Hiring top-tier talent is one of the most important elements of the startup puzzle and yet, it is the hardest thing to get right. Technology is advancing at the speed of light with innovations coming out of every corner, but tech startup hiring practices to employ people that actually bring about these innovations are still in the dark ages.

We are talking hyper-growth when tech startups grow faster than the expected industry growth rate.

The World Economic Forum defines hyper-growth as that phase of startup expansion, where a company maintains an average annual growth rate of at least 40% for more than one year—in simpler terms, it means your startup hit the jackpot and joined the elite league of companies whose growth is skyrocketing!

Consequently, you need to quickly scale your workforce to meet those ambitious targets and meet customer demands. Now, in light of the severe talent crunch faced by the tech industry with every organization vying for the same candidates across job roles like software engineering, developing, data science, etc., how do you aim to make your tech startup hiring strategy stand out from the rest?

Read on 🙂

Challenges of hiring for a hyper-growth startup

Tech startup hiring can be something of a ‘Rush Hour’, the movie experience. Your hiring needs are mostly unplanned, a lot of things are happening at once, and not everybody knows what’s happening!

This is underpinned by quite a few technical hiring challenges like:

1. Working at a startup is considered a risk

Studies show 9 out of 10 startups fail. Understandably, tempting talented candidates to apply for open roles at your organization can be difficult. Added incentives like competitive pay, options for flexible working, or company equity might just do the trick in catching the attention of potential candidates—our yearly Developer Survey brought to fore that 68% of experienced developers can be wooed by a good career path and compensation.

2. Your startup is new and doesn’t have a strong employer brand

Growing companies have to compete for top talent with well-established organizations, as they are relatively unknown, and do not have a strong employer brand to fall back on. You have to be extra smart and do more legwork than others to showcase why your company is a great place to work at.

3. Recruiters need to don several hats

The recruiting expertise required when hiring for an entire company is vast and distinct for each job role. Startups have a limited recruiting team; or just you— and the responsibility of hiring for roles ranging from software developers to customer success managers falls on your shoulders. You would have to familiarize yourself with several profiles for these job roles to bridge the knowledge gap to some extent.

4. Hiring fast might kill your workplace culture

The fast-paced nature of a startup leaves little time to invest in building company culture. When you’re growing quickly, outsourcing your hiring needs may seem like a safe bet but the potential hires may not be a good culture fit. The sweet spot to attracting talented candidates is when they can adapt to the hyper-growth nature of your company as well as align well with the team dynamic.

Also, read: Through The Looking Glass: Hiring For ‘Cultural Fit’ In A Remote World

The significance of actively seeking tech talent

A proactive approach to tech talent acquisition is crucial for several reasons:

1. For startups in hyper-growth phases, scaling the team quickly and efficiently is vital. Actively seeking talent ensures that the company’s growth is supported by a robust team that can handle increasing demands.
2. Passive recruitment often limits the talent pool to those actively seeking new opportunities. In contrast, actively seeking talent, especially in underrepresented groups, can diversify the workforce, fostering innovation and creativity.
3. Engaging actively with potential candidates, even before they apply for a position, helps build a strong employer brand. This proactive engagement can make the company more attractive to top talent.
4. In tech industries, where competition for skilled talent is fierce, a passive approach might result in losing out on top candidates to competitors. An active search keeps the company competitive in the talent market.
5. Actively seeking talent can fill positions faster, reducing the time and resources spent on prolonged hiring processes.
6. By actively seeking candidates, startups can find individuals whose skills and aspirations align closely with the company’s strategic objectives and culture, promoting long-term growth and stability.

Tech startup hiring tips for the hyper-growth stage

To deal with your hiring woes, you have to be intentional about your recruiting strategy. It may be tempting to “hire fast and fire fast” like plenty of tech companies’ hiring cycles that you come across but that can be hurtful in the long run.

Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur, once said, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” Finding the right people to join your team is exactly what tech companies are looking for—an uphill climb, indeed.

On that note, here are 5 tech startup hiring tips that can help you attract and retain top talent:

#1 Plan your hiring timeline

When a tech startup is expanding at a rapid rate, it can be easy to overestimate its hiring requirements. To avoid hiring too many people and then having to let go of a large number of them, you have to accurately evaluate the essential manpower your startup needs. Factor in your employee turnover rate too, before fixing on numbers that will form the foundation for your hyper-growth hiring strategy—an important first step.

The next step would be to decide which positions to fill first—for instance, if you plan to increase your revenue targets, you might need marketing folks onboard before hiring for engineering folks. Break down your hiring plan according to each quarter and the goals you need to achieve so you know which to prioritize first.

#2 Calculate your hiring costs

Now you know which positions to hire for and when to fill them. With these numbers in hand, it’s time to flesh out your recruiting budget. Calculate how much it costs to fill each position—the cost-per-hire metric, which takes into account talent acquisition software expenses, recruiters’ salaries, cost of any hiring events conducted, and so on.

Also, keep track of the time-to-hire metric. When you calculate the amount of time it takes to close a single position, you can use these findings to tweak your hiring strategy—to further reduce the time-to-hire ratio.

#3 Create candidate personas that are startup-centric

Candidates working in a startup require a certain set of skills. They need to put in long hours, take on more responsibilities than is the norm, and be open to the pace of a hyper-growth workplace. Take your time, do the research, and understand what each role requires before building candidate personas that suit all your needs. Focus on both hard and soft skills—a balance between technical knowledge and clear communication is the ideal candidate profile.

