The business world has seen more paradigm shifts in the last couple of years than typically seen in a decade. We have seen everything from rising demand for remote work to mass layoffs.

Amidst all this, talent acquisition teams face several recruitment challenges to find suitable candidates for their organizations.

With changing needs of employees, changing technology, and ever-evolving recruitment strategies, recruiters have their work cut out for them. Therefore, companies must be proactive in attracting and retaining the best talent.

It is essential to understand the challenges faced by recruiters and the strategies they can use to ensure successful talent acquisition.

This blog post spells out the challenges faced in talent acquisition, changing needs of the employees, reasons for failing recruitment strategies, and five tips by recruiters to fix recruitment strategies in 2023.

Challenges faced in talent acquisition

As recruiters and employers continue to look ahead to 2023, one of the most significant recruitment difficulties they face is successfully managing talent acquisition. Among these hiring challenges, the following are the most prominent ones:

Not meeting the changing needs of employees

Recruiting expectations continue to evolve as the workforce changes.

For example, employers are looking for candidates with better education, more experience, and the right technical skills to get the job done.

This means that recruiters must have the necessary tools and processes in place to ensure they are identifying the best possible candidates. We will focus more on these changing needs of employees in the next section.

Failure of existing recruitment strategies

Recruitment failure is often a product of too long or cumbersome processes, which can lead to missed opportunities to hire the right people.

Additionally, if recruiters don’t have the right tools, they may struggle to identify suitable candidates or find enough time to assess them properly, leading to a major increase in the time-to-hire metric. This can result in a high turnover rate, which can cause further disruption and strain on resources.

Also, read: 10 Key Employee Retention Strategies In Tech

Staying ahead of the competition

Employers want to ensure they can source and hire the best candidates. As a result, there’s a great deal of competition when it comes to hiring top talent. This means you need to have a recruitment strategy that is both proactive and agile.

Additionally, recruiters must be prepared to act quickly when suitable candidates become available. This is vital to capitalize on any potential opportunities.

Now let’s learn more about the changing needs of employees.

Changing needs of the employees

Today’s employees are looking for more than just a paycheck. They want a job that offers them meaningful work and opportunities to grow their careers.

Some more things on the checklist to derive more value from work include:

• Committed to creating a workplace that values diversity and inclusion
• Allows for flexible hours
• Provides opportunities for personal development

Employees want to avoid being confined to a corporate position that will kill their energies. Additionally, businesses are reconsidering their positions’ benefits and considering how these candidates would see them in the post-pandemic society.

To achieve this they must identify potential hires’ desired skills, roles, and experiences and build recruitment strategies around those criteria.

Additionally, businesses should consider leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) to automate mundane recruitment tasks and enable recruiters to focus on meaningful conversations with potential hires.

By recognizing the unique needs of today’s employees and investing in technology-driven solutions that cater to those needs, businesses can increase their chances of finding the perfect candidate for the job.

But before that, it’s vital to identify the reasons behind your current recruitment strategy that is not bringing in results.

Reasons why your recruitment strategy is failing

Recruitment strategies can fail due to a variety of reasons. Some of these might be out of your control as a recruiter. However, there are some that you can identify and work on.

Some of the most common, fixable reasons behind a failing recruitment strategy are as follows:

Lack of focus on building an employer brand

Establishing a competitive advantage in the labor market depends heavily on your ‘Employer Brand.‘ Nowadays, prospective employees frequently read reviews of a company before applying. According to CareerArc’s 2021 Future of Recruiting Study, 82% of candidates consider the employer brand and reputation of a company before applying for the job.

So, if they discover that you have a weak employer brand, it may discourage them from sharing their application.

Content marketing can be an insanely successful approach to increase brand recognition and amplify it. That’s why recruiters need to identify its value. Publishing insightful and helpful information for users can aid in creating enduring relationships with applicants.

Also, read: How Tech Recruiters Can Build Better Employer Branding With Marketing

Lack of clarity regarding your target audience

The people who meet the criteria for a given post regarding applicable skills, qualifications, work experience, and values are your target audience as a recruiter.

Before starting a recruiting drive, it is crucial to identify your target audience. It aids in the creation of recruitment messages that are relevant to the target talent. Additionally, it gives you access to places with a higher probability of locating potential employees.

Making a candidate persona for each position you’re trying to fill will help you pinpoint your target market. The candidate persona is a fictitious depiction of the ideal applicant for a given job.

Building a recruitment strategy that attracts suitable candidates is simpler when you know your target audience. This results in a more productive workforce.

Lack of focus on candidate experience

One of the most common reasons recruitment strategies fail is a lack of focus on the candidate’s experience.

As the job market has become increasingly competitive, recruiters must ensure that candidates have a positive experience throughout the recruitment process.

This means providing clear communication and ensuring they understand their roles and responsibilities before taking on a job.

If this isn’t done correctly, candidates may feel discouraged and look elsewhere for opportunities. Good candidate experience is non-negotiable!

Also, read: 5 Steps To Create A Remote-First Candidate Experience In Recruitment

Lack of proper candidate outreach

This can be especially true when recruiting remotely. Without appropriate methods of reaching out to potential candidates, recruiters could miss out on top talent that would otherwise be interested in their positions.

Additionally, without proper outreach, recruiters may lose qualified applicants overwhelmed by competing offers from other companies.

Things to consider when fixing your recruitment strategy

Talent acquisition solutions must keep up with employees’ changing needs to attract top talent. Companies need to invest in solutions tailored to their industry and flexible enough to meet the unique requirements of each potential hire.

Fortunately, some proven tips can help you fix your talent acquisition issues in 2023.

Here are five tips from recruiters to help you fix your recruitment strategy:

Leverage technology

Technology has made it easier for recruiters to find qualified candidates quickly and efficiently. Utilize the latest tools such as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and more to streamline the recruitment process and save time.

