3 things you MUST do to hire Software Engineers
First, a quick real life story about how crazy today’s job market is: Hint, candidates are in charge!
Last week I attended 2 Engineering “job fairs” – my main goal was to get a recruiting assignment to recruit for these 2 Fortune 1000 companies.
A friend of mine told me there was a job fair happening (hosted by company A) at a brewery south of Denver….and one of their biggest competitors (Company B) decided since their competitor was doing this in their back yard – literally less than 5 miles from their main Colorado campus …they would also host a job fair at the same time, same day in a Mexican restaurant across the Parking Lot from Company A!
Fast forward to the day of, I pull up to the strip mall parking lot – about the size of a WalMart parking lot, and it’s completely full! Multiple cars parked along the street adjacent to the lot. This is ~4PM on a Thursday. Company A’s event was ‘Sold Out’ according to the RSVP website. So, ?I walked into Company B’s event…it was basically like a party. 2 free drinks and free food at the bar. Order what you want she told me as I got a colored wrist band that indicated what sort of position I was interested in (Software, Mechanical, Hardware, etc). As I met and talked to 4 different executives from Company B, each of them told me a story of how many openings they had for different types of engineers (ranging from 50-75 openings each). They were all looking for Mid-career+ engineers (5 yrs). So, I had a beer and gave my other ticket to a student from School of Mines (Kevin). Pay it forward. BTW, it seemed to me that ~75% of the attendees were one of the following (confirmed by one of the exec’s):
1) Still in College
2) Fresh College Grad
3) <2 yrs experience
I decided to see if I could get into Company A’s event – even though it was sold out. I walked across the parking lot – people were still circling, looking for parking spots. No problem she says, we just wanted to make sure we didn’t go over the fire code. So, 2 drink tickets and a buffet of food this time. Very similar situation – I talked to their Head of Recruiting – He said “we have a short term problem that we need help with – recruiting for mid level to senior level engineering staff” – exactly the same target as Company B.
I do not know the exact outcome and result of these 2 Engineering job fairs, but I must conclude that they didn’t get the talent and 50-100 talented, experienced engineers they wanted from the event. Both of these companies have incredible benefits, including employer funded retirement (6%) and 50% match on 401K up to 8% of pay contribution, 4x10 hr days (Fridays off = 3 day weekends!), etc.
As I left the events, I started formulated this - there are four main things you must do to be able to hire good engineering talent in today’s market:
1) Be Flexible
Your job requirements is a list of 10 MUST have’s and 10 NICE to have’s maybe you should consider changing it to 3 MUST have’s and 17 NICE to have’s.
2) Increase pay range and Quality of Life benefits
Simple to say…maybe hard to do.
If you can afford it pay more than in the past. Or at least advertise that the pay range can be increased. Are you going to quit your job for a $5K-$10K raise? Probably not. Unless there are also other circumstances, like work flexibility and other benefits that outweigh another $5K-10K in salary.
You may also have to increase current Engineering employees salaries while you are at it. I have already seen multipls companies doing this – you have to keep the employees you have or this cycle will just get worse.
There’s a lot to figure out. And if you choose this option, increasing the initial range of pay from, say $100K-$130K to $100K-$150K. That opens up the door to a lot more talent that will listen.
?Some examples of Quality of Life benefits:
·??????Flexible Company or Personal Holidays (10 or 20), personal days, sick leave, and other time off from work
·??????Stock Options
·??????Work from Home flexibility
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·??????4x10 hr days (3 day weekends)
·??????Free lunch Wednesday’s
·??????Childcare or Childcare allowance
·??????401K matching – re-evaluate yours vs competition
·??????Use of a company car
·??????Tuition assistance?for employees and/or their families
·??????Discounts on company products and services
3) Provide SOMETHING UNIQUE
What its not - Nearly everyone is offering hybrid or remote work now… so that’s a benefit for Software Developers that today is almost like health insurance – simply required – or prepare to increase the above two items even more.
This is where your executive team should get together and brainstorm – when was the last time you did this about company benefits vs profit vs people.
How about doing a executive 4:30 happy hour where your executive team rents a nice room in a nice restaurant with wifi and you go there and start brainstorming and searching for very unique things that companies in OTHER industries are doing that don’t cost an extra $20K, but maybe cost $5K-10K?
Some crazy ideas that may get your juices flowing:
·??????Vacation of a lifetime – after 5 yrs of service.
·??????Sabbatical – Some companies offer 8-10 weeks of vacation after 7 yrs of service.
·??????Do you have a subsidiary in London or NYC? Work from another office for 1-3 months after 3-5 years of service.
·??????How about a customer in San Francisco? How about making a deal with them to do an employee exchange (exchange offices) over the summer?
·??????Can they hire an intern next Summer? $15-$20/hr for a college kid helps you, the employee and the kid! That will cost you a few grand.
What next?
Contact me if you want to brainstorm about hiring Software Engineers - I would love to be the scribe at your happy hour!
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