Also, read: Ultimate Playbook for Better Hiring

#4 Post your jobs in startup-focused communities

Plastering your job postings on all the job boards out there will not attract the relevant candidates and is cost-intensive too. Focus your efforts on communities that are startup-centric. They consist of exactly the types of candidates you need, who are well-versed with the volatile nature of working for a startup. AngelList, VentureLoop, Startupers are a few job boards that you can target to attract the ideal candidates.

#5 Update your recruitment tech stack

Let technology do the heavy lifting for you—especially when you’re hard-pressed for time and need to hire fast. Your recruitment tech stack should consist of the latest online recruitment software like applicant tracking systems, virtual assessment tools, coding interview tools, and chatbots for better candidate experience.

• Applicant tracking systems (ATS) – An ATS helps you cut down your overall time-to-hire for job roles. An added benefit is it enables you to create and nurture a pool of passive candidates that you can call upon in the future—a useful feature when you need to close a role quickly. An ATS can be a simple tool that maintains a digital repository of candidate data to quite complex with various approval levels and AI-enhanced searches.
• Virtual assessment tools – Recruitment screening software like pre-employment assessment tests are a godsend for recruiters. You do not have to pour over thousands of resumes manually; instead, test your candidates for skills. A live coding assessment tool like HackerEarth Assessments helps you with an objective evaluation of each candidate, provides detailed reports, and instant feedback—all with minimal technical know-how!
• Coding interview tools – The same developer survey showed that 40% of developers preferred to be interviewed on intelligent interview tools that are in-built with code editors and video conferencing. For a fair and objective evaluation of the devs, coding interview tools like FaceCode are the best choice. FaceCode allows you to invite and conduct bias-free coding interviews on a collaborative, real-time code editor that also automates your interview summaries.

Also, read: How Your Tech Stack Can Help You Hire Top Talent

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 Colet Coelho, Head of Talent Acquisition, at Recruit CRM. Being Women’s History Month, we wanted to understand the diversity mandates at Recruit CRM and more importantly, as a woman in tech, what would Colet like to change for welcoming more of such awesome women into the tech recruiting space.

Settle in, and let’s get to it!

P.S. If you missed the first edition of HireIQ where we sit down with Charles Rue from IHS Markit, you can read it here 🙂

HackerEarth: A lot of recruiting jargon has made headlines in the last two years. Candidate experience, remote hiring, employee burnout, and of course the ‘Great Resignation’. If you had to pick one jargon/phrase to attach to the future of ATS platforms, what would it be and why?

Colet: If I had to pick a jargon out of the mentioned, I would pick two—candidate experience and remote hiring. The candidate experience we design reveals a great deal about who we are as an employer. Prospective workers will judge our company based on their experience with the recruiting process, and a negative applicant experience will discourage future job seekers from applying.

Although, providing an excellent candidate experience can be a problematic aspect of the remote hiring process. Enhancing the overall candidate experience in remote recruitment is a vital function of an Applicant Tracking System. ATS platforms automate hiring while streamlining this entire process.

Recommended read – Remote Work And Recruitment: An ATS Story

HackerEarth: How have your internal hiring policies changed in the last two years? Since DEI has been a priority in the tech world, have you initiated any new processes for improving inclusion at your workplace?

Colet: Our hiring policies have been pretty consistent. Since we have always been a remote functioning organization, the last two years haven’t affected our recruitment methods too much.

Our organization has a fair distribution of employees from different backgrounds, ethnicities, and locations spread across the globe. We host regular meetings with all our employees where everyone is heard and allowed to present their views forward.

To create an inclusive culture, starting at the very beginning is critical. We preach, advocate, and encourage inclusivity as an essential component of our organizational principles. We’ve started sharing it on our social media, websites, and in interviews so that any potential employee is aware of our inclusion goals.

We have also begun to streamline the recruiting process by enabling candidates from various community outreach initiatives, job fairs, and hiring consultants to participate. This guarantees that we have a varied range of abilities.

Inclusion at the workplace is pointless if people are not valued for who they are.

The pronouns that a person prefers are entirely up to them. We will begin to include a section on the pronouns employees prefer on their identity cards. In addition, we will guarantee that all of our job descriptions include gender-neutral language.

HackerEarth: As a woman in the tech recruiting space, what are some of the changes you would like to see in how companies attract talented women? How about expanding the conversation to include the non-binary community, and if yes, then how can recruiters begin to do that?

Colet: Flexibility is one of the top perks a firm can offer an employee, not just to women but also men. As a woman in the recruitment sphere, I’d like to see companies offer women more flexibility regarding where, when, and how they work.

To attract non-binary candidates, recruiters can start by allowing a range of pronouns in different areas. Leaving gender boxes unfilled or providing the opportunity to add additional gender or pronoun categories in both paper and online HR forms/platforms will encourage non-binary employees to apply as well as feel like they belong in the workplace.

HackerEarth: Data has become an important tool for recruiters today. In your opinion, what do you think are the three most important markers/data points that recruiters should be looking at when hiring? Additionally, do you think there is a data point that recruiters are overlooking?

Colet: The three most important data points that recruiters should always consider are quality of hire, cost-per-hire, and time-to-hire.

While assessing hiring quality might be subjective, it is probably one of the most critical criteria to monitor. Poor performance can indicate that you have an individual performing the wrong job, regardless of how quickly you fill a role or how much you lower the hire cost.

The cost per hire is simply the money spent on recruiting in a given year divided by the total number of hires made. The recruiting costs vary for every organization, so it’s a good idea to benchmark the typical expenditures for various jobs in your firm. The time-to-hire metric measures how fast an applicant progresses through the various phases of the recruiting process.

The total amount spent on recruitment in a given year divided by the number of recruits is the cost per hire. Again, the recruiting expenses differ from one organization to the next. Therefore, it’s good to benchmark the average expenditures for various roles inside your company.

A critical marker that recruiters occasionally tend to neglect is the source of hiring.

Knowing where your best candidates and applicants are coming from is quite helpful, especially when it comes to recruitment marketing. With this indicator, you can discover those sources and channels that bring in the most qualified candidates for your available positions.

Recommended read: The Great Resignation In The Tech Industry – How To Prevent it

HackerEarth: One of the questions we love asking tech recruiters is – when it comes to skills versus experience, what would you choose and why? What are some of your trusted markers for a skill that you would use to gauge a developer’s competency when hiring?

Colet: While I’m constantly emphasizing soft and hard skills as a recruiter, I can’t ignore the importance of work experience to evaluate a candidate. Therefore, when I search for an ideal candidate, I am looking for a combination of the right personality, soft skills, technical or hard skills, and practical industry experience.

Although, a lack of corporate experience is not an indicator of poor potential, especially when hiring youth. The ability to work in a team structure, make decisions and solve problems, communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organization, and plan, organize and prioritize work are skills I focus on evaluating when hiring.

My usual evaluation method is looking at past projects and giving real-time assignments to measure a developer’s expertise when recruiting.

HackerEarth: Let’s talk a bit about workplace culture 🙂 In the era of hybrid, how do you suggest companies can keep up employee morale and boost engagement?

Colet: I truly believe that open communication and prioritizing employee well-being are the way to maintain morale at work. Honest communication facilitates trust, and employees who have faith in their supervisors to act in their best interests are less stressed during times of transition and uncertainty. Considering employee mental health is also a critical factor in ensuring high morale, especially concerning feelings of isolation and the rising risk of burnout.

Ultimately, leaders cannot just guess or intuit what would make staff feel the most upbeat and engaged. They are the only ones who can tell you what works for them.

So I suggest that companies solicit constant input from employees through employee engagement surveys to gather personal knowledge and then develop a curated strategy that tailors efforts to people’s preferences and requirements.

HackerEarth: Recruit CRM also helps companies with sourcing. What are some non-traditional modes of sourcing you have seen your clients use in the recent past that you think have great potential? Alternatively, do you think there are untapped platforms that tech recruiters can use to their advantage?

Colet: I’ve seen clients use quite a few non-traditional methods of sourcing that have turned out to be quite the successes. For example, sourcing through social media and Boolean searches. Social networking has evolved into one of the most effective tools for hiring today. LinkedIn, Github for developers, and Behance for creatives are the most well-known professional platforms.

However, popular social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are valuable tools. I feel like Quora and YouTube are two such platforms that haven’t been tapped by recruiters yet but can prove to be of great help in finding potential employees.

Recommended read:Boolean Search Strings – 5 Essential Tips For Recruiters

HackerEarth: And lastly—a piece of advice for recruiters around the globe to navigate the pandemic-induced ups and downs of the recruiting business.

Colet: The last two years have been tough on recruiters. The pandemic and its consequences decimated some talent acquisition teams, piled additional pressures on others, and proved to be a historic change agent, as virtually recruiting and onboarding a remote workforce became the norm for many.

Since virtual hiring is here to stay, I would advise recruiters to focus on making virtual recruitment as streamlined and fine-tuned as possible using an ATS. In addition, a common challenge resulting from the pandemic is the difficulty in filling job openings.

The difficulty in getting applications is an excellent opportunity for some clever employer branding.

Take advantage of this chance to establish your employer brand and set your organization out of competition. Address the main worries of your present workers and future applicants by assuring them that your firm is solid and helpful.

About Colet Coelho:

Based out of Mumbai, India, Colet heads the Talent Acquisition team at Recruit CRM, aiming to bring the best talent onboard and scale the current team of 50 to over 150 in the next 2 years. Here is her LinkedIn.

Two years of the world adapting to new ways of working and the tech industry has pretty much seen it all. From working fully remote to transitioning to hybrid work models, recruiters know what kind of technology they need to streamline their hiring processes. Be it virtual coding assessment tools or online coding interview tools, the recruitment tech stack has vastly been improved to keep up with the ever-changing hiring landscape.

Consequently, there has been an explosion of tech interview tools that claim to help you at every step of the recruiting life cycle. You, as recruiters know what you need but how would you separate the wheat from the chaff—a good marketing pitch versus a functional tool that does what it claims to do?

And this is where we step in! Allow us to point out the most important elements of coding assessment tools that you need to watch out for.

6 things every online coding assessment tool should have

Choosing the right coding assessment tool may make or break your recruitment process. It is important that whatever tool you decide to run with meets all your requirements and helps simplify finding the best candidate for the job.

We did our research and here are some of the features that constitute a capable and reliable coding interview tool:

Easy integration with your existing ATS

The modern recruiter cannot manage or sift through large volumes of candidate data on a spreadsheet. That’s a recipe for disaster right there.

An applicant tracking system (ATS) is built to solve just that. Work with a tool that offers effortless integration with an ATS, where you can sync all candidate data in one place. It acts as a centralized repository of candidate data—keeps track of resumes and saves all received applications even if they were not hired.

Your ATS helps you effectively screen applications by setting filters instead of doing it manually. It can also ensure that the candidates are all on the same page by sending them real-time updates about their progress at each stage of the interview. Your hiring team can easily check the status of any selected candidate directly from the ATS.

You can create and send assessment invites from the ATS itself and do away with switching between multiple platforms.

