Australia’s approach to managing Covid-19, in particular closing international borders, has reduced the number of incoming temporary migrants. Time will tell how this strategy will influence Australia’s attractiveness as a migrant destination.
The competition is now greater than ever for highly sought-after skilled migrants. Simply opening borders may not be enough to attract the numbers we need to help us build out our IT teams and deliver on all the great initiatives that Aussie companies have underway this year.
In addition to the migrant shortage, Australia’s unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in over a decade, hitting 4 percent in February 2022 (in data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics).
The culmination of these factors signifies two things for Australian employers: recruiting skilled tech talent is becoming very difficult, and upskilling existing workforces is critical.
In this 2-part article series, we will look at how employers can approach these challenges.
Part 1: A guide to recruiting new technical/digital talent
Part 2: A guide to addressing digital skills shortages
They do say that the only thing that remains constant is change, so let’s begin by exploring how we embrace these changes and adapt our recruitment strategies to leverage the new landscape.
Draw up a recruitment strategy
As with any business objective, strategies should be created in order to know how to meet the goals. A solid recruitment strategy will help improve your hiring process, which will then improve the quality of your team and subsequently your product or service.
Consider your high-level objectives, such as:
- Attracting more qualified candidates, but not narrowing your search too far that you exclude those outliers that can often deliver 10x ROI.
- Streamlining your application procedures.
- Reducing the number of people who reject your job offers.
- Lowering the rate of employee ‘churn’.
Further detail and ideas to consider:
- What specific job boards to use? eg. LinkedIn, Seek, specialist, or niche groups.
- Ways in which to make the candidate experience more engaging, remember first impressions do count, and hiring and onboarding processes are often not as smooth as they could be.
- Increasing the effectiveness of your application procedure, think of it as a funnel, with every stage’s goal to move the right people to the next stage.
- Be more efficient with your processes, a lengthy, delayed, or drawn-out process can be a deal-breaker for candidates, especially if other offers are on the table.
- Don’t overlook the power of social media for finding your ideal person.
- Managing candidate applications, reviewing CVs, organising interviews, and tracking applicants’ status can easily overwhelm your team and become disorganised. Consider what tools are out there to help you manage this, recruitment software, applicant tracking systems, etc. If you use a recruiter ask them how they manage their process and what tools they use.
Once you have established your recruitment strategy, here are some tips to help you roll it out.
Make a strong first impression
It is important for companies to create a strong employer brand. This involves putting yourself in the shoes of the talented candidates you’re trying to attract and thinking about what makes your company a great place to work. What could be done better? What should be celebrated?
Having a strong brand as an employer of choice will help you stand out from the competition and make it easier for you to attract top talent at every step of the process.
Establish a strong employer brand by:
- Doing good work.
- Building great things.
- Treating people well.
Make sure your job descriptions are clear, concise, and accurate. Know what skillset you are looking for but be sure that it exists, if you can’t communicate it simply then it might need more thought.
Remember, unicorns do exist, but only in luvo’s talent network!
Focus on hiring the right people and the culture will follow
A golden rule of hiring – search for candidates who are a good fit, both for the job position AND company culture. However, we understand (from experience!) that this is easier said than done, as the number of candidates who will truly match both can be scarce.
Your company culture is defined by the worst behaviour that you tolerate.
Make sure that you are interviewing and selecting candidates based on integrity, trustworthiness, and attitude and not just technical know-how. Trust your gut, it sees things you don’t.
Define what your culture of tomorrow looks like and consider candidates who will help you reach that goal.
Get creative with your sourcing strategies
Using social media to recruit new employees is often a great way to grow your company’s talent pool.
Posting job openings on social media, with the right audience, can be effective. Social media also makes referring a friend very easy so make sure you prompt your audience to take a moment to think ‘if not me, then who’.
Provide a link to the application, and advise the next step and timelines of the application process where possible.
In addition, use social media to find potential candidates, who works where, with whom, what are their interests, and do they provide a great balance to your existing team.
Yes, LinkedIn is without a doubt, the main network for finding new talent for your company, but it’s not the only one. Consider more options for finding and reaching out to potential new hires. Maybe even Tiktok!
Implement an employee referral program
One of the most effective recruiting strategies is to ask your current employees for referrals. Your employees likely know people with similar skill sets and similar thinking, making them more likely to be a good fit for the job and the company.
Plus, since the potential candidate knows and trusts your employee already, it’s more likely that they will accept a job offer if one is extended.
Employee referral programs can be extremely successful if they’re implemented correctly. Working out fun ways to incentive employees is also a great way to find out what motivates your team to take action
Consider recruiting overseas tech talent
Whilst the federal government navigates the ways in which to make it easier for skilled migrants in critical categories to gain permanent residency in Australia, and other initiatives such as the Incentives for Australian Apprenticeships program, the skills shortage continues.
We are seeing many Australian CIOs and CTOs recruiting both permanent and contract IT positions from overseas to help with the local talent shortage.
But with relocation expenses a significant factor for roles that require a physical presence, the recruitment costs can escalate considerably. Companies need to strengthen internal talent pipelines and be able to attract and retain local skills to develop a truly agile tech-first workforce.
Look out for part 2 in this series where we look at how you can address technical skills shortages within your existing talent pool.
Where do we fit in?
As a specialist recruitment agency that focuses on staffing for IT and digital roles, luvo Talent is your go-to partner when it comes to building your IT team quickly.
Thanks to our pool of qualified professional candidates, we offer our clients a fast and flexible solution to meet their individual hiring needs. Our experienced IT Talent Whisperers use their extensive networks to allow you to tap into the best local and international talent. To top it off, our directors come with 20+ years of IT Project Delivery experience so they know what it takes to build a high-velocity team that delivers.
Whether you require a single IT resource or you need to scale a team quickly, luvo will make it happen. Contact [email protected] to find out more.