For instance, you can turn to a leading plug-and-play technical recruitment solution in HackerEarth.

HackerEarth comes with the integration of major ATS providers. You can drive true innovation with the assortment of virtual tech hiring tools offered by HackerEarth.

Analyze data

You can’t make the right hiring strategy without analyzing data. Use analytics to gain insight into past recruitment efforts and develop strategies based on the data you find.

By understanding the information provided by your current recruitment methods, you can create a plan that fits your goals.

Also, read: Data-Driven Recruiting: All You Need To Know

Communicate your goals

Make sure everyone involved in the recruitment process is on the same page. Be sure to communicate your desired outcomes and expectations. This is vital to allow each team member to better understand what success looks like.

Offer training opportunities

Train new hires on their roles and responsibilities to ensure they have the skills necessary for success. Ongoing training and development are critical for retention, so investing in employee growth can pay off in the long run.

HackerEarth understands the value of upskilling employees and provides tailored learning paths.

Embrace diversity and inclusion

One of the best ways to ensure successful talent acquisition is by fostering a diverse and inclusive environment.

Diversity in backgrounds, experience, and perspectives can open up opportunities for better candidates, which will ultimately help your organization thrive.

Conclusion

The best way to turn your failing recruitment strategy around is by identifying the possible challenges you might face. Once you have identified the major challenges of internal recruitment in your company, you can take the required steps.

By using the above-mentioned tips, you should be able to develop a comprehensive recruitment strategy.

Don’t fear taking risks and embrace innovation as you try new strategies – they could be the key to a successful recruitment campaign!

Hire IQ by HackerEarth is a new initiative in which we speak with recruiters, talent acquisition managers, and hiring managers from across the globe, and ask them pertinent questions on the issues that ail the tech recruiting world.

Next up in this edition is Ashutosh Kumar, Director of Data Science, at Epsilon India.

We had a long chat about hiring for niche roles like data science and data analysts, whether there will still be a need for such roles post this layoff phase, and expert tips that developers can make use of to excel in these roles.

Dive in!

P.S. If you missed the previous edition of HireIQ where we sat down with Patricia Gatlin, Diversity Lead/Talent Sourcing Specialist, at Johns Hopkins, you can read it here 🙂

Let’s delve into the future of data science

HackerEarth: Can you give us a small bio of your journey in tech recruitment?

Ashutosh: I have been a part of recruitment in the data science field for nearly 14 years of my career and have recruited for successful startups (seed to Series D) and MNCs across levels (entry, junior, mid and senior management) and profiles including data analysts, data scientist, ML engineers, full stack developers, and DevOps/MLOps. I’ve also been part of campus recruitments in premier colleges (IITs, NITs, IIMs, and ISB) for roles in data science profiles, as well as the lateral hiring processes for experienced candidates for almost all my previous employers.

HackerEarth: In this era of mass layoffs, where do you see the data science and data analyst roles heading? Will there still be a need for this niche domain going forward?

Ashutosh: Mass layoffs depend on the health of a company and its measures to keep itself up and running and have less to do with any specific roles. Companies can cut all types of roles when it comes to survivability, but domains like data science and technology are some of the last ones to be axed since these are business-critical roles.

For instance, several of our clients, who are facing the pressures of recession, have been turning to data science to gather data-based insights on how to increase their revenue and save costs. Data science plays an important role in helping companies navigate and weather the recession storm.

We are a data-driven world, and data science will continue to be an in-demand domain. The demand for data science and data analysis professionals may fluctuate depending on economic conditions and the specific needs of individual organizations. It is important for professionals in these fields to stay up to date with the latest technologies and techniques, and to be proactive in seeking out new opportunities for growth and development.

Also read: Inside The Mind Of A Data Scientist

HackerEarth: What are some of the mistakes/misconceptions (top 3) that you have seen recruiters or engineering managers make when hiring data scientists/data analysts?

Ashutosh: Firstly, focusing only on interviews and theoretical questions instead of looking for hands-on coding experience is a big mistake. The industry needs people who can not only understand algorithms but who can also code. It’s fairly easy to get a theoretical understanding of all data science algorithms from the internet without writing a single line of code, and we need to ensure we hire people who can actually build solutions.

Secondly, giving importance to degrees and background over expertise. Today, there’s a plethora of online degrees which require little effort for a diploma or master’s degree in data science – one can get a degree from Indian or international colleges for ~USD 4000. Some of the best data science professionals we’ve worked with have unrelated degrees and have learned everything by themselves – either from online courses, Kaggle, blogs, or self-training.

Lastly, every data-related skill cannot be equated with data science and AI. The latter’s expanse is wide and complex – from simpler tasks like data entry, to intermediate ones like analysis, visualization, and insights, and to the more advanced machine learning models and AI algorithms. Often, roles are clubbed as ‘data scientist’ simply because of such loose definitions of these terms. You don’t need to hire a data scientist when you may actually need a data analyst.

HackerEarth: How do you see the new technologies like AI, ML, and quantum computing affect the field of data science?

Ashutosh: AI, machine learning, and quantum computing are all rapidly advancing technologies that have a significant impact on data science. AI and machine learning are enabling data scientists to develop more advanced algorithms and models that can analyze and interpret data more effectively, while quantum computing is providing the computing power necessary to process and analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately. These technologies are also helping automate many of the tasks that were previously done manually, which is making data analysis more efficient and accessible. Overall, these new technologies are helping drive significant advances in the field of data science and are likely to continue to do so in the future.

Also, read: How AI Is Transforming The Talent Acquisition Process In Tech

HackerEarth: How would you recommend that data scientists upskill themselves to cope with the current and upcoming changes in the economy and the tech world?

