Recruiting technical engineers proves to be quite a difficult task. These positions require highly skilled people with years of quality experience, which they expect to be paid well for. Although many organisations are ready and willing to hire a great technical engineer and provide good benefits, they have been largely unsuccessful.
Finding job placement for engineers is a complicated process that often leads to disappointment for the recruiter, the candidate, and the hiring organisation. Whether the position doesn’t meet an individual’s salary expectations, the interview process is too complex or for some other reason. As a result, tech companies struggle to connect with available talent.
Luckily, hope is not lost. Understanding the challenges of recruiting ‘top tech talent’ will empower organisations and recruiters to adjust their hiring processes and onboard excellent engineers.
5 Challenges of Hiring Engineers
1. Shortage of Talent
According to the Institution of Engineering and Technology, half of the engineering companies experience difficulties with a lack of skills available in the external labour market, and 71% experience an internal skills gap because of engineering or technical skills. Simply put, new engineering recruits do not have the experience or skills that most tech organisations require.Furthermore, many employers compete against tech giants and desirable boutique-style engineering firms. The medium-sized enterprises that do not have a billion-dollar name or a small, laid-back work environment are often overlooked by top talent. Tech engineers are in high demand, and excellent ones can see multiple attractive offers per week. This makes the decision process complicated for the candidate and competitive for the organisations.
2. Lengthy Hiring Process
Engineering positions typically take around two months to fill – longer than any other industry. Recruiters have a hard time finding qualified candidates and must conduct multiple rounds of interviews when they do find a good candidate.Technical engineering positions are advanced, which means organisations need to be sure the candidate has the experience and skills necessary for the job. This usually means they have to interview with multiple department heads over the spans of a few weeks to months.
Candidates with multiple offers may stop the interview process before it’s complete because they want to accept a position elsewhere. Hiring a great candidate is quite literally a race against time. Organisations must act quickly before a competitor snags someone midway through the interview process.
Finally, lengthy hiring processes also cost organisations a considerable amount of time and money. Not only do they have to pay recruiters, but they must take time out of their schedules to interview, review, and discuss with other leaders. Drawing out the interview process can create a significant amount of loss for any company, especially if it doesn’t end in a new hire.
3. Inadequate Salary and Benefits
Experienced tech engineers expect their salary and benefits to meet their skill level. As such, many organisations – especially small ones and start-ups – have a hard time meeting these expectations. One solution could be to hire engineers for entry-level positions, but that means you will get entry-level skills. This could be detrimental to tech companies that are looking to position themselves as industry leaders.Of course, salary isn’t the only thing engineers are looking for. They also want good benefits for themselves and their families, a respectful work environment, and opportunities for advancement. Job benefits in addition to salary will be considered as tech engineers want to work for companies that will provide overall job satisfaction.
Over-negotiating salary with a great candidate might send the message that you’re more worried about profitability than hiring the right team of people. Instead of focusing on the finances, pay close attention to how a candidate will help take your organisation where you want it to go. This will show that you value them as a person and employee more than you worry about paying them a large salary.
4. Highly Specialised Qualifications
It’s known that technical engineering is a specialised position, and organisations require highly skilled workers. However, overcomplicating job descriptions to attract a particular type of candidate can turn away even the most talented engineers. In addition, it might communicate that the position put unrealistic standards on their employees, which is not attractive to any candidate – especially well-established engineers who have families and need a healthy work-life balance.When writing job descriptions, consider only the skills that are absolutely necessary for the job and keep your language as simple as possible. For example, many candidates have over a decade of experience but haven’t sought specific certifications despite being qualified. Is the certificate required for the job? Or simply the skills that the certification affirms?
5. Refusing Hiring Assistance
Many organisations think they need to DIY their hiring process to save money. However, this can lead to bleeding funds and time. Executives and managers already have full schedules without the task of recruiting top talent. Adding more to the “to-do” list not only overwhelms their schedule, but it doesn’t give them enough time to find the right person for the job. Furthermore, this can lead to panic-hiring someone to putting it off and going without for too long. In any case, DIY hiring is often inefficient and unsuccessful.Staffing agencies with dedicated tech teams is an excellent solution to this issue. You can offload the recruitment process to an organisation that will utilise its global talent pool to find the best candidate for your organisation. These highly skilled, dedicated tech teams often come at a lower cost than local engineers, have exceptional skills, and can offer 24/7 service.
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