When you find yourself in a leadership position, you often find yourself isolated and without guidance on your specific, tech pain points. The people you can collaborate with to find a solution are often at another tech company sitting in a similar isolated seat or at your competitor not sharing insights with you.
This is why we started Leaders in Tech. We've been driving Leaders in Tech meetups for a few years to break isolation cells and bring people together. One of the most common topics raised by our Engineering Leaders is of course, HIRING!
When Bastian Buch, founder of Mentoring Club, and I, Susi Krieg, met recently, I asked him, “What's the number one challenge on the minds of engineering leaders?” His reply?
"Winning the right software talent for their team."
The two of us found expert panelists in this space and focused specifically on the role of the Engineering Leader within the hiring process, what you can do, and how to win the hiring game!
Below are the top takeaways from the discussion:
Top Tips for Engineering Hiring Managers:
Own the process
The hiring manager owns the efforts to translate what it means to work for the company and within their team. This is hypercritical for the candidate experience. After all, hiring managers are in charge of delivering on business challenges and should be just as involved in building the team that gets them there as they are in leading the projects.
Get involved
Hiring managers should always be part of the early stages of the recruitment process! Why? These first touch points are the start of a trusting collaboration. You get to set the pace and outline expectations to help the candidate evaluate if they want to work for the company and you as their leader. It shows you value the candidate and their future on your team! It's a two-way street, appreciate their time!
Collaborate with your departments
An open line of communication and collaboration between talent recruiters and hiring managers is needed. What helps? Screen calls together to really understand what the team needs and give each other feedback.
Partner with your talent department of recruiters. This team is here to keep you sharp on items like learning how to write non-biased adverts, coaching you to check in with your team to see if they would actually want to apply to a job advertisement like that and train you on ways to attract a diverse population. A wide range of perspectives will make your team, products, and service stronger. They can also help with interview training! Who is interviewing and how do you make sure each candidate has a similar experience?
Be a social hero
Lead with your voice on social media or be a social hero as some would say! You represent your team, use your platform to show what you do and how you do it to attract future teammates. People care about what you do and are more selective than ever when choosing an employer. With high stakes, it takes a high level of transparency and authenticity to win the talent pool. Make it easy for them to find out what it’s like to work on your team and your projects!
Hire mindset over skillset
Skills can be acquired quite easily in our industry, but a mindset is very challenging to change. Hire for behaviours and mindsets that improve the quality of your existing team. Find your missing puzzle pieces.
How do you evaluate a candidate's mindset? Ask for situations from the past, why they went the direction they chose, and what drove them to go on that path.
Involve people from the team, evaluate the candidate from different angles and perspectives to minimise bias. Be clear on your expectations of the role to clearly qualify interest and ability.
Watch the full panel discussion here.
Want to get involved with our future community events with Leaders in Tech? Get in touch with me: [email protected].