Ashutosh: As a data scientist, it is important to continually upskill and stay current with the latest developments in the field. Here are a few ways data scientists can upskill themselves:

• Stay updated on the latest tools and technologies: Data science is a rapidly evolving field, and new tools and technologies are constantly being developed. There are new algorithms in the domain of Deep Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Transfer Learning, LightGBM, GANs, Transformers, large language models, and Explainable AI to name a few. There are new tools and frameworks in the industry like Airflow, Horovod, Petastorm, etc. developed by companies like Facebook and Uber, which have been made open source. There are also AutoML, ETL tools, visualization tools, cloud enablement tools, collaboration, and project management tools (like Asana and Trello). Keep abreast of these advancements and use them effectively in your work.
• Learn new programming languages and frameworks: As a data scientist, you’ll need to be proficient in at least one programming language, such as Python or R. It is also useful to learn additional languages and frameworks such as SQL, Julia, or TensorFlow.
• Enhance your machine learning skills: Machine learning is a key aspect of data science, and it’s important to have a strong foundation in this area. There are many online courses and resources available to help you learn machine learning and apply it to real-world problems.
• Stay informed about industry trends and developments: There are various forums on the internet that track the latest trends and developments in data science and machine learning. I follow researchers, data scientists, machine learning experts, and AI/ML companies on Twitter which is a great source of the latest information in this field. There are also freely available YouTube videos and podcasts one could make use of. There are many discord channels for every area – algorithms, MLOPs, software engineering, deployments, etc. and you can join the ones related to your area of interest and expertise. This will help you identify new opportunities and stay ahead of the curve.
• Network and collaborate with other professionals: You can join meetups in your city or area to connect with other professionals in this field to know about the developments and research being done elsewhere. There are a lot of ML conferences and hackathons that happen throughout the year which are a great source of learning as well as networking with other professionals. LinkedIn groups and forums, industry events, and community workshops are also great ways to learn from others and stay up to date with the latest trends in the field.

HackerEarth: Your final word to developers in this stream: What do you developers need to know to excel in data analytics or data security and what are your top 3 expert tips?

Ashutosh: To excel in data analytics, developers should have a strong foundation in math and statistics, as well as programming skills. They should be proficient in using tools and technologies for data manipulation, visualization, and analysis, such as SQL, Python, and R. In addition, they should have strong communication and problem-solving skills, as they will often be working with large and complex datasets and will have to clearly present their findings and recommendations to stakeholders.

Here are my top 3 tips for developers interested in pursuing a career in data analytics:

1. Practice, practice, practice: The best way to improve your skills in data analytics is to get hands-on experience working with real data. This can involve working on personal projects, participating in online hackathons or data science competitions, or taking on internships or freelance projects.
2. Stay up to date: The field of data analytics is constantly evolving. Follow the latest technologies and best practices in order to remain competitive in the job market. This can involve reading industry blogs and news, attending conferences and workshops, and taking online courses to learn new skills.
3. Build a strong network: Networking is an important aspect of any career and is especially important in the field of data analytics. Building relationships with other professionals in the field can help you stay connected to the latest trends and opportunities and can also provide valuable mentorship and guidance as you progress in your career.

HackerEarth: Your final word to recruiters hiring for the role: What specialized tools do you think they should be using, what markers of skill should they be looking for, and how can they improve their own understanding of the domain in order to hire better?

Ashutosh: As a recruiter or hiring manager for data science roles, it can be helpful to use specialized tools and platforms to identify and evaluate candidates. Some options may include:

• Online coding platforms: These allow candidates to complete coding challenges or take technical assessments to demonstrate their skills. Examples include HackerEarth, CodeSignal, and TopCoder.
• Data science-specific job boards: There are several job boards specifically focused on data science roles, such as Kaggle Jobs and Data Science Central. These can be good places to find candidates with relevant experience and skills.
• Resume screening software: Tools like Lever and Jobvite can help automate the resume review process by identifying keywords and qualifications relevant to the role.

Also, read: 10 Tech Recruiting Strategies To Find The Best Tech Talent

In terms of markers of skills, there are a few key areas to focus on when evaluating candidates for data science roles:

• Technical skills: Look for candidates with strong programming skills, as well as experience with data manipulation, visualization, and analysis tools such as SQL, Excel, and data analysis libraries like Pandas and NumPy. Experience with machine learning libraries like sci-kit-learn, TensorFlow, and Keras can also be valuable.
• Problem-solving skills: Data scientists should be able to identify and define problems, develop hypotheses and models, and evaluate the results of their work. Look for candidates who have a track record of successfully tackling data-driven projects and can demonstrate the results they achieved.
• Communication and collaboration skills: Data scientists should be able to clearly articulate their methods and findings to both technical and non-technical audiences, and work effectively as part of a team. Look for candidates who have strong verbal and written communication skills, as well as the ability to work well with others.
• Domain expertise: It can be helpful to look for candidates who have a strong understanding of the specific domain or industry in which they will be working. This can help ensure that they are able to apply their skills and knowledge in a way that is relevant and impactful.

To improve their own understanding of the domain, recruiters can seek out training and education opportunities, such as online courses or industry conferences. They can also stay up to date on the latest developments and best practices in data science by reading articles and publications in the field.

About Ashutosh Kumar:

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Ashutosh Kumar is working as a Director, Data Science at Epsilon focusing on Marketing Machine Learning as a part of the Strategy and Insights (S&I) group. He is involved in building Data Science products with a team of data scientists, data and ML engineers, and full-stack developers. At Epsilon, he is also building the Marketing Machine Learning team with freshers and lateral hires, and upskilling them with the latest tools and technologies.

