Wow, January blew by. You realize that\u2019s 8.5 percent of the year, give or take? How are you doing on your 2018 goals? Hopefully well; but if not, no worries. You have 11 months to get back on the track you designed for yourself and your team. As you transition from Q1 to Q2 planning, what should you think about in terms of recruiting the best tech talent for projects, long-term work, etc.? Here are 25 concepts, ideas, and tools to consider.<\/p>\n
#1: <\/strong>Dice\u2019s own 2018 Salary Report<\/a> showed how specialized skills are driving up the salary market. #2:<\/strong> When you combine the rise in specialized skills with low levels of tech unemployment, you can see where tech salaries could skyrocket; but at the broadest level, they are flat compared to 2016. The average tech professional salary in the U.S. for 2017 was $92,712, which was only a 0.7 percent increase from 2016. About 33 percent of tech professionals earned a bonus, which averaged just about $10,000. The contract rate did rise 5 percent, to about $72.32 an hour. #3:<\/strong> Highly specialized skills are driving up salaries, but they\u2019re not necessarily the skills most in-demand presently. Here are the fastest-growing technology skills based on Dice job postings.<\/a> It\u2019s also interesting to see the ratio between Internet of Things (IoT), which is discussed constantly in the media around recruiting and tech in general, and Docker, which most people probably have limited ideas around. IoT is very important, undoubtedly, but that doesn\u2019t necessarily mean companies are hiring for it at scale just yet. #4:<\/strong> Hiring processes are increasingly revolving more around the candidate\u2019s previous experiences<\/a> in addition to the skills noted above. Obviously, you want to make sure the candidate is technically vetted, but hiring managers are more and more trying to assess fit, makeup during stressful periods, and the broader context that the person would bring to a team. #5:<\/strong> While there is a lot of talk about unicorns and startups, the biggest hiring powerhouses in the Bay Area tech hub are still huge enterprise companies: Apple, Amazon, Cisco, Oracle, and Google\/Alphabet are 1-5 for 2018 expectations.<\/a><\/p>\n #6:<\/strong> We know culture is important to top tech talent. We\u2019ve known that for years. Interestingly, then, many companies are still doing \u201cexit interviews.\u201d There is value to be gained here, sure. But oftentimes the employee is already checked out (mentally), or maybe concerned about how truthful they can be in such a setting. What about this idea of \u201centry interviews,\u201d then? Here\u2019s how it works: between offer acceptance and first day (or within the first week), the team lead sits down with the new employee and talks to them about their approach, goals, preferred ways of working, what they respect\/value in teammates, etc. Adam Grant, famous for Originals <\/em>and his newer book with Sheryl Sandberg, has championed this approach:<\/a><\/p>\n In the first week on the job, managers sit down with their new hires and ask them about their favorite projects they\u2019ve done, the moments when they\u2019ve felt most energized at work, the times when they\u2019ve found themselves totally immersed in a state of flow, and the passions they have outside their jobs. Armed with that knowledge, managers can build engaging roles from the start.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n #7:<\/strong> Team-based hiring will increasingly become important. I won\u2019t belabor this point, but I just want to say: hiring managers are often very busy, and a low-context relationship between hiring manager and recruiter can reduce the quality of candidates coming in. Hiring managers end up <\/span>managing <\/em>the new hire; the team actually <\/span>works <\/em>with him or her every day. As a result, some companies are <\/span>turning to team-based hiring<\/a> for their impactful tech roles.<\/span> #8:<\/strong> Onboarding will become more important to the overall experience of tech hiring. Antonio-Garcia Martinez, a former Facebook product manager and the author of Chaos Monkeys<\/em>, describes a typical first day at FB:<\/a><\/p>\n Your first day at Facebook, you\u2019ll have two emails in your inbox. One is a sort of generic, \u201cWelcome to Facebook.\u201d And the second one is, \u201cHere\u2019s a list of software bugs to fix.\u201d On your first day, you\u2019ll pull a version of Facebook\u2019s code to your personal machine that\u2019s your version of Facebook. You\u2019re encouraged to go ahead and make changes, upgrades, improvements, whatever, from day one. You\u2019re actually entrusted with that much authority. Facebook is literally a quarter of the internet everywhere in the world, except China. Here, some 22-year-old engineering grad has a version of it on his machine and he\u2019s going to push a change to it today.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n How powerful a Day 1 is that? It seems a lot better than walking around meeting a lot of people, right? That entrusts the new hire with authority and a sense of respect from Day 1. Shouldn\u2019t that be the goal?<\/p>\n #9:<\/strong> In a recent article on job-search trends for 2018, Peter Cappelli of Wharton has a rather direct quote:<\/p>\n \u201cAs organizations have gutted the recruiting function, many players with different interests weigh into the hiring process, and individual \u2018hiring managers\u2019 who will be the supervisors have disproportionate influence. Recruiters are specialists in understanding recruitment and selection. Hiring managers are not, and they are \u2018going with their gut\u2019 to sort through candidates. The reason that job seekers do not know what to do in order to be hired is because hiring managers do not know what they are doing, and as a result, they all do something different.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n While potentially a bit harsh, it\u2019s also true. In the supposed era of data (which Dice lives and breathes daily), hiring managers should not be allowed to use \u201ctrust my gut\u201d as a rationale for bringing in someone, much less someone at a likely $92,000+ salary (see first section). Companies will increasingly see the costs associated with poor hires and apply data-first practices to hiring, whether blind scorecards from the team or some combination formula developed internally. Point being: the era of \u201cI like the cut of his jib!\u201d will increasingly fade out in 2018 and beyond.