This document provides guidance for attracting technical talent. It discusses trends in the technology industry such as data-driven recruiting and the importance of employer branding. The primary challenges for tech businesses looking to hire are a lack of relevant experience and difficulty targeting the right candidates. Developers are motivated by pride in their work, innovation, and accountability. When attracting candidates, companies should provide informative messages and feedback. Budgeting for recruitment requires planning for expenses like job boards, recruiters' salaries, and employer branding events. The key is understanding what motivates technical talent and providing the best possible candidate experience.

1. HOWTOATTRACT
TECHTALENT
The report is for in-house recruiters and HR professionals working
within technology businesses. Alternatively, if you are looking to hire
a technology professional in any other industry, this report will be
useful to you.
JPeople

2. About J People………………………………………………….…......2
The technology industry in 2018…………………………….…..…..5
Primary challenges for technology businesses looking to hire......5
Communicating and motivating technical talent……………….......7
Attracting and contacting candidates………………………….……8
The priorities of a developer……………………………….....…...…9
Budgeting for recruitment………………………………….…..…....10
Summary: Your action plan…………………………….….….….…12
Appendix………………………………………………….………..…14
Appendix 1: Tech Occupation Category Growth…………...…….14

3. Aboutjpeople
J People is a team of knowledgeable recruiters and head-hunters for the technology industry
who pride themselves for their honest, positive and well-rounded approach. J People is
committed to providing an exceptional level of service through market-leading processes and
in-depth expertise.
For more than a decade, J People have helped businesses in improving their technical
teams, while providing digital professionals with a wealth of roles applicable to them and
their goals.
Today, J People offers services in more than 10 countries across Europe, providing world
class search and selection techniques including market mapping, candidate pool generation,
headhunting and networking.
Thanks to their large network of contact and extensive database of over 250,000, J People
are confident in their capability to supply candidates that are completely relevant to each cli-
ent’s requirements. So far, they have been entrusted with creating teams in well-known blue
chip companies, through to small start-ups with truly unique company cultures.
Moreinformation
 java-recruitment,com

4. Introduction
This report is aimed at employers who are trying to attract technical or digital talent to their
business – whether that is a solely technical business or in any other industry. The purpose
of this is to clarify the current state of the technology industry, highlighting best practice for
hiring talent, how to build your employer brand, encouraging diversity in the workplace and
how to budget for all of that.
As one of the largest contributors to GDP, the global IT industry surpassed $4.5 trillion last
year and it is set to grow by another 5% in 2018. The maximum prediction is up to 7.2%1
.
The employment market is predicted to see continued growth too with a continuation of
2017’s rate of 2%2
, despite the gig economy having grown to 1.1 million people in the UK
alone. As a result, recruiters and HR teams will have a larger talent pool in some respect;
however, they will have to consider new ways of attracting candidates and changing the
profile of potential applicants in the gig economy.
Appendix 1 shows which job titles you can expect to see more of this year. Remember, an
interesting and relevant job title is the first thing applicants notice. Are your vacancies
tailored to sound as amazing as they possibly can? Obviously without being unrealistic…
44% of technology professionals work in the tech industry.
Otherwise,the majority work in other industry sectors,such
as finance,media,healthcare,orgovernment
1
http://www.cyberstates.org/
2
https://www.comptia.org/resources/it-industry-trends-analysis

5. Thetechnologyindustryin2018
This year is all about data-driven recruiting and getting your marketing team involved with
employer branding. Despite the rise in these trends, only 22% of organisations are currently
using a talent acquisition platform. Also, 66% of people who recently changed jobs were
aware of the company they joined before applying. Time and budgets are limited – data
helps you make more informed decisions when allocating recruiting resources and
recruitment marketing encourages people to come to you, rather than the opposite way
around.
Other trends that are expected to happen this year are artificial intelligence and a rise in
internal recruitment. Unfortunately, these are only really open to early adopters with budget
to spare on the increased overheads of an internal recruiter.
According to the Tech Nation 2017 report3
, the digital skills shortage is still a concern for
businesses. In fact, 25% described sourcing talent as a ‘major challenge’. That is why we
plan to cover a few of the techniques you can use to attract talent, ideally those that are al-
ready fans of your brand, and ultimately increase your return on investment when it comes to
recruitment.
Primarychallengesfortechnologybusinesseslookingtohire
3
https://technation.techcityuk.com/digital-skills-jobs/digital-skills-shortage/
Lack of relevant experience
Difficulty targeting the right
people
Looking for more pay than we
can offer
Lack of time
Lack of cultural fit
Looking for better package
“We shouldn’t be using scarcity of talent as an excuse when recruitment processes
and candidate experiences are poor. A lot of time we need to get back to the basics
of good recruitment practice.” – Recruitment Director at a high growth tech
start-up

6. In addition to the Tech Nation report, Comptia4
stated the following two factors as
contributors to a more challenging hiring landscape: finding employees with the correct soft
skills and competition with other firms.
As businesses lean towards creating a learning environment, many seek less experienced
candidates who have excellent communicative skills and emotional intelligence. Doing this
has been proven to help in retaining employees. As soft skills are more difficult to train and
are often less financially valued, employers can pay lower salaries for recent graduates per
say while investing in developing hard technical skills. This makes the employee feel valued,
creates a highly motivated culture, and creates a more caring relationship between
employee and employer – similar to a teacher/student relationship.
To combat the risk of candidates opting for a job with a competitor, a good place to start
would be researching what they offer their employees. Examine their job descriptions, the
type of activities listed, skills required, and anything that may add to their salary and benefits
package.
Every few years you should determine exactly what your competitors are paying and adjust
your compensation plan accordingly. You can do this informally by asking interviewees what
their compensation plan is, or even ask existing employees who have recently made the
move. Alternatively, you could hire an outside consulting firm to benchmark your plan
against others and advise on how to adjust it.
4
https://www.comptia.org/resources/it-industry-trends-analysis
“Tech recruitment is difficult for us, not only in Silicon
Valley but also on the East Coast of the US as well.
There is a very competitive market everywhere for
top end developers. Junior developers are slightly
easier to find but can still be brand sensitive about
who they want to join.” – Director of Technical
Recruiting at a global business