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Hiring Freeze! There is nothing more frustrating to a recruiter than this phrase. It doesn’t matter if you are a human resources representative for a company or a recruitment agency. A tech hiring freeze is usually the result of efforts to cut down costs and sometimes the impact of recession or scale down of the organization. When recruiting and hiring stops, a company can save money and remain operational. Now, how can you, as a recruiter, use this time positively? The following tips will help you make the most out of your company’s hiring freeze, retain and understand employees, improve your hiring process and come up with great ideas for future hires. Before that, Let’s first understand a tech hiring freeze and the reasons for its occurrence.

What is a hiring freeze?

When a company decides to halt hiring for new positions, it is called a hiring freeze. Though the company may continue to hire candidates for essential jobs, it stops all efforts to fill non-essential jobs and prohibits creating new positions. Tech hiring freezes typically begin with a halt to these actions: sourcing\screening, interviewing, and hiring.

Main reasons behind a hiring freeze

Every business aims to maintain long-term financial viability. Fears of a recession, a pandemic, and supply chain disruptions force companies to halt hiring during difficult market conditions. When these circumstances arise, management may freeze hiring. Here are some examples of situations where a company might consider a hiring freeze:

1. Uncertain market conditions:

Market volatility and fluctuation can significantly affect revenue generation and profitability.

2. Global crisis:

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted every business in some way to a certain extent. These crises have negatively impacted businesses worldwide. Moreover, layoffs and tech hiring freezes were the only way for companies to sustain themselves then.

Also, read: 4 Images That Show What Developers Think Of Layoffs In Tech

3. Emerging liquidity concerns:

Companies may postpone recruitment processes if liquid assets decline. Thus, they may opt to deploy funds from the pay budget to finance current assets to increase liquidity.

4. Budget deficit:

When a company anticipates that hiring new employees will lead to a budget deficit, it will postpone hiring new employees until its financial position improves.

Effects of a tech hiring freeze on current employees

A hiring freeze can also be stressful for current employees owing to increased resource utilization to meet the deadlines and workload allocation within the available workforce. In addition, the workloads of departing employees are distributed among the remaining staff. In turn, this can negatively affect staff productivity, causing more employees to leave the company. So, during the hiring freeze, if recruiters are not hiring, then what do they do? Here are some best practices a recruiter (or a company) can use to motivate and retain current employees and smooth future hiring processes.

Things recruiters can do during a hiring freeze

Improve your hiring process for the future

During the hiring freeze, you have plenty of time to look into hiring gaps and plan for better future recruitment. For instance, you can check your existing hiring metrics and data to know what area to focus on to improve the hiring process. You can also review previous recruiting reports and methods provided by your ATS. You can then conclude,

• how much does hiring for a particular role cost
• what are the best sources/channels to find the right candidate
• what is the job acceptance rate for your company
• why candidates might drop off during an assessment phase
• what does the candidate interview experience look like

This exercise will give you a grasp of what needs to be fixed in your hiring process.

Also, read: Streamline Your Recruitment Process With These 7 Tips

Furthermore, you can discuss key points with managers and team leaders to better understand their current objectives and future goals. This way, you can obtain a preview of the competencies and potential positions your company may require in the future. Also, you can create more crisp and clear job descriptions. In a nutshell, the more time you spend closing process gaps, the easier it will be to recruit again.

Build your employer’s brand

A strong employer brand always stands out and attracts talent. Amidst a tech hiring freeze, you can focus on building an impactful employer brand. Showcase your company’s work culture, ethics, and perks because it affects the candidate’s decision to join your company. Consider using video content, as this format makes it much easier for you to showcase your company’s culture and values. Furthermore, building an employer brand is not just for hiring new candidates; it is also suitable for existing employees. Employees who feel valued and appreciated will stay with the company for a long time. To improve your employer brand both from an employee’s and a candidate’s perspective, follow these tips:

For employees:

Employees are your biggest asset, and retaining the best candidates is essential. It is more likely to happen when your employees are happy working for you and feel valued and recognized for their efforts. You might have already provided your employees with all the perks. But always look to see if there is anything else you can do to increase their productivity at the workplace or improve their mental and physical health. Moreover, you can keep them engaged in fun activities or sports, take their feedback, or conduct some counseling sessions for employees for better work-life balance or mental health awareness. Also, employees love it when a company recognizes their hard work and loyalty and rewards them with appraisals, incentives, and bonuses. You can also send them personalized emails and gift cards to keep them motivated.

Also, read: 7 Employee Engagement Strategies For WFH Tech Teams

For candidates:

Before applying or accepting the offer, applicants tend to go through social media, Glassdoor, or Google reviews to learn more about the company’s culture. It means you can leverage the power of social media to showcase your company’s culture and the working lives of your current employees, for example,

• Appreciate your current employees on LinkedIn, tag them, and rework your career pages.
• Work on Glassdoor and google reviews of your company. You can’t stop negative reviews on these platforms, but you can humbly reply.
• Show behind the scenes of your office, celebrating birthdays, festivals, etc.
• Take feedback from your current employees, ask about their experience in your company, make a video, and share it on social media.
• Always check the tonality of your social media posts. It should be gender-neutral and easy to understand.

Companies that embrace and practice diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) are more likely to outperform their competitors in terms of profitability and value creation. You can also make a plan for reverting or giving feedback to each applicant applying for a job opening at your company. Note: Do not ghost any applicant when you reject any candidate. It can create a bad image for your organization.

Also, read: How Tech Recruiters Can Build Better Employer Branding With Marketing

Build Candidate Relationships

A tech hiring freeze is the best time to expand your candidate pools with skilled candidates. Use this downtime to nurture relationships with passive candidates via social recruiting. Take advantage of recruiting tools. These tools help you connect with freshers and professionals and build relationships that will come in handy for future hiring. Keep your talent pipelines warm by sending them regular company updates, content that showcases your company culture, relevant articles, and webinars that may interest your prospective candidates. When the time comes to hire again, you wouldn’t have to start from scratch! You have your trusty candidate pool to fall back on.