Recommended read – Remote Work And Recruitment: An ATS Story

Rich library of questions

Any good online assessment tool will offer a wide array of programming languages, and frameworks as well as tests for both modern and legacy coding skills. You should be able to test for all developer roles whether it is frontend or backend. It should consist of a range of programming languages and frameworks for all coding job roles such as iOS developer, Android developer, web developer, data scientist, and so on.

Automated invigilation with proctor settings

When hiring remotely, it is not possible to closely monitor candidates during the tests. This is where automation takes over. A capable coding assessment tool provides automated invigilation with proctor settings. Proctoring allows you to observe candidates through video during the test and protect the quality of the assessment.

The automated assessment tool should also report tab switching, prevent copy-pasting code, and eliminate candidate impersonation with the help of image processing.

Recommended read: 3 Things To Know About Remote Proctoring

Assessments created for individual roles

What a hiring manager looks for in a candidate varies from role to role. The platform should enable you to build your custom coding assessments as per your requirements. You should have the choice of creating different types of questions like MCQs, project-type, or subjective questions that simulate on-the-job problems with the help of custom data sets and test cases.

Recommended read: 4 Ways To Create Tests With HackerEarth

Grading based on standard evaluation parameters

It’s always advisable to conduct structured interviews to ensure that the hiring process is fair and impartial. One way to do this is by evaluating every candidate against standardized parameters to keep the assessment objective. Scoring reports that are automatically generated at the end of the assessment make it simple and quick for you to identify who goes on to the next round and who doesn’t.

Not only does it cut bias out of the equation but also lets you update the candidate in real-time and ensure that they are kept in the loop at every step of the hiring lifecycle.

Automated performance reports

Any coding test platform supplies in-depth analytics and insights into a candidate’s capabilities with summarized, auto-generated performance reports. You can identify top performers in an instant and screen them further based on work experience and other relevant criteria. This helps you make data-driven decisions in collaboration with your team as all candidate performance data is available on the dashboard.

Top 5 Online Assessment Tool

Choosing the right online assessment tool can streamline your hiring process, ensuring you find the best candidates for your technical roles. Here are the top five coding assessment tools that stand out for their features and effectiveness:

HackerEarth:

HackerEarth combines coding challenges, hackathons, and real-world projects to assess candidates’ skills. It’s known for its user-friendly interface and detailed analytics, making it easy to identify top talent.

HackerRank:

Known for its extensive library of coding challenges and competitive coding environments, HackerRank, the online assessment tool is ideal for assessing a wide range of programming skills and languages. It offers robust reporting and benchmarking capabilities.

Codility:

This online assessment tool excels in evaluating candidates’ coding skills through real-world tasks and coding scenarios. Codility’s automated grading and anti-cheating measures ensure a fair and efficient assessment process.

LeetCode:

Popular among developers, LeetCode provides a vast repository of coding problems that cover various topics and difficulty levels. It’s excellent for both preparing candidates and assessing their problem-solving skills.

CodeSignal:

With a focus on providing a comprehensive evaluation, CodeSignal offers coding tests, technical interviews, and custom assessments. Its advanced coding environment supports a wide range of programming languages and frameworks.

HackerEarth, the best coding assessment tool for your organization

Online Coding assessment toool enable you to assess a candidate’s technical skills objectively. It helps recruiters zero in on the right talent from among a vast talent pool, quickly. Do your research wisely and choose the best coding assessment tool that fits all your needs.

As we discussed before, a good tool is simple to use, has an enormous question bank, uses a combination of knowledge and application-based techniques such as MCQs and simulators to measure job-relevant skills, and provides data-rich insights into a candidate’s performance.

Here’s why we think HackerEarth Assessments is a great option for a coding assessment tool:

• A rich library of 13,000+ questions across 80+ programming skills helps you to create highly specific coding assessments with zero technical understanding.
• Creation of your assessment for any job role or expected skill in under 5 minutes or based on job descriptions, with the option to build custom questions.
• The choice of designing various types of questions like MCQs or project-type questions that simulate real-time problems.
• Seamless integration with popular ATSs like LinkedIn Talent Hub, Lever, Workable, JazzHR, and more, which means you can sync all your candidate data with your ATS.
• Instantly invite candidates to take the assessment you created on our platform. See at what stage each candidate is in throughout the hiring lifecycle, and avail performance reports, all from your ATS—without switching between multiple tools.
• Robust proctoring efforts with the choice to customize the stringency, data-rich insights on each candidate’s performance, and built-in PII (Personal Identifiable Information) feature that mitigates bias in the process to offer an objective, accurate, and impartial screening process.
• Auto scoring based on standardized evaluation parameters to ensure each candidate is assessed fairly.
• Provides actionable insights into a candidate’s skills with summarized, automated performance reports.

Go on, take HackerEarth for a spin and see for yourself if everything we claimed checks out! Remember, you only know the difference between a tool that’s good on paper and a tool that can provide good results when you actually test it out.

Keep the top features of a coding assessment tool in mind while making your decision, to find the perfect fit for your recruitment tech stack!

FAQs about Coding Assessment Tools

Q: What are coding assessment tools?
A: Coding assessment tools are software platforms that help employers evaluate the coding skills of potential hires through various challenges, tasks, and tests.

Q: How do coding assessment tools work?
A: These tools provide a range of coding challenges and scenarios that candidates must solve. They often include automated grading and performance analytics to streamline the evaluation process.

Q: What should I look for in a coding assessment tool?
A: Key features to consider include the variety of coding challenges, language support, ease of use, anti-cheating measures, and detailed reporting capabilities.

