has failed to optimize key operations by leveraging AI. The previously sci-fi exclusive technology now plays a crucial role in every industry from retail e-commerce to human resources.
IDC’s report projections reveal the vitality of AI and technology in the modern HR landscape:
Artificial intelligence is vital to accelerate operational efficiency at scale. The technology gained significant momentum in 2020, as more organizations realized its potential to fuel hyper-productivity, without incurring high operational costs.
AI is fueling automation efforts at enterprise level and plays a vital role in recruitment, too. AI scheduling technology, for example, streamlines interviewing processes, whilst intelligence is also used for accurate, automated grading.
Prioritizing the candidate experience
Candidates have always valued company culture on some level, but recent data reveals work culture and candidate experience are now priorities for applicants. Around 70% of potential applicants read company reviews before finalizing their career decisions.
Thus, the recruitment process now includes two-way evaluation; top talent is assessing your organization as much as they are being evaluated. Providing a high-quality candidate experience and improving employer branding is thus key to optimizing tech talent acquisition.
Simply put, organizations need to convince top talent that their company is the best place to work.
Maintaining workforce productivity - upskilling and reskilling
Stack Overflow’s 2020 developer survey explored the reasons for developers pursuing new jobs, and ‘wanting to work with new technologies’ took second place, after ‘better compensation’. So, there are two important takeaways here:
- Providing training opportunities helps retain your existing workforce.
- Upskilling and reskilling programs improve employer branding and encourage new, quality talent to apply.
With recruitment costs rising and hiring budgets becoming constrained, employee retention is more vital than ever. And thus, the link between employee training and increased satisfaction is key to reducing turnover.
Source: Stack Overflow
The workforce of tomorrow is hybrid
A mounting body of research on remote work has made one fact apparent; post-pandemic workforces will be hybrid. Irrespective of whether organizations choose to provide hybrid options or not, the benefits of the model are well documented.
A hybrid model benefits employees and organizations alike. And the proof is in the numbers:
- 83% of workers from Accenture’s survey prefer a hybrid model.
- More than 40% of leaders credit hybrid work options to employee wellbeing.
- 63% of high-growth companies leverage hybrid models.
- Hybrid working conditions can save organizations $11,000 annually, per employee.
In fact, more than 65% of leaders mentioned their companies are contemplating hybrid-friendly office designs, to benefit fully from the model.
Embracing Tech Recruitment Trends: What should your 2022 strategy look like?
While many tech organizations realize the value of emerging recruitment trends, some struggle in their implementation. So here are some ways to incorporate these insights into your recruitment strategy.
Diversity and inclusion require implementation at an organizational level
Implementing diversity and inclusive practices in your recruiting strategy alone is insufficient. Josh Bersin, a leading industry analyst with expertise in corporate HR, emphasized this need:
“Companies that embrace diversity and inclusion in all aspects of their business statistically outperform their peers.”
~ Josh Bersin (source)
Thus, diversity and inclusion practices must be embraced by company leadership. They should then be implemented on an organizational level, which includes recruitment.
An Atlassian study revealed that nearly 50% of employees believed their companies needed to become more diverse and inclusive. So, a great deal of progress still remains.
Leverage HR technology and embrace automation
UIPath, a leading robotic process automation provider, has the following mission statement:
“We make software robots, so
people don’t have to be robots.”
This statement encapsulates the essence of automation; offloading repetitive tasks so your team can devote their time to specialized work.
The evolution of HR technology has provided organizations with numerous, effective automation opportunities. Labor-intensive tasks on an enterprise level, like payroll management, can be automated. Similarly, chatbots as employee support tools have gained momentum.
Beyond enhancing internal operational efficiency, though, HR technology plays a vital role in tech recruitment. Tech organizations are leveraging skills assessment platforms for merit-based hiring, optimizing talent acquisition, and mitigating hiring bias. Additionally, with tech recruitment platforms minimizing human involvement, diversity and inclusion gain momentum.
Better experiences are vital to acquiring and retaining the best talent
And ‘better experiences’ mean providing employees with remote and hybrid work options, creating more inclusive and diverse work environments, and offering consistent training and professional development opportunities.
Where tech talent acquisition is concerned, leading organizations are leveraging skills-based hiring practices. Guaranteeing fair play and inclusivity is vital to improving candidate experiences, and tech recruitment solutions play a prominent role.
How does WeCP (We Create Problems) help organizations navigate the modern tech landscape?
Modern tech recruitment requires agility, reliability, and operational efficiency. Many organizations are working with shrinking HR budgets, and optimized tech talent acquisition is a priority.
WeCP (We Create Problems) is an all-in-one tech recruitment solution, purpose-built to meet modern hiring needs. The platform includes:
- Skills testing functionality, including generating custom tests and conducting them on WeCP’s native IDE.
- Pair-programming exercise features, to evaluate candidates for cultural fit.
- Integrated remote meeting technology, to conduct virtual interviews.
- Cheat-proof functionality, including AI video proctoring, plagiarism detection, and question shuffling.
- AI-driven scheduling software, to streamline the interviewing process.
- AI-driven test scoring, assessing applicants across 12+ performance metrics and guaranteeing merit-based evaluation.
WeCP is your HR technology partner in optimizing tech talent acquisition. We help you reduce hiring times and costs, and acquire the best talent.
To navigate the evolving tech recruitment landscape with WeCP, schedule a demo with us today.
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