Brush up on your recruiting skills

Although HR teams are constantly busy, a hiring freeze gives the recruitment team time to update their skills. The organization’s human resources department can enhance the whole company’s performance. As a result, in the HR position, you must always keep abreast of new industry regulations, technological advancements, and other human resource management techniques. Moreover, many HR training programs are available over the internet, like HackerEarth’s Learning and Development for HR, so you can better utilize your time to understand the HR ecosystem.

Also, read: Spend A Day With A Tech Recruiter

We’ve gone one step further and reached out to our Senior TA, Shalini Chandra to spill the beans on how to navigate this hiring freeze and become a better recruiter. Watch the video to get tips straight from the horse’s mouth!

FAQs related to hiring freeze

How to keep candidates engaged during a hiring freeze?

• Stay in touch with candidates; provide timely responses to any emails
• Share company updates and other relevant information like PR releases, blogs, and podcasts to keep candidates interested
• Work on establishing an employer brand

How long does a hiring freeze usually last?

Depending on the reason, a hiring freeze usually lasts for 3-6 months but can last up to weeks, months, or years.

What are the advantages of a tech hiring freeze?

• A hiring freeze reduces hiring costs; reducing these expenses can result in the return of financial stability.
• Hiring freezes allow management to condense staff and reorganize workgroups to produce necessary products and services for consumers more efficiently.
• It also strengthens teamwork and allows the company to review its growth plans and operational procedures.

Conclusion

A tech hiring freeze gives the organization and recruitment team time to focus on other essential things and prepare for future hiring. Use the methods mentioned above during the hiring freeze to rework the overall hiring process, increase the productivity of current employees, and retain employees. This time can be fruitful for organizations if used correctly.

When a company allows writers to contribute guest blog posts, their goal is not just to get an in-depth researched article for free on their blog. They focus on:

• Getting backlinks
• Encouraging writers to share their work

Result? To increase their website’s traffic, be seen by their target audience, and increase brand awareness. The same is true for companies that organize hackathons.

However, many companies still don’t understand how online hackathons can help improve a product’s development.

Let’s break the ice and understand:

• How participating in hackathons can improve automation by re-using code.

• The common mistakes companies make while hosting, which you can avoid.

What is a hackathon?

According to Techopedia, a hackathon is a gathering where programmers collaboratively code in an extreme manner over a short period. In simple words, a hackathon organized by companies brings experts together from different domains to drive innovations.

Modern-day hackathons include:

• Sponsors
• Partners
• Recruiters

They engage with participants through interactive workshops and presentations.

For example, HackerEarth organized a global hackathon called Web3athon. It was a 2-month long event sponsored by 16 crypto and web3 brands with different themes and multiple prizes for the winners.

There are two types of hackathons that you can host:

• Internal hackathons: They give companies’ employees a chance to experiment with upcoming technology and stay up-to-date with technology.

• External hackathons: They are organized by the company where they engage with people outside the company to change company culture, improve customer experience, and find new talent and revenue opportunities.

How can participating in an online hackathon improve the development of new solutions?

Participants in hackathons develop code based on the problem statement provided by the company.

Hackathon prototypes and coding solutions can be used by the company hosting the event to create a new solution in the future-either partially or fully functional. Ensure to have a clause in the terms mentioning that the IP belongs to the company, which means it owns all the code created at that event. You can then store all these coded solutions in a common repository and later re-use them to automate any existing or new processes. This way automation becomes easy and you do not have to build a product from scratch, making the code more efficient.

For example, a 36-hour hackathon was conducted to address 6 IoT-based challenges. For this, each team was provided with an educational IoT kit that consisted of cloud computing services and IoT templates that the participants could access and represent the specific architecture for digital solutions. When the results of the event rolled out, one of the sponsoring companies decided to use the digital solution to upgrade their legacy refrigerators making hackathons a cost-effective and innovative asset

Another option to use online hackathons to your advantage would be to organize internal hackathons within your company. This would foster creativity, produce new solutions that are stored for future use, and when needed, tap into your common repository of code to further create a different solution.

However, you need to be mindful of what code you are planning to re-use as directly copying code snippets from public forums like GitHub or StackOverflow is considered unethical.

Common mistakes to avoid when hosting coding hackathons

While conducting hackathons is the gateway to developing the prototype of your product, hosting the event requires a lot more effort—which sometimes leads to certain mistakes.

Here are 5 mistakes you should be aware of and prepare yourself for before hosting a hackathon.

Mistake #1: Not setting hackathon goals

Without a goal in place, you cannot expect your online hackathon to be successful. Before you host the hackathon, it’s critical to be clear on your goals and your expectations of the event.

• To build brand awareness

• To keep your developer community engaged

• To help developers keep their skills polished

• Is it to hire candidates?

Decide what you want to achieve with this hackathon. Then, outline every detail of the hackathon: time frame of the event, sponsors, guests, type of event (internal or open; virtual or physical), and specialty of the project.

Mistake #2: Lack of extended support for participants

Because participants are working on comprehensive projects that require brainstorming, ideation, and execution, you need to provide developers with well-aligned team support.

This could be as simple as conducting a workshop or a virtual webinar before the hackathon. This will give them an overview of the rules and the relevant resources that you can offer them.

For example, for the Web3athon hosted by HackerEarth, participants were provided a Web3athon toolkit inside which a detailed set of guidelines was shared with them on how to register for the hackathon, how to form a team, and how to submit their idea. Images and videos were used to help participants understand each step.

