Developer Shortage Leads Employers to Rethink Technology Recruiting

Heavy demand for software developers is leading companies to evolve their approach to recruiting and hiring so they can fill the roles they deem critical.

“We’re truly entering an era where it’s less ‘who you know’ and more ‘what you know,’” said Amanda Richardson, CEO of the technical assessment platform CoderPad. “Hiring based on skills instead of factors like college name or the candidate’s geographic location will bring stronger, more diverse talent to the table.”

Recruiters understand they have to adapt their approach in a market like today’s, where the candidate has the advantage, CoderPad and the training platform CodinGame found in their fifth annual Tech Hiring Survey. Their top priority, cited by 41% of respondents, is to ensure a positive experience for applicants. That’s followed by talent retention (38%) and expanding the talent pool (35%).

More than half of recruiters (53%) will have more budget to use as they go after software developers in 2022. Indeed, 35% said they plan to hire more than 50 developers in this year, up from 28% last year.

There’s also a significant uptick in mass recruitment, or hiring for more than 200 developers, the survey found. The percentage of recruiters hiring 201-500 developers more than doubled from 2.9% in 2021 to 6.7% in 2022. And, the number of recruiters hiring more than 500 developers increased by 50%, from 4.9% last year to 8.2% in 2022.

Hunting for Talent

Not surprisingly, nearly half of recruiters, 47%, said their number one challenge in hiring developers is finding qualified candidates.

With that in mind, recruiters are increasingly flexible with their approach as they try to navigate a tight labor market that shows little sign of opening up. For example, 57% are open to removing the CV from the recruitment process, the survey found. The percentage hiring developers from non-academic backgrounds almost doubled, from 23% to 39%. That will open the talent pool, the survey said, since 40% of developer respondents didn’t learn to code at engineering school or university.

Bias and Diversity

Nearly two-thirds, or 65%, of recruiters believe that bias is an issue in technical recruitment. To counter it, 42% use skill-based hiring assessments as their leading strategy to improve diversity. That’s followed by implementing equal pay (32%), proactively sourcing diverse candidates (29%), implementing strict anti-harassment policies (28%) and increasing awareness of unconscious bias and/or training (28%).

By Mark Feffer

Mark Feffer is executive editor of RecruitingDaily and the HCM Technology Report. He’s written for TechTarget, HR Magazine, SHRM, Dice Insights, TLNT.com and TalentCulture, as well as Dow Jones, Bloomberg and Staffing Industry Analysts. He likes schnauzers, sailing and Kentucky-distilled beverages.