Q: Can coding assessment tools prevent cheating?
A: Yes, many tools include anti-cheating measures such as webcam proctoring, plagiarism detection, and controlled coding environments to ensure the integrity of the assessments.

Q: Are coding assessment tools only for recruitment?
A: No, they can also be used for employee development, training, and identifying areas for improvement within your current team.

Are you worried about the great resignation in tech? This is a problem that is affecting businesses all over the world. But don’t worry, there are things that you can do to prevent it from happening in your organization. In this blog post, we will discuss the great employee resignation and look at some tips on how to avoid it.

First of all, let’s first understand what exactly is the Great Resignation –

The tech industry benefits from an abundance of fresh talent supply annually. However, more than 4 million people in the US alone quit their jobs in 2021- a record number, and this mass exodus isn’t unique to America. One survey found that 41% (or 11 out 15) global workers were considering their exit during 2021 according to Microsoft’s data – which means it could very well continue in 2022 as well. In another study, 39 out of 50 countries surveyed saw higher rates of employee resignations.

So what’s the reason for this Great Resignation?

Well, there isn’t any single particular factor but research shows that it is largely due to “workplace frustration“. This can have a lot of different sources and meanings, but in most cases, it mostly includes workplace culture and environment and being overworked. It could also be due to low compensation or because of negative relationships with co-workers and/or management. And let’s not forget about job dissatisfaction! LinkedIn published a study where they found out that 79% of millennials confessed to being unhappy at their jobs.

What do the statistics say?

A 2021 study by Bankrate showed that 52% of employers noticed a greater number of employee resignations within six months of joining. Moreover, 89% were concerned with how this would impact their business and 28% claimed that they had already lost some clients due to this problem.

When asked which generation is most likely to quit their jobs, more than half (55%) of the respondents said Generation Y or millennials. And if you thought that’s bad enough, more than one-third (35%) believe that employee retention will be even worse in 2022!

How the Great Resignation affected the tech industry

The Great Resignation significantly impacted the tech industry, reshaping how companies approach talent management and acquisition. Tech professionals, enjoying a market flush with opportunities, have become more selective about their employment choices. The reasons for this shift are multifaceted:

• Seeking Better Work-Life Balance: Many tech professionals have started prioritizing roles that offer flexibility, remote work options, and a better balance between personal life and work.
• Demand for Higher Compensation: With the tech industry booming, skilled professionals are aware of their market value and are seeking higher compensation and benefits.
• Career Advancement Opportunities: Tech professionals are looking for roles that offer clear pathways for career advancement and skill development.
• Cultural Fit and Values: There is an increasing emphasis on finding companies whose values align with their own, especially regarding innovation, diversity, and corporate responsibility.
• Impact of Pandemic: The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted many to reassess their career goals and seek jobs that provide more security and satisfaction.

This shift requires tech companies to reevaluate their talent acquisition strategies, focusing more on employee engagement, retention programs, and creating an attractive company culture to combat the high turnover rates.

Here is how you can avoid the Great Resignation at your company

Put an emphasis on employee well being

To combat the high rates of burnout-fueled employee resignations at your company, giving workers time off and expecting them to take it when they need it isn’t enough. Travel options remain limited so people may feel there’s no excuse for using their vacation days while others might believe that the work culture encourages always being present (despite new findings of how this can affect health).

Employees need the time to focus on their mental and emotional well-being. Many workers face a lack of fulfillment regardless of whether they are paid fairly or have tasks to perform. Organizations that provide employees with opportunities to be creative, build social connections at work, or do work on passion projects within the organization will see happier workers who are more committed.

Recommended read: 7 Employee Engagement Strategies For WFH Tech Teams

Hybrid and flexible work options

While many employees prefer being in the office, a lot of them work remotely as a result of personal commitments and circumstances. While remote working allows employees to be productive even when they’re not in the office, some people prefer interacting with their co-workers in person.

The past 16 months are proof that remote (or at least hybrid) working is the future! A recent survey shows 39% of the workers would consider quitting if employers weren’t flexible about remote positions. Among millennials (aged 18–34) this figure sits higher still at 49%. The trend towards virtual teams paired up nicely via technology means less time spent commuting each day which also helps improve company productivity overall.

Retaining talent in roles that can’t be performed from afar is becoming increasingly difficult. Some companies are looking for new amenities to offer their employees, hoping this will help create a sense of balance and preserve stability within the workplace.

The need has become so urgent because workers who spend all day commuting every week may find themselves with little free time when they arrive at home after work – unless there’s another meeting or conference call during what would traditionally qualify as “free” hours.

Recommended read: 4 Things The Pandemic Taught Us About Diverse Tech Teams

Reward loyalty

To attract the best workers, employers should offer competitive compensation packages. You have to pay people enough so they don’t think about money when deciding if working for your company is worth it. Try giving out one-time bonuses as well as student loan repayment assistance and work-from-home options. Employees love to feel appreciated by their bosses, so take the time to show appreciation via bonuses, promotions, or even just a simple email.

Focus on the big picture

While there are endless reasons why people choose to resign, lack of opportunities for growth or advancement is a major one. Make sure you regularly discuss career paths with employees and help them grow within your company. You also need to have a smooth and memorable onboarding process so the new hires feel like they’re part of something great from day one! No matter how many perks you offer, if they don’t feel welcome and a part of the team, your company will almost always have to deal with a high resignation rate.

Recommended read: 7 Ways To Reduce Burnout In Your Tech Teams

Provide opportunities for growth

Employers should create retention strategies to keep top talent around by pretending their best employees just handed in resignations and asking themselves what they could do that would change the person’s mind. Forward-thinking organizations have been doing interviews like this since last month—with each employee advising on where things can be improved or future opportunities offered up.

Care for your employees as well as their families

To retain their employees, employers should make provisions for the physical as well as mental well-being of the employees and their dependents. This can include but is not limited to, medical insurance, discounts on gym memberships, access to a network of mental health resources, maternity and paternity leaves, etc. They can also help parents of small children by providing child care assistance programs or paid time off (PTO).

Be sure to review your company’s policies

Hiring and onboarding processes can make or break your business. It is not only important to go over all of the policies and processes related to hiring and onboarding but also to follow through with them without exception.

You also need to create an environment where these talented individuals feel comfortable speaking up about issues in the workplace. Finally, once the employees are hired, employers need to ensure they have ongoing training programs so that employees can learn and upskill throughout their time at your company.

Recommended read: A Note On Our New Leave Policies

Analyze the blind spots within your system

Look at metrics such as compensation, time spent between promotions (i.e., number of years), location(s) of the company, function/size pay increases over one’s career path, etc. to identify problems that might be causing your employees to quit.

When trying new ideas or programs keep an open mind and remember that there will always come those within our organizations who aren’t happy no matter where they work!

Retain your top talent with HackerEarth

Here is how you can keep your top talent using HackerEarth:

Continuous assessments

• Skill Evaluation: HackerEarth enables managers to continuously keep assessing employee skills and team members’ skill development. This helps employers address potential problem areas with the help of specific metrics.
• Learning and Development: Keeping employees up to date with the latest technologies and trends is a must. HackerEarth’s learning and development assessment tool helps employers stay ahead of the curve and improve the overall productivity of their workforce.
• Employee Engagement: Employee participation is key to overall organizational success. HackerEarth’s gamification tools help employers engage their talent with real-time feedback, on-the-go assessments as well as Hackathons – reducing overall employee resignations.
• Competency Mapping: Competency mapping is the foundation for any successful organization. HackerEarth’s unique competency mapping tool helps employers in identifying, developing, and retaining talent by optimizing every hiring decision that gives great ROI.

HackerEarth is a platform that connects organizations with skilled developers and helps them participate in major hackathons. This is done by providing access to qualified talent without the need for any bandwidth or environmental drain, as well as hosting challenges specifically designed for a virtual space!

HackerEarth virtual hackathons:

When it comes to assessing employee skills by running a successful hackathon, there is no better place than HackerEarth. HackerEarth has the experience and knowledge needed for all phases of conducting these events at scale across different industries.

• HackerEarth is the only curated hiring company that guarantees you’ll get all of your engagement needs without any bandwidth drain.
• With the HackerEarth platform, you can manage your virtual hackathons or hiring challenges from anywhere in the world and even at scale.
• Working with HackerEarth means working in one of the largest communities for qualified developers.

The great employee resignation in technology is a growing problem that has been affecting businesses all over the world. Luckily, there are things you can do to prevent it from happening in your business. Follow the steps above to stop the Great Resignation from affecting your organization.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has changed the rules of the game in the workplace forever. There were countless shifts in different spheres of the labor force, and the transformation isn’t over yet.

Furthermore, the constantly changing environment forced employees to upskill to be part of the business. Because of the uncertain future, many faced anxiety and high-stress levels.

Realizing this, HR professionals today, more than ever, are focused on results and not the time spent at work, allowing employees to choose the place of work: in the office, remotely, or a hybrid mix of both.

Work from home became and still is a reality for many employees. Thus, the lack of physical proximity altered the traditional onsite recruitment processes.

What is an ATS?

An applicant tracking system or ATS is a software solution that organizes and manages the overall recruitment process – from the beginning to the end. Thus, accelerates many of the recruitment tasks in the HR department. Some ATS solutions enable onboarding possibilities, too.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that two-thirds of the senior executives started investing heavily in technology, automation, and AI.

But how does ATS streamline the job of HR professionals?

Well, the jobs in the HR department often entail juggling various work activities and constant multitasking. HR workers’ responsibilities include recruitment, training, firing, onboarding, hiring employees, conducting multiple administrative tasks, and managing employee benefits.

Alleviating some of these processes for them will make a huge difference. But ATS solutions take a lot off HR’s plate and make HR jobs more time-effective and efficient.

With online recruitment on the rise, an ATS is a must-have asset in the HR department. It streamlines and structures the recruitment process, filters candidates by skills and work experience, and preserves a valuable amount of data in both a fast and secure way.

Recommended read:21 Tech Recruiting Tools To Scale Your Hiring

How can ATS help improve the Remote Recruitment Process?

Statistics show that up to 87% of people in the U.S. will apply for a job opening via mobile if the process is straightforward. And an ATS solution provides just that. Some of the benefits of using an applicant tracking system include:

1. Simple Online Application

By making the application process easy and mobile-friendly, companies are ensuring to get a larger number of applications, thus a larger talent pool. This is especially important when HR professionals try to extend job postings to talents worldwide, reaching as many applicants as possible.

2. Applicant Screening & Filtering

Instead of going through each application manually and sorting out the ones that fit, ATS allows HR workers to select applicants by various filters. The ATS can eliminate the incompatible applications and surface those that meet the job requirements. HR professionals can filter them by work experience, skills, level of education, previous experience, and more.

3. Candidate Database

The ATS often acts as a centralized data system that saves all received applications. Even the applications of candidates that don’t pass the required filters or those that didn’t pass the job application processes can be preserved and used for future job openings.