Mistake #3: Using multiple tools for online hackathon management

Imagine using 5 different tools for managing a hackathon. One for chatting with developers, another for managing teams, and the other for rules and instructions and presenting the pitch. Developers working on product development may have to jump from one tool to another. This may leave them confused and frustrated. If you don’t want that to happen, choose a single tool where you can organize every task—a win-win for both you and the developers participating in the hackathon.

We at HackerEarth have conducted countless hackathons in the past decade. And can confidently say, we offer an advanced platform for organizing hackathons. From end-to-end management of the event to getting your company in front of 7M+ qualified developers, we enable you to increase engagement and foster innovation through these events. Go on, try it out for yourself here!

Mistake #4: Set the hackathon time frame based on your expectations

Your expectations of the hackathon are directly proportional to the event’s time frame. If you expect to get a full-fledged product from the hackathon, know this: you can see such results in hackathons with a longer time frame i.e.,1-3 months.

Take a look at this timeline map by IBM which showcases the exact time frame (and dates) based on the stages of the event—gives participants ample time to understand each phase in advance and prepare accordingly.

Mistake #5: Not choosing a realistic online hackathon theme and problem-solving statement

If you want your hackathons to lead in a specific direction and aim for projects that bring you results, you need to decide on two things:

• The theme of the hackathon

• A problem-solving statement you want a solution for

Theme: Select a broad theme since a narrow theme requires much digging and restricts the participants.

Problem-solving statement: To find a real problem-solving statement, ask the organizer to understand the business’ daily struggles and pain points, and come up with a real-time problem-solving statement.

For example, Connecting the Arctic Hackathon by Cassini had the theme “Sustainability” with three different challenges (problem-solving statement).

How do online hackathons benefit developers and help them stay creative?

Helps validate their product

Hackathons help developers gain confidence by giving them a platform to test their product. In an article by YourStory, Ramesh Logathanan, Professor of Practice in Co-innovations at IIT Hyderabad says,

A hackathon gives participants a very good chance to validate their ideas, give it some initial shape, and get some mentor eyeballs on the idea.

Helps them upskill

For most developers, a hackathon is an opportunity to learn and upskill themselves by both trying out new code solutions and interacting with like-minded teams. Since the companies invite experts and conduct workshops and webinars, developers get a chance to learn about various topics—which is an add-on to their learning experience.

Helps connect like-minded people

Hackathons allow developers with diverse backgrounds to share and exchange ideas, which shape their thinking and lead to innovative solutions. In the same article by YourStory, Kolla Krishna Madhavi, Head of Alliances and Strategic Partnerships, School of Accelerated Learning adds,

Hackathons help diverse individuals with varying skills come together as teams to interact, ideate, and collaborate while coming up with disruptive solutions.

Ready to enhance your product development with hackathons?

No doubt why hackathons can feel so much like a battle. From coming up with a theme, to defining the problem-solving statement, to inviting partners and sponsors, everything feels like a daunting task.

But, once you organize each phase, the expectations for the hackathon will make sense. Decide on the themes and problem-solving statements and have the participants build prototypes of the software.

Picture this: You are sitting in the conference room with the leadership team. The team asks you about the roadmap for the company’s hybrid campus recruitment strategy. It’s been weeks since you have been talking to your recruiter friends from other organizations to pull off the strategy but haven’t been able to do it. And now, you have no answer and no strategy!

You stay quiet. And confused.

This picture can be quite startling, especially when everybody’s eyes are on you.

To make sure you don’t land in this situation, we have made a list of 5 effective hybrid campus recruiting strategies you can use.

Let’s get started.

What is hybrid campus recruitment?

Hybrid campus recruitment is a strategy companies use to source, engage and hire candidates for internships and entry-level jobs. Earlier, this form of recruitment was done on campus, hence called campus recruitment. But, with the fusion of in-person and virtual recruitment strategies, it is termed hybrid campus recruitment.

With campus recruiting, you need 4 key players:

1. Employers
2. Campus recruiters
3. University career development centers
4. College students

But, with hybrid campus hiring, you need extra key players— virtual phone system or campus recruitment software that connects candidates and recruiters, improves candidate engagement, and conducts virtual interviews.

Types of hybrid campus hiring:

The three types of hybrid campus recruiting methods or approaches include:

Blended approach

It uses both online and offline methods of hiring. Like, conducting interviews via video calls at the beginning of the selection process and face-to-face meetings with the top candidates during the last interview phase.

Composite approach

With a composite approach, companies host virtual job fairs and in-person recruiting events. By doing so, they run a parallel collaboration to expand the scope of their recruitment drive.

Synchronous approach

Chances are not every student can participate in the on-campus recruitment event. That’s where the students who are not present on campus can benefit and participate in the virtual fair.

With a synchronous approach, students can choose between on-campus and virtual events. This helps companies reach out to more students and widen their recruitment drive.

How Do You Build an Effective Hybrid Campus recruitment Strategy?

It’s hard for companies to transition from an offline recruiting strategy and build an empire of hybrid recruitment. So, we have curated 5 effective hybrid campus recruitment strategies to help you create the roadmap.

Strategy #1—Communicate the new campus recruitment strategy with campus coordinators

Communicate and coordinate with the campus coordinator on the dates and the transition in the hiring process.

Plan the execution of events and activities, whether they will take place in person or online. The majority of pre-placement conversations, employer branding, and coordination with colleges and institutions are now conducted in person, while screenings, assessments, and the early rounds of interviews are conducted online.

Best practices to adopt when shifting to hybrid campus recruiting:

• Use a good online assessment tool to avoid plagiarism during the shortlisting phase.
• Interview the leadership team and get them to talk about how their organization empowers young talent.

Strategy #2—Create a streamlined recruiting process for students

In an offline campus recruiting setup, you’d reach out to campus coordinators, help them understand the company and job role, share resources (JD/ ECP), and decide on the entire process—placement, assessment, interview, and final selection—all done on the same day.

