In a competitive job market, companies must excel beyond industry standards to catch the attention of passive and active candidates. This can be especially challenging when hiring engineers in particular industries where the demand outpaces the supply.
To inform your talent search, we’ve compiled a few steps to help you hire an engineer in a competitive job market.
4 Steps to Hire Engineers
1. Build an Employer Brand
An employer brand is a vital facet of the hiring process. The employer brand describes who you are, illustrates the company culture, and humanizes the company, attracting willful candidates who are excited to join your team.
In a nutshell, the employer brand represents an employer’s reputation as a workplace. Are you known for your work hard, play harder company culture? Or do employee reviews tell a different story?
View this post on Instagram
There are plenty of employer branding strategies: Develop an aesthetic website that showcases your accomplishments; Host employer-candidate events for professionals to learn about the company; Sponsor educational programs to grow your talent pool.
In addition, at the forefront of every employer branding program, should be a social media strategy. According to Hootsuite, 50% of the global population uses social media—that’s 3.8 billion people! Using hashtags, employee testimonials, video, and more, companies can build an employer brand that makes candidates say, “I want to work for this company!”
Google (@lifeatgoogle) is an excellent employer branding example of a company using social media to increase their brand awareness, build an employer brand, and attract high-quality clients.
With this first step on how to hire engineers, you’ll have high-quality professionals knocking on your door.
2. Create an Online Presence
Our next step on how to hire engineers is obvious; however, still overlooked in today’s competitive job market.
Go to where candidates are likely to congregate—hint: it isn’t the water cooler message board!
In 2019, 90% of American adults used the internet. The fact is that more users, now more than ever, are using the internet to search for jobs, conduct research on companies, and stay connected throughout the hiring process.
No, this doesn’t mean that the paper application is dead. However, if your hiring efforts are limited to in-person applications, you are greatly diminishing your talent pool.
Take advantage of job boards, like Indeed, to gain access to a vast talent pool.
Later on in the article, we’ll discuss another technique to hire an engineer effectively.
3. Evaluate the Competitor
Engineers are sought after professionals for their unique skill sets. Accordingly, there is fierce competition from the best of the best. So, if you and a competitor check all the same boxes—employer brand, company culture, online presence—how do you differentiate yourself?
Compensation.
Compensation can mean a variety of things: salary, a benefits package, 401K with an employer match, perks.
Evaluate the competitor and determine what you can do to sway the candidate. Think outside the box:
- Meal stipend
- Transportation passes
- Childcare subsidies
- Flexible work schedule
In the end, it pays to pay well. Established employer branding will get a candidate in the door, positive company culture will intrigue them, and a generous compensation package will have them signing a job acceptance letter on the dotted line.
4. Hire a search firm
The previous steps are positive steps in the appropriate direction; nonetheless, there is one more step that you can take to hire an engineer in a competitive market: hire a search firm.
Recruiters are your go-to experts when it comes to hiring first-rate talent. Of course, in-house recruiters have their advantages, but out-sourced recruiters have an excess of industry knowledge, resources, and contacts to find the best talent for your company.
In addition, search firms like TruPath use a hands-on talent search strategy, meaning TruPath takes the necessary steps to learn about your company and its unique needs to place culturally-aligned talent accurately.
This approach takes the pressure off the company and places it in the reliable hands of an experienced recruiter.
Are you ready to hire an engineer?
Contact the team at TruPath and receive expert guidance from its recruiting team and heighten the success of your search today!