Finding and hiring technical talents continue to be a challenge for many businesses around the world.
From surging demand for tech talents to fill AI-related roles to finding techies who serve business needs to being able to afford these talents, these are a handful of challenges companies are struggling with.
In this article, we’ll be looking at the top challenges of hiring technical talents around the world.
Skills employers are looking for
Problem-solving skills are among the most important soft skills a candidate can have. Be they in the marketing team or tech team.
Research by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found 86% of employers prioritizing problem-solving skills among fresh grads and junior candidates.
In addition, 80% of employers are more interested in hiring candidates with “strong teamwork skills.”
Other important skills in employers’ opinions as per the NACE report are:
- Strong work ethics
- Strong communication skills, both verbal and written
- Analytic and/or quantitative skills
- Technical skills
- Being flexible and/or adaptive
Further reading: Top Challenges for Hiring Technical Talents in Saudi Arabia in 2024
Challenges of hiring technical talent in 2024
Now, let’s look at the top challenges plaguing the recruitment of tech talents. The following challenges are global, but you’ll find many applicable to local economies.
-
Shortage of skilled candidates
One of the biggest challenges companies struggle with when trying to fill tech positions is finding skilled talents.
It’s easy to find an average developer. But many companies aren’t looking for average candidates. They want a developer who is knowledgeable, driven, and skilled.
Skilled candidates balance technical skills like programming languages and familiarity with tools, with soft skills like creativity, people skills, among others.
Roughly 78% of developers and 81% of recruiters in a Coderpad survey say soft skills are “as important as hard skills.”
-
Shortage of experienced, manager-level candidates
Let’s say you were successful in your endeavors to find skilled tech talents to fill your junior and mid-level roles. The challenges don’t stop there.
There’s a new challenge of finding tech talents who can fill managerial roles and lead tech teams.
Roles such as tech team lead, engineering manager, IT manager, among others can be hard to fill. Especially if you’re in a niche or in a high-performing software house.
Moreover, 36% of developers in the Coderpad survey said they weren’t interested in taking on managerial roles and responsibilities.
In addition, many CEOs and business owners aren’t sure what a tech team lead’s responsibilities encompass or how to assess them.
-
High turnover
Turnover remains one of the top challenges plaguing organizations around the world. There are many factors that affect employee turnover. These factors vary from lack of appreciation to micromanagement to employee fatigue and burnout, among others.
But two of the top reasons we’re seeing employees leaving their jobs are toxic work environments and bad management.
Businesses need to consider who they hire, or promote, as a team lead or manager, how they behave, and their impact on their team members.
-
Poor culture fit
Few people talk about poor culture fit and its impact on hiring and retention. Poor culture fit isn’t limited to hiring technical talents. It’s a global challenge.
Often recruiters and managers are in a rush to fill vacancies. So, they ignore signs that a candidate may not be the right fit for their organization.
That said, some employees may present themselves well, too well. Still, sometimes the blame falls on the company.
Nearly 10% of respondents in a CareerBuild Survey say the person they hired wasn’t a good fit because “the company did not properly convey its brand or culture to the new hire.”
Moreover, companies often make the mistake of making a bad hire. The person may not necessarily be a low performer, they simply may not be the right person for the job or work environment.
One of the top reasons companies make bad hires is because they “felt they needed to hire someone quickly.” (CareerBuilder)
It’s worth mentioning that poor culture fit is a hiring challenge for tech and non-tech employees alike.
Using personality tests and psychometric assessments can help identify candidates’ soft skills and weaknesses. Managers can then determine if these weaknesses can be improved or if they disqualify candidates from becoming team leads and seniors.
-
Large salary gap
One of the top challenges in recruitment, in general, and in hiring technical talents, in particular, is the wide-ranging salary gap.
Often companies will offer large salaries to attract top tech talents. This creates an imbalance in the local hiring market.
Not only that, techies who get a high salary without advanced tech skills to match are left stranded between improving their skills and finding work opportunities.
Tightening budgets are also contributing to this gap. While some companies try to tempt tech talents with high salaries, other companies are struggling to compete.
Research shows companies are focusing on hiring more junior and mid-level engineers and fewer senior developers.
-
CV overload on hiring platforms
Another challenge facing recruiters and tech talents alike is the overload of resumes on hiring platforms like LinkedIn and Indeed.
Once a job is posted, hundreds of candidates apply. This makes it hard for skilled candidates to compete, while recruiters struggle with hundreds, sometimes thousands of resumes, for a single job opportunity.
Moreover, many of these resumes may be irrelevant.
-
Passive hiring
Companies need to focus on passive hiring, not just active hiring. Passive candidates are those who aren’t actively searching for new opportunities, but will jump on an opportunity if it presents itself.
