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In the last few months, employers have witnessed challenges accessing and recruiting the right skills into the business. This notion is supported by Totaljobs’ Hiring Trends Index which found that 29% of UK businesses expected skills shortages to impact their success in the final quarter of 2021.
LandTech
One firm that has experienced this challenge is the property development firm LandTech. Last year, the firm uncovered growth plans of up to 100 members across 2021 (including 30-60 software engineers). This is said to be a tough skills category to find.
Aside from experiencing a scarcity of tech talent, another challenge that has come into play is maintaining employer-led values whilst striving to increase the company headcount.
Both of these issues are challenges that will be keenly felt by most HR practitioners which is why looking at examples of how organisations have tackled these is key.
To find out more about the biggest recruitment challenges LandTech has faced, and how HR is tackling them head on, HR Grapevine exclusively sat down with Sarah Wasif, Head of People. Read on below.
HRGV: What is the biggest challenge you have experienced trying to hire new tech developers?
Wasif: “Due to global talent shortages in the tech sector, we are currently in a candidate-led market. Companies are facing an imbalance in salary expectations with experience and proficiency in the talent pools, along with managing candidate expectations for fast-tracked management progression with minimal technical or behaviour proficiency in leading and directing teams.
“Additionally, by their very nature, engineers seek to work within modern and advanced tech stack and engineers principles such as Typescript, Node and AWS, and so companies need to consistently create and maintain these to attract and engage high-performing candidates.
“Furthermore, we are seeing that engineers want to deeply connect with the mission in as much as product they are working towards. There is a desire for an authentic alignment to sense of purpose by solving meaningful problems that help people – more than just being part of a well-functioning team.
“There is also pressure to shorten and expedite interview processes and stages to compete with multiple processes that candidates are in at any one time. This can cause hiring managers to burn out when also competing with internal day-to-day business-critical roadmap priorities.”
HRGV: How is HR meeting this challenge?
Wasif: “We have an effective process to shortening and expediting assessment stages, through interview panel consultations and training. There is a robust competency-based framework into the assessment process to evaluate behaviour competencies, as well as technical ones, particularly for management track roles.
“We have worked to establish and embed our employer brand with a clear sense of mission, purpose and culture-focused organisation. We have done this through living and breathing our values in all that we do, from the ‘Empower’ mentality: to solve a very real and complex social problem that LandTech was founded on, the honesty and ethical code we operate in ‘Open’, to the decency and care we treat each other with in ‘Home’.
“We invest sincerely and authentically towards team-building, (such as additional holidays for team members who go away together) to having all new starters get to know the founders in a personal and approachable way without rigid and hierarchal barriers. We are also currently expanding our candidate pools to outside the UK and will continue to seek out incredible people to join our fast-expanding PropTech company.”
HRGV: How are you going about instilling the entrepreneur-led company values while increasing the company headcount?
“By not compromising at the hiring stage – i.e. scouting for values and characteristics during interview. By being very hands on – thorough onboarding that includes meeting with co-founders and chief people officer.
“Furthermore, by making our Global Citizenship Competency a key requirement at hiring, performance reviews and progression within the company, we continue to build and maintain an operational culture of harmony, decency and integrity that that competency is defined by.”
HRGV: What would your advice to other employers be who are facing similar challenges?
“Don't compromise standards. You mis-hire now, you pay far more greatly later.
Manage expectations honestly, openly and empathically.
Grow your upcoming leaders before they are placed into those roles. It’s much harder once are already promoted and are expected to perform to a new standard – you set them and their team up to fail if you don't nurture and prepare them well
Paint a picture of what success looks like down the line in terms of the company, and in terms of the candidate’s personal journey. That vision is absolutely crucial from the outset.”
