IT specialists want to speak directly with project managers – new applications are being made for this purpose
Czech IT market is short on IT specialists. There is one third less of them than necessary. There are even five companies fighting over one high quality IT specialist. Who wins? According to last research of AC Jobs and Advantage Consulting employment agencies, it is the company which can create a job advertisement specifically for the job. Information about meal vouchers and great job in a dynamic collective is OUT for good.
“If anyone nowadays still believes that they can attract someone with information about a game room in the office, they are utterly wrong. Advertisements like: Can you do this? Can you do that? Call us!, don’t work as well. The new generation is more attracted to: Can’t you do this or that? Do you want to able to do that? We give you the opportunity to learn it! Such advertisement is 100% successful. IT specialists want to learn new technologies because their profession is advancing very quickly, as well as these so called soft skills. The times when everybody imagined an IT specialist as some introvert guy sitting in a cellar are gone,” said Olga Hyklová, the owner of AC Jobs and Advantage Consulting employment agencies.
According to her, young IT specialists want to see the contribution to their personal profile. They like to work on something they enjoy and where they can be creative. Another big priority is the team they are supposed to work with. The team quality and technical quality of the team leader are very important. A brand new and very effective trend is selection procedure led directly by the manager of the specific project. It is more time consuming for the managers, but it definitely pays off.
“HR specialist recruiting IT specialists in modern companies plays more the role of someone setting up the meeting and introducing the new employee. The interview itself is led by the manager. It is a good way to do it, the manager can answer all technical questions and can attract the candidate to the project. If the IT specialist does not get answers to their question during the first round, they will usually not turn up for the second round – they are not satisfied with the company’s approach,” described Olga Hyklová.
However, statistics are even more dramatic. Research shows that more than 72% of people never receive an answer, although they responded to the offer. This means that they will look elsewhere next time. This was also the reason why SMITIO application was created.
“It is a so called quick dating site for candidates and IT managers. I am an IT guy as well and I was unsatisfied with lack of information about the jobs, long reply times and sending CVs to anonymous mails like career@... SMITIO can be shortly described as searching for a contact based on a project that the candidate is interested in and quick introduction via online chat directly with a potential superior. I also decided to sort the projects according to current manager reply speed,“ said Marek Bureš from SMITIO.
Without involving managers in the selection process, the chances of finding good candidates are minimal as also Vladimír Lorber from Quadient said. Quadient is hiring 60 new IT specialists this year. “We always tend to set up the selection procedure as quickly as possible. Ideally, after the first contact with the candidate. In Quadient, a hiring manager who leads the specific team requiring a new employee is always present. Such manager can then answer all technical questions. Candidates also get to know the person they will be working with in case they get hired. Majority of our selection procedures take just one round,” summarized Vladimír Lorber.
If an employer wants to succeed, they should adapt to this new situation in every way. “Most company benefit offers are pointless as well. Smartphone? Notebook? Millennials see these as work instruments, not benefits. A game room in the office? It does not attract many people from the target audience nowadays. A notebook can be considered a benefit in case the IT specialist also gets three monitors with it,” exaggerated Olga Hyklová, the owner of AC Jobs and Advantage Consulting employment agencies.