In other words, a person may not be currently applying for new jobs. However, if a recruiter approaches them with an offer that offers more perks than where they are now, they may seize that opportunity. That’s why they’re called ‘passive.’
While it’s difficult to attract passive candidates, it’s not impossible. Especially if you offer unique benefits. It’s important your recruiters don’t waste time reaching out to candidates with job offers that are below their current titles.
-
Recruitment bias
Recruitment biases sneak into the process of hiring technical talents. Especially since tech roles have often been viewed as being male-dominated.
Although this stigma is beginning to go away, many employers may consciously or unconsciously carry recruitment bias.
Recruitment bias is when an employer or recruiter forms an opinion about a candidate through an initial impression or without talking to this person.
Recruitment biases can emerge from reviewing a resume. They’re usually related to criteria that are not relevant to the role, such as age, race, and gender.
-
Minimal employee benefits
Besides salary and work-life balance, technical talents want to know what an employer’s benefits are. However, what most employers believe to be benefits, employees consider as basics.
Offering a two-day weekend along with medical and social insurance aren’t considered ‘perks’ anymore. These are basics.
Techies, from developers to tech team leads to product managers to engineering and IT managers, expect more.
Developer communities are a perk, along with offering equity to senior technical talents, employee rewards programs, special learning opportunities, among others.
-
Global competition for talent
When companies seek technical talents, they should be aware that their competitors for these talents aren’t local. They’re global.
While salary ranks first, in terms of importance on CoderPad’s research, it’s not the only factor techies consider when switching jobs. Having good work-life balance and remote working options come in at second and third when considering a job offer.
A company needs to clearly show it offers work-life balance and other benefits to attract talents.
-
Absence of developer circles
Developers and tech talents like being part of a group or circle. Companies offering developer circles and communities offer unique opportunities for current and potential hires.
Developer communities offer chances to engage with other seasoned developers, opportunities to grow, along with knowledge sharing.
However, few companies are able to offer such developer-focused communities.
-
No clear upskilling plan(s)
Employees today, including tech talents, are constantly on the lookout for companies that will invest in their upskilling.
Unfortunately, many junior and senior developers uncover the harsh truth after they join: There’s no plan–or budget–to develop their skills.
Having an upskilling plan not only contributes to better employee retention but also increases employee loyalty. However, tight budgets and no clear growth trajectory for the company often result in the absence of upskilling plans for employees, tech or otherwise.
-
Misusing AI in recruitment
Global discussions about artificial intelligence (AI) have skyrocketed over the past couple of years. AI is and will remain an important trend in many industries for years to come. Hiring, including technical hiring trends are no exception.
While AI can be a great tool, it really depends on how each person uses it. It can speed up some hiring processes.
However, what we are seeing is that some recruiters misuse it, creating new recruitment hurdles. Some common bad practices when using AI in the recruitment process, involve giving ChatGPT and other AI software several resumes and asking it to identify the best candidate.
A better idea would be to ask ChatGPT to help write a job description. Still, a recruiter or CEO with no technical background won’t be able to tell if the job description is the right one or if it matches their needs.
Overcome the challenges of hiring technical talent with TechieMatter
The first step in attempting to solve the above challenges is to see where these challenges come from.
Is it something a company can do to improve the candidate experience and accordingly attract techies?
For example, with the challenge of passive hiring, companies and recruiters should work on attracting passive candidates. To do so, these companies need to focus on
- Great employer branding
- Reaching talents via blog content
- Offering unique benefits
- Ensuring consistent and stellar communication
- Turning to a solution like TechieMatter, which gives you access to passive hiring and highly skilled tech talents.
As a 360-degree tech recruitment platform, TechieMatter helps businesses across the globe find and hire skilled techies from around the world.
For example, unlike standard job boards and recruitment platforms, we don’t bombard our clients with hundreds and thousands of resumes.
Our process is different, beginning with a detailed job description and ending with a handful of top tech calibers. Our clients can then choose whether to assess and interview them through our platform or perform these processes on their own.
Most of our clients use our assessment and technical interview products and complete the recruitment process through TechieMatter.
We regularly work with companies and recruiters with no tech background but who need to hire technical talents.
As for the challenge of the large salary gap, we support our clients by providing them with salary estimates based on their needs.
Our virtual onboarding module acts as a global employer of record for our global customers. Whether they want to financially or legally onboard new talents, or manage payroll and attendance, compensation and benefits, among other perks for team members, we’ve got them covered.
TechieMatter also offers consultation for clients who aren’t sure about their needs or who want a consultation for managing teams.
Learn more about TechieMatter and our offerings here.