But, with hybrid campus hiring, you are focusing on both online and on-campus hiring. So, your recruiting strategy looks something like this:

Once the candidate is selected virtually, the onboarding process can have physical training sessions where employees educate the students about the company’s values and how each department operates.

Best practices to make the hybrid campus recruiting seamless

• Make your written communication via emails stronger
• Use virtual meeting tools like Zoom and G-Meet to communicate with college coordinators and students
• Create online forms and questionnaires for job applications using tools like Google Forms, Jotform or Typeform
• Send the JD to college recruiters in PDF format

Strategy #3—Opt for hybrid campus recruitment software

Automation is the joining dots of a hybrid campus recruitment strategy. Why? Because they make your process smooth and keep the candidates engaged with you in a virtual setup.

For example,

If you are hiring software developers virtually, you’ll need technical assessment software to understand the student’s language and programming expertise.

HackerEarth Assessment helps you generate the assessment instantly and select the top candidate based on the leaderboard score. Once you select the candidate, invite them for a video interview using FaceCode.

To keep your hybrid recruiting engine running, make sure your company uses these tools:

• Assessments: Use assessment software to create a questionnaire and send it out to the candidates as part of the screening process.
• Email software: With automated emails, you can keep the conversation who have applied for the emails consistent. Create email sequences for each phase from screening to interview.
• Video conferencing platform: Use video conferencing platforms like Zoom or G-meet to communicate with candidates virtually.

Also Read: Importance of Online Proctoring in University Hiring

Strategy #4—Cross-promote your hybrid campus recruiting event

Do you think informing students about the hybrid campus recruiting event happening at their university is the finishing line when promoting the hiring spree?

It’s not. Once the students get to know about the placements happening at the university, they are likely to go through the process and find out more about the company.

That’s where you need to be strategic.

GenZ is constantly scrolling through social media—mostly, Instagram and YouTube. And these days, students are active on platforms like Linked too.

So, along with the billboards and posters on campus, share about the hiring event online:

• Share a post on LinkedIn, Whatsapp, and Discord communities where college students are active
• Ask your employees who are active on social media to share about the hiring event on their socials channels
• Create a video with your leadership team talking about the perks of working with you and share it across social media

Strategy #5—Showcase your employer’s brand

The big question: why should students work with you? And to nail down the response, you need to build credibility. Gen Z today is smarter than you think. They don’t work *only* for the paycheck anymore.

Students now work with companies that:

• Align with their values
• Encourage mental health and work-life balance
• Focus on their employees’ development

And to make sure you check all these boxes, you need to build your employer brand and show the students “why” they should work with you. Here’s how you can do it:

• Get the leadership team to engage with students through seminars and workshops. These can either be physical events or can be conducted virtually.

For example, you can organize a LinkedIn event where the leadership team sits down and discusses the importance of diversity and how their company empowers it.

• Interview the employees from your organization. Ask them about their experience working with the company and share it on social channels. This helps the students understand the employees’ POV and take the decision.
• Showcase the social proof of your credibility via employees talking about you on review websites like Glassdoor.

Take a look at HackerEarth’s profile on Glassdoor, 82% of people say they will recommend the company to their friends, and 87% of people say they approve of the company’s CEO—a commendable social proof for candidates to work with the company and amplifies employer branding.

Also Read: Create an Employer Brand That Sticks

Ready to pull off your hybrid campus recruiting strategy?

True. Transitioning from offline hiring to hybrid campus hiring can be tedious. The recruitment drive that used to take a day gets divided into phases that keep on going for several days. But once you understand how the offline and hybrid interview stages differ, create the strategy and gather resources to use. With the 5 hybrid campus hiring strategies we have shared above, you can get started and see the results for yourself.

Indeed it’s true that 2020 was a tough year for the whole world to handle. However, the adverse effect of the pandemic also created new opportunities for people. It changed the way companies work. Remote working suddenly became the talk of the town. Even after the pandemic, the craze of remote working only kept growing. There are plenty of benefits and flexibility that remote work provides employees and companies with.

Employers started to use online management tech to efficiently manage their employees who were working remotely. Furthermore, remote hiring or online recruitment has also grown simultaneously with remote working. It has become a priority for recruiters and the HR team, but mainly, it has become a priority for job seekers. To land talented candidates, you need to offer them the flexibility of working from home. This is where tools like applicant tracking systems, online coding assessments, recruiting CRM software, and so on step in to make hiring easier and quicker.

Also, good talent acquisition software provides a recruitment marketing platform for your recruiting team to efficiently source, attract, engage, and hire the best suitable candidates.

Hiring top-tech talent is the highest priority of companies nowadays. In addition, the two factors, tech recruiters and online recruitment software have become an indispensable part of the process. Let’s understand what tech recruitment is and how to market it.

What is tech recruitment?

Tech recruitment is the process of sourcing, attracting, screening, engaging, and hiring talent for IT and technical roles. Recruiters need to have the technical knowledge and the ability to deal with technical people to interact with them.

Generally, tech recruiters approach recruitment by discovering and assessing suitable candidates and presenting them to hiring managers to reach realistic technical recruitment goals.

AI-powered recruiting software, such as applicant tracking systems, remote coding interview tools, and recruiting CRMs, has become a boon for recruiters and hiring teams. This recruitment automation software also helps in recruitment marketing.

Also read: How To Hire Tech Talent When You Don’t Have A Technical Background

What is tech recruitment marketing?

Tech recruitment marketing is practiced by tech recruiters to prepare to source, attract, engage, and hire candidates for tech roles. Following are the top tech recruitment marketing practices that you can implement to hire qualified talent.