Moreover, it allows HR professionals to find and suggest more suitable job offers to candidates previously rejected for other job openings. Thus, by utilizing ATS for recruitment, HR professionals, instead of having to source candidates for new job openings, can opt for candidates’ talent pool for future job roles.

4. Instant Messaging & Communication

ATS helps HR workers filter job applications. Still, it also helps during the interview process by scheduling interviews at the most appropriate times, offers possibilities of conducting online interviews, and more, all in one centralized workplace.

5. Onboarding Experience

Besides the recruitment process, ATS can streamline the onboarding experience, too. New employees can get the company’s guidelines and policies, videos, and documents about company culture, reading materials, and more. All these can provide the required information for the new hires and create a sense of belonging to the company.

6. A Better Understanding of Candidates

By leveraging ATS for recruitment, HR teams can easily get a clearer picture of the types of applicants for job positions. They may discover what criteria are crucial for a particular job opening and see similarities among applicants. Lastly, this can make HR professionals predict and better understand the right candidates for each role.

The data obtained by the ATS can be exported for further analysis, ensuring an easy data export and management.

Recommended read: How Your Tech Stack Can Help You Hire Top Talent

What are the pros and cons of ATS?

Of course, as with any other software solution, ATS can have its advantages and disadvantages. Speaking of the former, ATS can:

• Streamline and simplify the recruitment process
• Shorten the selection of candidates
• Reduce administrative tasks
• Minimize or eliminate job advert expenses and agency fees
• Select the right candidates for the job roles

On the other hand, there are some issues regarding the application process. For instance, 75% of the applicants are rejected via ATS because of a mismatch with the required keywords for the job opening. However, candidates can tip the odds in their favor by optimizing the resume with this in mind.

Moreover, the recruiters can get all the submitted applications, even those that did not pass the required filters or were not compatible with the job opening.

Also, applicant tracking systems can be costly. Still, the price depends on the size of the business and what features it offers.

How can Candidates Optimize for ATS?

Up to 62% of employers admit that when using ATS for recruitment, some qualified candidates are automatically filtered out by mistake. But still, there are things that applicants can and should do to minimize this:

• Optimize the application for relevant keywords – To be sure they are on the right track, applicants can use the specific keywords used to describe the job description and the requirements.
• Double-check the application – Sometimes only one typo can be the reason for an application to be filtered out of the vetting process. Therefore, a careful double check before applying is a must.
• Keep things simple – Using many colors, designs, and fonts may seem like a good idea for a resume to stand out. However, the reality is that those may reflect negatively on the ATS. Simpler solutions are always better. Those include using only two colors and only one font, as well as sending the resume in a PDF format.
• Useful and relevant information only – Instead of listing all work experiences, applicants should stick to those only relevant to the position they are applying for. The same goes for all other information in the resume. Moreover, applicants should stay away from unique job titles such as programming wizard, marketing mastermind, and others, which will be probably undetected by the ATS software.
• Give resumes a human touch – Applicants must remember that even though they are optimizing the application for an ATS software, they are reaching out to the recruiters i.e., humans as well. The application should read naturally and follow the tone of the company, too.

Conclusion

An ATS is a smart solution that can be of great aid for recruiters and HR specialists. Its time-effective nature alleviates the recruitment process, especially when hiring remotely and internationally.

With an increase of 30% in recruiter’s productivity, the advantages of using an ATS in daily work outweigh the few disadvantages. Finally, with the automation of manual tasks and allowing HR teams to focus on attracting quality employees and top talents, companies gain an advantage over their competitors.

Ever since the pandemic hit, employers have had to fill positions without requiring candidates to go through an extensive in-person interview process. As a result, many companies have turned to virtual hiring programs as well as hackathons to reach their recruiting goals. A study found that 40% of companies use a hackathon hiring process as part of their recruitment strategies.

So what exactly is a hackathon and how to conduct one?

What is Hackathon?

Hackathons are events where computer programmers and other technology professionals come together to create new products or solve technological problems. They typically last for several hours and sometimes even go up to several days. Teams are often formed at hackathons, which are made up of people with different skill sets. At the end of the event, these teams present their product or solution to a panel of judges. Hackathon hiring processes are usually sponsored by companies that want to promote innovation within the tech world.

Types of Hackathons

The top 2 types of hackathons are external hackathons and internal hackathons:

• External hackathons:

At an external hackathon hiring process, participants create their own projects. They might work on coding tools, websites, or mobile apps that can be used by other people in the tech world. Employers sponsor these events to find new hires and engage with potential recruits. They also offer a valuable learning experience for attendees or students who may be interested in pursuing a career in technology.

Recommended read – Virtual Hackathons: All You Need To Know

• Internal hackathons:

These are internal or company-sponsored events that allow employees to engage in innovation and creativity. They can be used by companies to find new talent, foster teamwork among employees, and identify job applicants with the most potential.

Recommended read – Internal Hackathons: Drive Innovation And Increase Engagement In Tech Teams

Here’s a closer look at how these hackathons can benefit your organization.

External Hackathons

With hackathon recruiting, companies are replacing the intimidating interview setting with a competitive drill where candidates can show their skills. As recruiters get to observe them apply these abilities in real-time they are better placed at analyzing candidate competency and making informed hiring decisions. These projects can be used as portfolios to help participants build their brands and show off what they’ve accomplished. Participants could also use these products as a way to gain exposure or to see if it is feasible for them to turn the project into a business venture.

Recommended read – How To Run The Perfect Virtual Hackathon: Do’s And Dont’s

Its benefits include:

1. Build a diverse team from all around the world:

The hackathon hiring process creates a unique opportunity for people from all over the world to come together and work on a project. Participants who network with these people during hackathons might be able to add them as contacts when they return to the office, thus building company connections that would not have been possible otherwise.

