Bi-directional choice: how to attract candidates in a competitive environment.

01.07.2022

You will find this article useful if the firm you are associated with has not yet realized the level of success that bigger organizations such as Amazon or Google have achieved, with opportunities to select individuals from a large pool of qualified professionals competing for attention from your recruiters. Your brand may simply not be large enough to operate at such a capacity as of now, yet you may find yourself motivated to pursue the best possible candidates for your organization. Though you may have responses from candidates prepared to fill vacancies in your business, this does not guarantee the acceptance of your offer.

According to statistics, 42% of candidates reject some offers; choosing others, or even preferring to stay in their current position. The percentage of failures varies among different companies, but it is still disappointing, because your energy and time is wasted, and the result does not meet the expectations.

The most common reasons for rejections are: “not interested in the company”, “not interested in the project”, “salary expectations not met”, and “refusal of office work in favor of remote work”.

The recruiter cannot influence the level of salary and the format of work. However, they can describe the company and the project as attractively and in as much detail as possible.

The candidate should have all the information necessary in order to make a well-balanced decision, and with your inspirational and persuasive speech, you can positively influence the emotional side of the decision.

A few tips on what should be included in your description:

  1. Information about your company
  • What does the company do, how long has it been on the market and how many employees are there?
  • Business etymology (concept, idea, history): How did the idea to create such a product(s) come about? What is the idea and the key feature of ​​your business?
  • Vector of the company’s development: What does the company plan to achieve technically and financially in the next year? Is there a plan to enter new markets?
  • Stability: Your firm’s reaction to the Covid-19 crisis, as well as reaction to exposing articles and fluctuations in financial markets (first you need to study what they write and say about you in the media)
  • Relocation: Do you have offices in other countries? Where? Do you plan to expand to other markets and open offices there?

2. Partners

  • Business relationships and successful products that have integrated into other ecosystems.

3. Comprehensive description of the company product(s)

4. Product in numbers (investment, audience, customers, turnover)

Crunchbase: links, investors, investments. You can send this information to the candidate promptly.

  • How many users or companies are your customers now?
  • What investments are you using to develop the company?
  • What is the approximate turnover of the company?

5. Stack

  • What is the main stack in the company (current versions of PL, databases, type of architecture, additional tools)?
  • Are there any technologies that you plan to introduce in the near future?

6. Difficult tasks and improving skills

  • Is it possible to get more complex tasks over time?
  • Is there flexibility in terms of technological choice? Is it realistic for an employee to bring a new technology or approach to a project? Maybe there is an example of this.

7. Switch to another project

  • Does the company practice transitions between projects? How and when is this possible?
  • Is it possible to learn and move to another role in development (for example, from a tester to a developer, from a developer to an analyst or a product manager). Tell the candidate about vertical growth.

8. Personality

  • Founders — which companies they came from, what note-worthy things they have in their backgrounds.
  • Rock stars within the company (with links to LinkedIn, social media profiles, articles, speeches at conferences).
  • Mention whether a large number of developers came from some well-known company.
  • Discuss the most soft-skilled and charismatic people, why the team loves them.

9. Team

  • What is the average age of the team? What is the gender ratio?
  • What languages do employees use within the team?
  • Do colleagues spend time together outside of work? Do they share common hobbies?
  • Are there any common chats with jokes, small talk or memes?
  • Are there any traditions in the team?

10. Corporate culture

  • What makes your company/team different for employees? For example, in one of our client’s companies they buy super comfortable chairs for developers that cost $2000. Do you have your own corporate goodies?
  • Do you use time trackers for work?
  • How is the workflow organized in terms of setting and completing tasks?
  • What methodology do you use? If Agile, then is it the standard type or some kind of modification?

11. Participation in conferences and events

  • Does the company regularly participate in any IT conferences, does it hold any events itself?
  • If yes, in what format? Tell the candidate about it more.
  • How are new employees attracted to participate in conferences? Does it depend on how long they’ve been with the company? Should they take the initiative themselves or does the company encourage or push to participate?

12. Equipment

  • What equipment do you provide to employees? Is it possible to ask for the laptop / computer model that is convenient for the employee?
  • Can an employee work with their own equipment?
  • What about additional equipment — monitors, headphones, a chair? Some companies even send docking stations, do you have something similar?
  • Do you send equipment to remote workers?
  • What operating system do you use?

If you provide the candidate with comprehensive and positive information, their chances of accepting the offer will increase. If you need help presenting yourself to a candidate in the best way possible, Avarn is always ready to advise and even take on this part of the work! We at Avarn provide top of line consulting services — together, we can make a great presentation for you and your company.

By continuing to use our site, you consent to the processing of cookies that ensure the proper operation of the site. Read more

Agree