Top tech recruitment marketing strategies for 2025

Tech recruiters need to have two essential skills, technical knowledge of the particular role and people skills. These skills are vital for tech recruiters who want to hire the best talent. Besides these two vital skills, recruiters must know the strategic approach to market their tech recruitment to hire top-notch talent.

1. A tech-savvy career page makes a difference

Nowadays, almost every candidate goes through the website of a company before applying to it. A survey by HR Dive found that 61% of job seekers visit company sites before applying. It is essential for recruiters to put compelling content on the career page of the website.

Recruiters can creatively produce and post videos of current employees talking about the positive work culture of the company, or they can put refreshing memories of company outings or a trip. A career site is a great way to convey the company’s culture.

The structure of the site is essential to attract tech talent. The blog page of the company could be a great help in giving an overview of the company’s values. Recruiters can send those blog articles to the applicants to show what the company really made of.

2. Effectively promote your employer’s brand

A survey by Glassdoor found that 69% of job seekers say that a company’s reputation is a vital factor, and they would not accept a job offer from a company with a bad reputation. Also, shockingly, 84% would consider leaving their current jobs if offered another role with a company with an excellent reputation. Hence, it is incredibly important for every organization to showcase a positive image to attract and retain top talent. Recruiters can encourage current employees to add a good review about your firm on a review platform as candidates look at it while applying for a job.

In addition, there are many ways to enhance employer branding. The following are the ways to create a powerful employer brand.

1. Create a strong onboarding and personalized training process for new hires.
2. Focus on improving the company’s values, vision, and culture.
3. Build a strong diversity, equity, and inclusion initiative.
4. Leveraging social media to promote the values and unique beneficial points your firm offers.
5. Share videos on social media platforms and job boards of your current employees talking about your amazing work culture.
6. Engage and interact with the candidates often while hiring and provide a positive candidate experience.
7. Offer the opportunity to learn new skills and development programs.

Also read: How Tech Recruiters Can Build Better Employer Branding With Marketing

3. Take part in local and online tech communities

Companies must participate in local social events that tech talent is known to attend. This way, the company can increase its brand visibility and build better relationships with its target audience.

On the other hand, online communities like GitHub are hotbeds of talent, and tech recruiters should spend some time scouting for suitable candidates here.

According to a StackOverflow survey, over 90% of developers use GitHub and recommend that it is a profound tool for developers. You need to increase engagement and interaction on such platforms to source and hire top-quality talent.

4. Organize in-person or virtual tech events

Recruiters can also arrange local and virtual tech fairs and invite tech talent to join these informative and educational events. These virtual or local events are essential for tech recruiters and companies to build and strengthen their network, which they could use in the future to hire the best people for growth.

Tech recruiters can use online tools such as vFAIRS to organize online or hybrid career events to connect with tech talent.

5. Create exciting employee referral programs

Indeed, it’s true that skilled people know skilled people. According to a survey by Recruiter – an employer solution providing web found Employee referral programs can save companies $3,000 or more per hire! Recruiters or employers must set up employee referral programs by providing benefits and perks to those who recommend suitable candidates to the company. Also, one thing employers must keep in mind is that they must keep the employee referral transparent for the employees.

6. Build practical social recruiting strategies

Social recruiting has become the talk of the town because almost everyone uses social media nowadays. According to CareerArc, 86% of job seekers use social media in their job search to search for relevant jobs, apply to jobs directly from social sites, and engage with job-related content. Hence, recruiters must build practical strategies for social media and job boards to reach diverse candidates. A key aspect of social recruiting is ensuring compliance with communication regulations while engaging with potential candidates. Implementing FCC lead generation strategies can help recruiters connect with job seekers through consent-based outreaches while staying compliant with FCC guidelines. This approach ensures ethical recruitment practices while improving engagement rates.

Following are some key strategies recruiters and HRs can apply to get the maximum advantages to advertising tech recruitment.

1. Increase the visibility (traffic) of your website
2. Post content on your site to attract the relevant audience. In this case, tech-related content can attract more people who are curious and passionate about technology.
3. Build strong relationships with candidates on social media platforms
4. Arrange educational and informative virtual or local events for job seekers
5. Indeed, it’s true that skilled people know skilled people. Thus, you must use your employee network wisely to find and hire the most suitable people.

For you: Get your copy of the social recruiting checklist today!

7. Run ads to increase brand awareness

Recruiters can reach a new relevant audience through social media and advertising campaigns on platforms such as Facebook touch and Instagram to raise the company’s awareness. They can run Ads and target users based on the factors such as their current job titles, education level, interests, and location. This Ad campaign helps the hiring teams to target the prospects they want to attract in that specific location.

8. Develop and nurture a strong talent pool

Recruiters actively discover and engage with suitable candidates even if the company is not hiring at the moment. Recruiters add the data of potential candidates to the talent pool database. When a specific requirement or a post is open, they can easily reach those candidates. Also, it allows them to engage with prospects who are passive candidates. Recruiters and HR teams can use recruitment software such as an Applicant Tracking System.

To manage the talent pool efficiently. Also, they can add candidates to the talent from employee referral portals in ATS. This way, recruiters can effectively manage the talent pool.

Also read: 10 Tech Recruiting Strategies To Find The Best Tech Talent

Final thoughts on tech recruitment marketing

With the rising evolution of technology, the hiring industry has transformed exponentially. Indeed, it’s true that leveraging the right strategy to advertise your job efficiently is incredibly important. It provides you with plenty of benefits for your company. For example, it allows you to hire top candidates and stay ahead of cut-throat competition. Recruitment marketing will enable you to attract a diverse range of candidates.

In this article, we’ve covered key marketing strategies that will be immensely helpful to recruiters in marketing their open positions to candidates far and wide. These strategies will enable them to attract, hire, and retain quality candidates within the company.