2. Join hands with industry experts:

Industry experts and sponsors of the event actively participate as judges or mentors. This allows them to network with new people and gain access to the latest trends in the tech industry. Attendees make valuable contacts at hackathons which can be beneficial for your company even after the events are over.

3. Expand your developer community:

Companies use the hackathon hiring process to attract developers who might not otherwise come in contact with your brand. This offers a way for you to interact with the tech community and establish new relationships. It also allows you to identify potential candidates who might be looking for a job opportunity

4. Find the best talent for your business:

The hackathon hiring process offers a way to identify the best developer talent in the industry. It also helps you create a larger pool of qualified applicants for future roles. In addition to hiring developers, hackathons can help you identify other employees as well as interns who would be a good fit for your team.

Because hackathons are team-based events, it also allows you to see how candidates interact with their peers. You can assess how comfortable and confident they feel when working alongside others and whether they’re open to feedback and suggestions.

5. Boost corporate branding:

Hackathons offer a great opportunity to increase awareness about your brand and what you have to offer. Corporate hackathon ideas allow companies to showcase their product or service in a new way that is often more effective than advertising campaigns.

Recommended read – Building An Employer Brand: Everything You Need To Know

6. Crowdsource ideas:

Hackathons also offer a valuable way for companies to crowdsource ideas from people who matter the most. People from different departments and backgrounds can share their thoughts on improving daily operations, which allows your team to come up with solutions that would not have been possible otherwise.

Internal Hackathons

Most companies hold internal hackathons for team building. They can be a great way to get your employees excited about their work while allowing them to collaborate and build relationships with one another outside of the normal office environment. Internal hackathon ideas are perfect for tapping into the skills of the company’s workforce.

Participants could be tasked with creating an internal service or tool that solves a particular problem within the company, such as reducing costs or increasing efficiency. At the same time, learning and development programs are also offered at these events which can help employees develop new skills.

Recommended read – Hackathon Survival Guide: What You Need To Know Going Into A Hackathon

This is how it benefits your company:

1. Boosts morale:

Hackathons are a great way to get employees excited about their work again. It creates an environment that fosters teamwork and allows people to interact with each other in ways they normally wouldn’t be able to inside the office. It builds stronger connections between employees which can improve workplace satisfaction overall.

Hackathons can be a great way to build camaraderie among your team members. The shared experience of working on a project as a group allows employees to work together and accomplish tasks they never thought possible. Additionally, the opportunity to interact with other teams in friendly competition helps generate excitement and establish positive relationships.

2. Great team building activity:

Hackathons give employees a fun and rewarding opportunity to get out of their comfort zone. It encourages people to work together towards a common goal while building on each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Employees can also learn new skills that they will be able to use in the future.

3. Employees are pushed out of their comfort zone:

Hackathons encourage employees to work together and build on each other’s strengths. It pushes people out of their comfort zone and allows them the opportunity to try something different.
Hackathons offer a low-risk, cost-effective way for you to promote creativity within your team.

4. Gives employees a chance to enrich their portfolio and grow in their careers:

Hackathons allow employees to try something new and possibly even learn a new skill. It allows them to build on their existing skillset and creates a great addition to anyone’s resume.

5. Employee retention:

Hackathons offer a competitive environment that allows employees to work together and encourage each other. It provides a sense of accomplishment and fun while also giving them something to look forward to.

6. Teams can come up with new products – or even new businesses:

Hackathons are a great way for employees to come up with new ideas that can eventually become successful products or services. For example, Box Brownie, the easy-to-use tool for removing backgrounds from images or enhancing them with professional features; DanceBattle, an innovative app that helps you compete in dancing battles with others using the camera of your phone or laptop, and EchoLoco, the audio map with real-time cues that helps the visually impaired stay safe and move faster in urban areas or crowded places, are all results of internal hackathons.

Hackathons typically last for 24 to 48 hours and bring together large groups of people from the tech community. Competitors compete to build a product or solution that offers a specific benefit, such as improving medical care or connecting communities.

The hackathon hiring process allows companies to scout high potential candidates in the tech world, build relationships with top talent, and provide valuable learning opportunities for potential hires.

Conduct hackathons with HackerEarth

HackerEarth’s online hackathon platform gives companies the opportunity to host internal, corporate, or private hackathons from anywhere in the world.

Following are the benefits of hosting hackathons using HackerEarth:

• It provides a curated experience for your company to get the engagement they need without any bandwidth drain.
• The HackerEarth platform makes it easy to manage your hackathons or hiring challenges from anywhere in the world
• HackerEarth provides a large community of qualified developers who are ready to work with you.
• It lowers your operational costs by ensuring that you are able to meet your hiring goals at a fraction of the cost.
• It helps you build a community of developers and engineers who can become your future employees.

Here are a few HackerEarth Statistics of 2021 alone:

• HackerEarth’s hackathon platform has organized over 134 hackathons creating 6,000+ challenges that helped create 2,000+ prototypes
• More than 60,000 developers registered as participants across the globe
• Over 1,700 companies around the world use HackerEarth’s hiring platform to find their next rockstar developer recruitment.
• 17,000+ tests were created that helped assess 14,00,000+ developers, reducing our clients’ time to hire by half

If you’re not already using hackathons, you may want to consider adding them to your recruiting toolkit. Hackathons can help you identify talented potential employees, engage and hire top performers, and even train new hires. Also, hackathons can be put together quickly and easily with the right tools, such as HackerEarth’s hackathon platform.