Recruiter Q&A: How Growing Organizations Can Build Their Tech Teams with Top Talent

The U.S. tech job market has been volatile lately. Even still, the competition for best-in-class technology talent remains high. This presents additional challenges for businesses which are looking to grow their footprint, but don’t have a well-known employer brand to help differentiate themselves from the competition.

Even if organizations are able to hire the best talent, retention is proving to be an additional hurdle. Our recent report, Talent Trends: The Invisible Revolution, uncovered that 9 in 10 people who started a new job within the last year are open to new opportunities.

So, how can they fill out their teams with top talent, especially if they have to do so in short order?

Recently, Erica Albanese — a Managing Consultant at Michael Page — told us what it takes to quickly build an organization’s tech team from the ground up.

Here is what she had to say on the topic:

You recently worked with a client who wanted to build out their entire tech team from scratch. That is a significant task. Can you explain the client’s need?

Absolutely. So, this client had just acquired another business and needed to set up an IT team to assist with the transition of technology from one business to the other. They also needed to set up an IT structure to support the new U.S. business going forward. This meant that they needed a brand-new team, and they wanted to have it in place within the year.

That’s not easy in this market. How did the partnership begin, and how did you start your search?

The client had looked at a few different recruitment companies before deciding to partner with us. They found us to be true specialists in technology recruitment, as we could provide support through our knowledge of the market, salary benchmarking, and our strong network of candidates. They considered our insights to be eye-opening as they helped them to better understand our market.

Additionally, a strong vetting process was very important to this client because of the timeline and speed required, and we were confident that we could facilitate that need. For all of these reasons, they signed on with us.

Then, before we started approaching candidates, we made sure that we fully understood the client’s values and culture that they were trying to build. Specifically, they were seeking professionals who could fit within their dynamic organization to drive their IT agenda forward smoothly. This helped us to be confident that we were passing along the right people for them, which enabled us to expedite the process.

Which roles did you focus on to start?

They needed to hire a plethora of roles, ranging from junior to more senior leadership positions, including a VP of IT. They needed candidates with retail or hospitality backgrounds with an understanding of data, IT Operations, and project delivery.

This was another reason they decided to partner with us, in face. We’re a one-stop-shop enabling them to hire across tech verticals and at different seniority levels.”

So, they needed many tech professionals, each with a very specific skillset was needed in addition to the culture fit. That’s becoming more and more necessary in our industry. What was it that made this search successful, given how niche the brief was and the fact that tech is still candidate-short?

Yes, finding the right talent was a challenge, but one I was confident that we could find a solution for. It came down to our expansive network and our excellent database, as well as our strong vetting process. We also leveraged our strong brand in the tech job market and conducted benchmarking exercises for each of the roles. We were confident that the candidates we did pass along to our client would fit their needs, and so that cut down the timeline.

There were no disappointments or instances of someone looking good on paper, but not interviewing well with our client, because we had the methodology to vet those options for them.

All along the way, we made an effort to streamline the process by communicating effectively and keeping all parties actively engaged in the process.

Then, once the client identified the right candidates to make offers to, we helped them to ensure that those offers were compelling.

Retaining great talent can be just as difficult as hiring it these days. Do you know what the client is doing from a retention standpoint? Have you given them any advice or insights?

Our team has been having so many discussions about the fact that clear career development is one of the key drivers of retention, and this client agrees with us. They enable their staff to learn new skills and understand the latest technologies.

They also foster a company culture that is open, honest, transparent, and entrepreneurial, which I think appeals to a lot of talent in the tech field.

Additionally, our client focuses on team building and mental health, offers relocation opportunities and support, and ensures that their teams understand their direct impact on the growth of the organization. This helps them to stay invested and engaged.”

This is just one example of how our Michael Page Technology team takes a tailored, consultative approach to each search in order to help our clients identify, hire, and retain top talent in the field.

To learn more about how our expert consultants facilitate successful recruitment processes, please browse our Case Studies demonstrating how we’ve delivered for clients across different industries. You can also request a call back to discuss your particular hiring needs with us.

Watch on demand: How SMEs can grow their tech teams