Tapping top techies for your business calls for creative resources

The tech sector is booming in Australia and it is estimated it will have created 81,000 more jobs by 2022.

The tech sector is booming in Australia. The ACS Digital Pulse report released this year estimates that the sector will have created 81,000 more jobs by 2022. But where will all the people come from to fill this demand, when we produce only 3000 to 4000 graduates a year?

The skills or roles in demand include developers, design (user experience/product), data scientists and IT security experts.

There’s also rising demand for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The demand for this knowledge is expected to boom in the near future.

But it’s not just the technology companies that are hiring for tech roles — it’s banks, insurers, large retailers and others. Every company or organisation is a competitor and they’re being forced to fight harder to attract and retain staff.

In this highly connected world, social media can be used as a recruitment tool. It’s not just about searching for a skill fit on LinkedIn; it’s about positioning your company and making it attractive to the right type of candidates. You need to spend time profiling ideal candidates. What do they read? What social media do they use? What are they inspired by? What type of workplace culture meets their personal aspirations?

Then you need to connect with them in a meaningful way. Your feed shouldn’t be just about your products and services but also your people, your values, what makes you different, the exciting work your team is doing. If you’ve got your messages right, you will start attracting potential new hires to you that have already pre-qualified themselves, saving you time.

If you’re trying to attract the right candidates, make sure you’ve got a process on your website that makes reaching out informative and fun. An example of this is retail software provider Vend’s unique career page chatbot. Office dog Pepper “talks” to potential employees to give them instant answers on any and every question they may have when considering a role. While it can’t run complex queries, it is able to answer questions on more than 350 topics related to joining Vend. It also enables Vend to gather some great insights on what people want in a company and it can use this information to make improvements to its recruitment process.

An often untapped and under-leveraged resource is the network of your existing staff. If you’ve already got top performers, then engage with them and ask them what they like most about their role and the company. Glean insights into what appeals to them as it is likely similar candidates will resonate with these motivators. If you’ve got a great coder who fits perfectly with your unique culture, ask them about any friends or former colleagues they would recommend for roles open with your organisation.

You can also look at top performers’ LinkedIn connections. Who did they study with and who have they endorsed when they worked together in the past?

But don’t just consider people with the right prerequisites because for a lot of the roles of the future, experience doesn’t yet exist. Be open to hiring for potential and investing in training so you can expand your talent pool.

Anyone who has applied for a job in the past decade has probably taken part in some form of behavioural or skills assessment: personality testing, numerical reasoning, aptitude, technical or cognitive skills assessments.

Local start-up Gooroo applies artificial intelligence and neuroscience to predict the contribution of individuals to companies, focusing on who has the most potential to succeed. Gooroo’s AI software assesses an individual’s “mindset” using complex technology to forecast the potential of an individual and determine who is likely to contribute to growth. These new tools may be useful extensions to add to your hiring approach.

Jarrad Skeen is the founder and managing director of Affix.