<\/p>\n #10:<\/strong> Our friend William Tincup of RecruitingDaily is fond of this one: \u201cThis may be an unpopular opinion, but process matters more than technology for successful recruiting.\u201d Gasp! But in reality, he\u2019s right: you should be level-setting your processes every six months. To wit:<\/p>\n Once you better understand your processes (and fix them), only then <\/em>should you turn to the tech. The tech should support and underscore the processes and strategy in place. Many companies do it the other way: buy the tech, then race to fit the process to the tech. That is often less successful. 2018 should be a year we understand that tech for the sake of tech doesn\u2019t make your recruiting better\u2026 but tech within the right system\/process will.<\/p>\n #11:<\/strong> Whoa, how did we get this far and not <\/em>mention automation? Well, in short: because everyone else is, and you\u2019ve probably read about it already. The most important thing about automation (from a recruiting context) is going to be two-fold:<\/p>\n First, recruiters shouldn\u2019t spend half their week (or more!) on scheduling interviews and six-second r\u00e9sum\u00e9 screens; many of those functions can be automated. Now recruiters can go to trade shows, build pipelines, strategize for their fiscal year, etc. #12:<\/strong> Regarding No. 2 above: chatbots and artificial intelligence programs can help solve the \u201cr\u00e9sum\u00e9 black hole\u201d issue (\u201cWe\u2019ll keep your<\/em> r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/em> on file!\u201d<\/em>) by extracting valuable information from previous candidates. A standard ATS couldn\u2019t do that. Chatbots can also help with answering basic candidate questions about progress\/status of application, which has been a pre-eminent candidate gripe for years. In short, we\u2019ll see companies use these tools to streamline processes and, hopefully, have more high-context interactions with candidates.<\/p>\n #13:<\/strong> Recruiters will continue to use social media to discover, vet and learn more about candidates. Increasingly specialized boards for tech jobs (such as Dice) will remain a source for those looking for the best talent possible. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other major sites will likely buffer sites such as GitHub and Dribble as sourcing hubs. #14:<\/strong> Candidates should be wary about what they post on social media, even with privacy settings on. Some 72 percent of recruiters screen candidates out because of typos on social media<\/a>, and 42 percent do for photos with alcohol. #15:<\/strong> We\u2019ll discuss this more in a second, but employer branding will be a bigger deal for organizations. They know that top tech professionals can move around at will for better offers, and they know those professionals talk amongst themselves at events such as hackathons about the culture of places they work. So while companies will want to do the big steps, such as control how they\u2019re seen on boards such as Glassdoor, they\u2019ll also want to serve as good places to work, actually treating employees with a mix of respect and challenging work. Those environments will inevitably draw the best tech talent possible.<\/p>\n #16:<\/strong> It was a huge year for diversity nationally (and globally), and the tech sector was no different. We all remember the \u201cGoogle Memo,\u201d right? Here\u2019s one thing we can\u2019t avoid discussing: a diversity initiative should be done because it is the right thing to do, but oftentimes you need a bottom line tie-in to make it a priority. Thankfully, McKinsey has been providing that research for years<\/a>, and tech diversity does seem like it might be on the upswing in 2018. #17:<\/strong> Melinda Gates\u2019 answer to the tech diversity problem: make sure the limited partners step up.<\/a> If you have access to that level of your organization, it might be a good place to begin or advance the conversation.<\/p>\n #18:<\/strong> Silicon Valley has held the \u201ctech hub\u201d crown for years, with periodic threats from Austin, Boston, and Seattle. But there are a few challengers stepping up these days, including \u201cSilicon Slopes\u201d (Utah)<\/a>, Ohio<\/a>, and Indianapolis.<\/a> Charlotte<\/a> and Atlanta<\/a> are on the rise, as well, and remember: roughly 50,000 mostly-tech employees are about to move to wherever Amazon sets its new headquarters.<\/p>\n #19:<\/strong> This somewhat depends on the overall market. If it heads up, both 2018 and 2019 might be big years for IPOs.<\/a> Airbnb, Slack, Dropbox, WeWork, Zuora, SpaceX, and potentially even Coinbase all might IPO this year; DocuSign is apparently already planning to.<\/a> #20:<\/strong> Speaking of which, the biggest IPO in world history should happen this year, with Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi expected to go public at around $50 billion.<\/a> In short: globally, it\u2019s a good market for an exit right now.<\/p>\n #21:<\/strong> More than 80 percent of CIOs reported difficulty filling tech roles in the past year, and research firm Gartner says the lack of available tech talent is the leading obstacle keeping CIOs from achieving their objectives.<\/a> Increasingly, CIOs and their lieutenants will get more involved in the hiring process, wanting to make sure it\u2019s scientific and on-track. #22:<\/strong> One area where the \u201cwar for talent\u201d has become increasingly real is financial services, with CEO\/CIO roles in traditional banks and fintech startups fighting for the best tech talent they can find<\/a>. The good news is that, as this battle spreads to more industries, the elevation of hiring strategy to the C-Suite level may also improve some of the flaws we\u2019ve long come to associate with a standard hiring process.<\/p>\nInterview and Onboarding Trends<\/strong><\/h3>\n
We\u2019re Going to Keep Using Data Better<\/strong><\/h3>\n
…and We\u2019ll Align Process and Tech Better in Recruiting<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Here\u2019s Where We Talk About Automation<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Social Media Isn\u2019t Going Anywhere<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Diversity on the Rise<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Is Silicon Valley Going to Lose its Crown?<\/strong><\/h3>\n
2018 Might be a Boom Year for IPOs<\/strong><\/h3>\n
CIOs Will Carry More Water for Tech Hiring<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Employer Branding Will Become Less of a \u201cCampaign\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n