Zdeňka Krejčíková is a recruiter, mentor and holder of the title Recruiter of the Year 2018. For several years she has been professionally dedicated to IT Recruitment, in which field she is a proficient player. For this reason, we decided to ask Zdeňka a few questions about IT recruitment.
The coronavirus has shaken up the job market quite a bit. Has the pandemic also affected the IT sector?
The pandemic has caused not only IT Recruitment to move online. And it's not going back. Companies have had to react quickly to this change and learn to operate remotely.
There is still the same hunger for IT professionals. There is a shortage and recruiters need to be able to attract and sell the company's name.
The shortage of IT professionals has been a perennial topic in recent years. Does the shortage only affect senior positions or also junior ones?
In my experience, only the seniors.
For me, Junior is a person who is starting out in IT. They are, for example, students who are at the beginning of college, participants in IT courses or people who have invented a small IT project. And they're looking for their first job to start.
It is ideal to create trainee programs for these people. It is not difficult to recruit juniors. More and more people want to go into IT and are willing to change their current careers to do so.
A classic question that many companies would like to know the answer to. How to attract programmers to the company? What is the biggest benefit for them? Is it money?
It's very individual. In any case, it is easier to lure a programmer to an interview if you mention a few important points in the job description or job advert - for example, the interest of the project, a detailed description of the technology, training, salary, flexibility. It is also important to mention what kind of team works in the company.
It's becoming more and more important to have someone active on the corporate team who participates in podcasts, meetups, etc. People want to work with inspiring people who are heard about and seen. And this is the way.
You need to support your corporate influencers. We are already oversaturated with ads that proclaim a product or service is cool and the best. Today, it pays to go the enrichment route. Podcasts, Instagram, LinkedIn. Employer branding is essential.
In your experience, what is not a benefit for programmers, even though the company feels that it will clearly gain a new colleague for that kind of benefit?
Based on a discussion with programmers on LinkedIn, I found out that benefits are not benefit programs that aim to exchange points earned for certain products or services.
The benefit is also not the choice of hardware, this is considered standard. Five weeks of vacation or company breakfast is also standard for IT professionals.
What draws programmers to companies: extra vacation, exercise, education during working hours, etc. In short, anything that will reduce a programmer's working hours.
The amount of financial remuneration is generally very important for IT employees. Plus the possibility to work on an IČO.
What about women in IT? Are their numbers increasing? Are there different rules for their recruitment than for men? Do they hear different things than men?
The number of women in IT continues to grow. Women generally increase the efficiency of work teams. It's good when it's not just men in the work team, but when it's mixed.
Recruiting women into IT is a very good move. Even from a junior perspective. Women are loyal employees. Especially when they see that the company will count on them even when they're parents. It motivates them to join the company. This is true not only in IT, but in all fields. The opportunity to work while being a parent is a great benefit.
And to answer the question, the most important thing for women is flexibility. And in terms of what women programmers hear most, that's very similar to what men are attracted to.
The pandemic has also had an impact on IT recruitment.
Is it advantageous for the company to make contact with the programmer some time in advance? Before the company actually fills the IT position? If so, how to do it? How do you build a relationship with a potential future employee? What resources and platforms to use to do this?
One of the key qualities of a recruiter is communication. A recruiter should offer something extra to candidates. It's not enough to sit down on LinkedIn and spam others that you need to fill a position. I recommend communicating with your target audience through interesting posts where you ask for their opinions, find out their attitudes on various issues and continually remind them of this.
What factors increase the likelihood of reaching out to a programmer on LinkedIn and inviting them for a personal interview?
It helps if you include information about technology, salary, flexibility, training, project focus and team composition (ideally a person you know).
Roughly 80% of programmers will also first look at the profile of the recruiter they are writing to. The recruiter's profile is the business card of the company. It is also the basis by which IT professionals judge whether to write back or not.
Is it still worth posting job ads on job portals for IT positions these days? What is your experience with new platforms like social media recruiting outside of LinkedIn?
I have a good experience with startupjobs.cz. Good candidates come to us from there. Occasionally, someone of quality also applies for a LinkedIn advert, which anyone from the company can post on their profile for free. When all employees in a company open a position on LinkedIn, there is a high probability that someone will be found.
As far as other social networks for reaching candidates are concerned, advertising on Facebook, for example, does not work so well on the Czech market. There is some potential on Twitter, but it is always better to have an IT expert write a post than a recruiter.
Tik Tok or instagram doesn't work for me to find candidates. It takes finding out where IT professionals spend their time and working there.
Recruiting women into IT is a very good move.
Which type of tender is most suitable for recruiting IT professionals and why?
For me, definitely a personal interview with the technical part. Programmers don't want to program any homework, but expect to be tested during the interview. I recommend going through the first round so that the candidate is really talking to the people they will be working with. In the next round, it's good for the candidate to see their team, their workplace, and the environment of the company they'll (occasionally) be joining - IT professionals usually want to work remotely.
It is necessary to ask at the beginning what programmers expect from their work and why they change jobs. Then it's a good idea to mention this in the offer they get from you.
The selection process for programmers must be efficient and fast. There is no room for second thoughts. In our company, we give candidates offers even at the interview if we are sure that the person meets our expectations.
We certainly don't have assessment centres for seniors, but we do for trainees. We need to find out how they behave in a team, if they have logical thinking, etc. And that's what a mass selection is great for.
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