Member Article

Developers take control of IT Recruitment market.

Struggling to fill that web developer role? There’s a good reason for that. According to Smart Recruiters 93% of IT employers report that they have a hard time finding the talent they need.

So what skills are we talking here? Mark Skeet, Lead Developer at Leeds based agency First 10 has recently been through the recruiting process, looking for developers with object orientated programming skills, PHP and upcoming JavaScript programming frameworks.

Whilst these skills are a core of software development and have always been in demand, graduates with the right skill set are now entering the IT market straight from university with 3 or 4 job offers on the table.

IT Recruitment specialists Conex Europe have seen a change in market drivers in the last 6 – 12 months.

“Pre-recession circa 2007, the IT Recruitment market was very much client driven. They could afford to be choosy and specific with their skill set and candidate,” said Sarah Ashworth, Recruitment consultant at Conex Europe. “Full time roles were recruited and the contracting market took a nose dive as developers wanted a more certain future and guaranteed income.”

That certainly doesn’t appear to be the case currently as the market has gone full circle. Now largely candidate driven, developers are no longer looking for permanent roles and the temporary placement /contracting market has taken control.

“Candidates are able to make demands, and as it’s the mid-level talent pool, developers are able to make a decision on which offers have the better career prospects and benefits over the next 12 months rather than just going for the highest salary,” said Sarah.

How can digital agencies such as First 10 make their offer of permanent employment more attractive? “Our latest recruitment effort has focussed on attitude and potential as well as a defined core set of skills,” said Mark at First 10.

But candidates are not going direct to the clients, and instead prefer to stay on a temporary contract with recruitment agencies. With so many out there how can IT recruitment agencies create an attractive proposition to set themselves apart from their competition?

Nick Hill, founder of Mr Presenter, the Leeds based recruitment trainer and sales improvement specialist, has extensive experience of working with recruitment agencies and businesses that want to improve effectiveness and achieve results with clients and candidates.

“In my experience working both as a recruiter and trainer, the agencies that are looking to attract the highest quality of candidates for their clients need to forget solely about market drivers, it’s not about that. It’s about people, humans rather than client/candidate.” Nick went on to explain, “Now is the right time for recruiters to sharpen their relationship building and communication skills. A recruitment consultant will still need to understand the candidate and client’s buyer behaviour and build relationships with both parties that are based on trust, loyalty and competence. That’s the first step to making your agency stand out in the current economy yet there is still more that can be done.”

“The contract market is fast moving, and recruiters need to be at the top of their game to keep up with supply and demand but going through the process of only matching skills and experience rather than treating the contract role like a permanent recruitment opportunity will only get you so far in candidate driven markets. Connecting with candidates, adding value to them by understanding details such as their personality type and working style as well as working preferences is crucial to retaining a highly skilled candidate on a temporary contract.”

“Employers shouldn’t shy away from explaining their internal team culture, side projects and team collaborations and also where the business is headed as these are important factors when a developer is evaluating a contract job opportunity.”

Nick concluded by saying, “Recruiters who take time to fully understand the business requirement, the team dynamics, the project brief and personality factors are likely to be thought of first, as soon as the temporary contract enters the market.”

The candidate driven market is unlikely to change any time soon as Code continues to be the fastest growing language in the world. Posting jobs in the right places, creating a great candidate experience and promoting a company culture to rival that of giants such as Google is the key to attract and retain web developers of the future.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Cat Yaffe .