Member Article

How to find hidden candidates

It’s commonly known that the right people fuel the growth and success of a company. Whether your business is a start-up trying to attract investment, a scale-up trying to meet project demands or a corporate with open roles; hiring the right people at the right time can be crucial. Diversifying your sourcing channels can increase your chances of a successful recruitment drive and this article looks at a few ways of doing that and finding those hidden candidates.

Word of mouth-

More and more candidates want to know what it’s like working for a company before they take the leap. Your employees are in the best position to recommend people for roles as well assist your recruitment teams in getting the message out to suitable candidates. Utilising an employee referral scheme and offering incentives can help to reach the right people. Further, sites such as Glassdoor, allow current and former employees to leave reviews of companies, therefore giving prospective candidates somewhat of an understanding of an organisation. Being aware of the company profile or asking employees to contribute can assist with attracting candidates.

Meet up events-

Budding developers, testers, and designers can often be found at these events due to their interest and desire to meet with like-minded professionals. Local tech hubs and business centres will host these events, usually once a month and they’re a great way of expanding your network. Attending or even speaking at these events can also increase awareness of both your business and vacancies, so it can be a couple of hours well spent. You can sign up to newsletters and emails to find out whats happening in your local area and pick and choose the most suitable events. Alternatively, search through Eventbrite for relevant upcoming events or sites local to your area, such as Tech Diary.

Technical skills testing-

Not everyone can sell their abilities on paper or during an interview process. Allowing candidates to show their skill and abilities through a test could uncover a lot of people who wouldn’t have stood out otherwise. When it comes to technical skills, there are a number of self-taught superstars out there. Whilst their CV may not show a desired certification or level of work experience, they would be more than capable of doing the job. Creating a test yourself can be timely, but will mean you can tailor the types of questions and level of knowledge required. There are also numerous companies and platforms available, such as Technically Compatible, who can design technical tests for you, thereby cutting down on time and hassle.

Online platforms-

Platforms such as Facebook and of course, LinkedIn can be a useful tool to seek out candidates with certain interests or levels of education in subject areas. Dice, an online career site, has released a new search platform for tech recruiters in the UK. Their Talent Search product combines Dice’s CV database with millions of profiles to allow recruiters to get a better picture of a candidate. If it’s a technical role, such as software development, Github is a great way to see a candidate’s coding ability. Reviewing a person’s code can lead to a much better result than relying on their CV alone.

Build your own pool of candidates-

Creating a new pool of people to consider can be an alternative to fighting over the same candidates as everyone else. Consider working with a company which will find and train candidates for you; allowing you to choose from individuals who have been up-skilled to your requirements. It’s usually the case that demand isn’t known until the last minute but having these relationships in place and even contacting them initially to advise of the potential, could save a lot of headache.

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DevAcademy provides the optimum solution to building capacity across specific development skills. We assist with creating teams of up-skilled resource for project work or future workforce requirements.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rachel Peacock .