A lot has changed about the hiring market for engineers of late, so it’s worth asking: What factors truly stand out in the minds of candidates? And what steps can you take to ensure you’re dialing in on top talent today? It all starts with the following three key differentiators.
1. workforce analytics
While emerging tech continues to dramatically transform the day-to-day work responsibilities of HR professionals, nowhere is that more clearly — or critically — true than in the case of today’s most advanced workforce analytics.
Why?
Because these solutions give HR pros and organizational leaders alike an unprecedentedly granular level of end-to-end visibility into their workforces. As a result, your team can make fact-based decisions grounded in the latest and most accurate real-time data.
All of which sounds pretty good, right?
Well, the only way to do it comprehensively, while also anticipating the future needs of your engineering workforce, is to have today’s best-in-class analytics solutions in place.
Pro tip: Experienced staffing partners can empower you with workforce analytics solutions — and help take how you approach engineering recruitment to the next level.
2. flexibility
When you need to rapidly ramp up your workforce solutions in order to deliver on new or emerging business priorities, the ask probably isn’t going to come with a whole lot of advance notice. That’s why flexibility, particularly when it comes to workforce models, is so key.
Let’s make this a little bit more concrete with an example: Imagine that you need to, say, quickly adapt to a fluctuating talent market. In that case, given those market conditions, your company might be best served by rolling out a temporary workforce model — one in which freelance workers, not permanent staff, occupy key engineering positions.
It’s a good example of why you really need to have a plan in place that takes into account temporary, temp-to-hire and permanent staff members, with clearly delineated steps governing everything from recruiting to hiring, onboarding and more. That’s what flexibility looks like in practice.
Pro tip: Do you have an advanced payroll system? If not, you should probably get one — or consider asking an experienced strategic partner to manage the end-to-end system for you. At Randstad, for example, we offer large-scale MSP solutions covering all aspects of workforce management. Get in touch with us to learn more.
3. succession planning
If and when key team members walk away, who exactly is going to step in to replace them? Equally critical is the related question of whether the replacement will be permanent or temporary — and how you’ll make that decision.
Unfortunately, far too many organizations fail to get ahead of the planning process on mission-critical hiring questions like the above. But the reality, of course, is that your organization needs to be prepared for what’s next. And having the right plan in place will help prepare your company for what is (regrettably) an inevitable fact of doing business, while also ensuring that your team never has to scramble when surprising vacancies emerge in the future.
The good news is that, with robust professional development plans in place, institutional knowledge-sharing across roles and other measures in place, succession planning should never be a serious issue. In fact, effective succession planning means you’ll likely be able to promote internally — as opposed to taking your chances on a dynamic, candidate-oriented and increasingly challenging external job market.
Whatever the case may be, planning out your succession pipeline across all worksites, and clearly understanding the key skills required for each role, is going to make the transition process a lot easier.
Pro tip: Consult a recruitment agency before you go looking for engineering candidates on job boards. Ask for advice on the roles you need and what options are available. Plus, don’t hesitate to leverage their wealth of resources to help you quickly land top talent. Doing so can shorten the end-to-end process from months to weeks — or even days.
next steps
Robust workforce analytics, demonstrable flexibility and rigorous succession planning are three hallmarks of best-in-class engineering companies today, as we have seen. However, if your organization continues to struggle with hiring and talent-related pain points, you should know that you don’t have to go it alone. Reach out to Randstad right now to learn all of the different ways we can deliver value.
For more in-depth insights — including best practices to help you succeed — download our comprehensive guide to the engineering hiring market today: