June 01, 2023

Recruiting Tech Talent

Recruiting technical talent is a key goal and challenge for recruiting teams, but recent layoffs and changes in the talent marketplace should have you taking a closer look at your tech talent recruiting strategy.

The impact of layoffs on tech recruiting

In June of 2022, 45% of employers reported that attracting technical talent was very or extremely challenging. Since then, the landscape of tech talent has changed drastically. Hiring freezes and large scale layoffs have been put in place at a number of organizations. Some companies are now seeing a higher volume of applicants and increased hiring rates – forcing them to re-evaluate how they will approach hiring.

Watch this 2 minute video to see how to start attracting tech talent in this new landscape.

Is tech recruiting getting easier?

It can be easy to think that because there is suddenly a mass of unemployed tech talent, that recruiting this talent pool will become easier. These people want jobs right? But, for many companies, recruiting tech talent is still challenging. There are many reasons to believe that recruiting tech talent is not going to suddenly become easy. There is still a deficit between the number of openings and the number of qualified applicants. 

Thinking about tech inside the larger talent marketplace

The tech industry may have contracted, but the job market overall has expanded. More, industries that have shown recent periods of growth continue to expand much more than tech is contracting. Even more, 2022 saw the fewest layoffs of any year in the last decade. Looking at the impact on the economy sheds some light onto what candidates are thinking:

Through the 2010s, candidates were focused on finding their ‘dream job,’ their work family, and purpose. Over time, a global pandemic, ongoing news of layoffs, and economic uncertainty (among other things) have in some ways crushed the employer utopian dream. Instead, candidates are more concerned with job – and subsequently, financial – stability. (Carter Bradley, “Layoffs: What’s really going on?”)

How to recruit tech talent in 2023

Because tech talent remains a challenging and competitive landscape – understanding the motivations of tech talents can make your recruiting program more appealing and successful. Download our guide to get 3 top tips to win more tech talent.