It doesn’t matter whether you’re an in-house recruiter for a Fortune 500 company or a recruiting consultant for a start-up; recruiting the right technical talent is never easy. There can be several challenges on the path to reach and successfully hiring the right technical talents. Hiring managers and recruiters, please remember you need to sell yourselves too to attract the right candidates, at times with some hard selling too.

Most of the tech talents are so-called passive candidates. It means the best candidates most likely aren’t actively looking for a job change, or they might not be interested; hence, usually, you wouldn’t find them on the job boards.

Here are a few tips & tricks that may help you stay on top of your recruitment game while trying to hire for a niche skill

1. Understand the tech position you’re looking to fill:

Most times, the recruiters are challenged with a clear understanding of the exact requirements for the tech position they are trying to fill. Recruiters who don’t have a tech background often struggle with understanding the intricacies of skill requirements, thanks to the advent of new/trending tools, applications, technologies, and systems. As a recruiter, you must make an effort to get clarity on the varied skills and experiences you are seeking for your ideal candidate.

2. Marketing skills:

Finding top talent in today’s market is extremely tough. The number of open positions is sometimes much higher than the number of applicants (particularly in IT and other industries employing new and trending skills), and candidates won’t just rush to any company out there. That is why good recruiters are also good marketers and know how to sell the position, the company, and the offer, using various marketing techniques.

3. Learn how to speak the candidate’s language:

If you want to understand and build a meaningful relationship with your candidates, you have to learn to speak their language. Sometimes it’s not easy for a recruiter, typically coming from an HR background, but don’t worry – you don’t need to be an expert at coding to recruit in the technology sector. However, you do need to have the interest and attitude of learning the basics of the Software Development Life Cycle, project management methodologies, and a bit of understanding of the platform and domain that you are recruiting for. These will go a long way in successfully identifying and dealing with tech talent. Unfortunately, there is no shortcut to this learning; it comes with continued interactions with potential candidates, clients, and seniors, with a bit of perseverance.

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4. Look for tech talent from appropriate online portals:

Since most tech talents are passive candidates, they won’t be browsing job boards or visiting career sites.

So, where can you find the right candidates?

There are collaboration sites and online resources where you can spot good candidates. With the advent of numerous portals, job boards, forums, etc., one has to keep looking and exploring to reach the right candidates to match the specific requirements.

Posting jobs in the right places is only the first step in finding the technical talent you need. Remember, the good candidates have multiple options available to choose their careers, too. Therefore, you need to strategically think and explore ways to reach the right individual.

5. Coax the tech talent:

Attracting the attention of the candidates who match the job skill requirements is vital to the success of a recruitment process. For that, you need to maintain a warm relationship with the candidates and coax them to generate their interest in the new opportunity. Be enthusiastic and personable when discussing the job role and responsibilities, career advancement opportunities, compensation, benefits, and job location advantages, including the key details of the technology and platform involved in the position. Essentially, you will target people who are likely to be attracted to what you are offering.

6. Meet your candidate:

It’s not uncommon to see overrated resumes. Many times, the resumes talk a lot more than the candidate’s real skills and capabilities. Get to know your candidates by talking to them, meeting them in person, or by video conference, at the very least. Don’t judge them purely by the CV they provide to you.

When talking about hiring in Europe, there are several other challenges that need to be dealt with. Below are a few areas that you need to be aware of when hiring in Europe.

• GDPR: Adopted by the European Parliament in April of 2016, the General Data Protection Regulation requires businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of European citizens for transactions that occur within European states. Personal data includes names, photos, email addresses, bank details, posts on social networking websites, medical information, or even a computer IP address. Additionally, the GDPR regulates the exportation of personal data outside of the European Union. Essentially, whether or not you are physically located within the European Union, GDPR impacts your organisation as long as you are processing and storing personal data of individuals who live there.

• Employment Regulations and Labour Laws: Each country in Europe has its own Employment Rules & Regulations, Labour Laws. Also, the immigration policies, visa and work permit requirements, terminologies for the skilled professionals differ widely across different regions. Knowledge of the eligibility criteria to work in a specific country and the relevant laws/regulations is key to efficiently dealing with the valid candidates. In addition to this, the individual clients may also specify their own visa/work permit eligibility to fill each of their vacancies, which are driven by various business factors.

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• Work-Life balance: With relatively higher employment rates in most of the European countries compared to the rest of the world, work-life balance plays an important role for job seekers. Different countries adopt varying policies around work-life balance, and therefore, you need to familiarise yourself well before speaking with the candidates to set their expectations from the right perspective.

• Language Barriers: Getting over the language barriers and understanding the cultural differences play an important role while dealing with potential candidates from different regions. Understanding these differences makes your approach to staffing and recruitment more powerful and definitely improves the hiring success rate. If you can speak the local language, it’s a definite plus for you.

• Job Type V/s Remuneration: Demand-Supply situation for specific job types varies from country to country, and so are the remuneration levels for different job roles. The salary levels (or day rates for contract roles) are driven by several factors, such as the cost of living, availability of qualified professionals, currency differences, etc. Therefore, the recruiters need to have good knowledge of the local job markets, economic situations, different currencies, their values, etc.

• Communication: Every interaction a company has with potential new employees is an opportunity to make an impression, establish a connection, and ultimately inspire them to join the team. This is where the recruiter’s role becomes vital. Communication is the key to leave that impression with the candidates and manage the relationships with the customers on a continued basis.

Eastern European countries are very different from Western Europe, and so are Scandinavian countries. They widely differ in their culture, technology, employment rates, cost of living, salary levels, work-life balance, etc. If you are responsible for hiring in multiple European countries, you know what your priorities are to become successful in your role.

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