7. Communicatingandmotivatingtechnicaltalent
Unsurprisingly, research has blown away the preconceptions that developers are most
attracted to start-ups and prefer to work at night. CAST, an organisation working to drive
social chance in technology, listed pride in craftsmanship, innovation and accountability for
poor code as their main motivators5
.
Twenty percent of developers state their prime motivator is the ability to have pride in their
work. The continual rise of open source technology has provoked many developers to place
importance on contributing to the community. In fact, many companies allow time for their
employees to work on their own projects as a result. This is evidenced by 56% of
respondents reporting that they felt Java and JavaScript were the most important languages
to learn in the next five years, along with research indicating that one-third of all developers
contribute to open source projects in their spare time6
.
Following closely behind as a driver of motivation is an innovative environment. With
Google’s unlimited snacks, sleeping pods in the office and a workplace that is bursting with
innovation, most believe that every developer’s ideal job is there. However, only 60% would
work for the internet giant. Meanwhile, 9% of potential candidates think the ideal workplace
is a start-up and 11% would opt for FinTech companies.
The decline in developers choosing big tech firms stems from the rapid advance of emerging
technologies that start-ups more often invest in. Here is a full list of jobs to watch:
5
http://www.information-age.com/motivates-todays-top-talent-technology-123468405/
6
https://www.stackoverflowbusiness.com/hubfs/content/2017_Global_Developer_Hiring_Landscape.pdf?t=1518104307898
Machinelearning
trainer/
scientist
AIDeveloper
IndustrialIoT
engineer
Geospatialand
mapping
specialist
Blockchains
developer/
engineer
Digitaldesigner
Cybersecurity
architect
Penetration
tester
Userexperience
(UX)designer
Solutions
architect
Fullstack
developer
Technology
projectmanager
Robotics
engineer
Droneoperator/
technician

8. Attractingandcontactingcandidates
One of the consistent messages from companies who are successful in hiring new talent is
the importance of following best practice in recruitment. Over the previous decade,
recruitment and HR technology has altered the whole process for many employers;
although, naturally this has diminished the recruitment experience for many candidates.
Paired with the scarcity of talent, many have resorted to aggressive recruitment processes
and rely on automation much more than what would be considered ideal. Despite AI, chat
bots and machine learning helping HR, it also lends itself to data-driven recruitment and
improved talent analytics.
As seen from many disgruntled applicants on LinkedIn, HR and hiring professionals
sometimes fail to provide sufficient feedback post-interview. Paying attention to the
candidate’s thoughts and implementing a way of providing regular feedback is critical to
ensuring success.
Before feedback can be given, of course somebody needs to contact the potential candidate
about the opportunity. As two-thirds of developers class as ‘passive candidates’, it’s
important for employers to reach that audience in the right way. Recent research that helped
to form Stack Overflow’s Developer Hiring Landscape suggested “traditional” communication
methods are far from becoming invalid7
and the majority of respondents ranked email as the
best overall.
Contacting your potential star hire is only the first hurdle. Without an informative message,
developers will not read past the first few sentences. If the message isn’t aligned to the
reader’s goals, you cannot expect a significant amount of responses.
7
https://www.stackoverflowbusiness.com/blog/the-2017-global-developer-hiring-landscape
Email
Stack Overflow
LinkedIn
Telephone
Twitter
Facebook
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Great
Tolerate
Hate
I don't have an account
“You lose candidates very quickly if you don’t take care of them and feed back to
them regularly. Having a transparent, respectful process is important.” – Head of
Talent Acquisition for major European gaming company

9. Theprioritiesofadeveloper
To automatically entice technology professionals, Stack
Overflow’s yearly developer survey8
highlighted the following
areas that are considered priorities when looking for a job:
Workingoninnovativeprojectsthatwillmakeimpact
Give your candidates a clear picture of the projects they will
work on and available opportunities to see the results of that.
Greatcolleagues
You should be proud of your current technical team, and as a
result, don’t be shy about introducing them to the candidates
that you’re trying to recruit.
Work-lifebalance
48% of developers in 2017 listed work-life balance as one of
the most important aspects of a potential job opportunity. This
can include flexible, remote working and home offices.
Companyculture
Often, tech recruiters incorrectly assume developers only want
to work for companies that offer incredible perks. However,
company culture, office environment and creating meaningful
work actually scored higher.
One way of improving company culture is encouraging
diversity. Reorganise teams and break down barriers: many
tech organisations place workers into silos based on function
or skillset. However, network engineers are distinct from QA,
likewise with system administration. In this format, each group
of skills contributes expertise to different phases of each
project. As a result, this breeds a rigid, sequential process that
is trapped in one speed (often slow). In addition, it encourages
“over the wall” engineering, which is where team members
work on tasks that are immediate without knowing about
downstream tasks, teams, or the ultimate objectives of the
project. Reorganising employees into multi-skill, results-
oriented teams allows them to work more holistically and
deliver the desired outcomes to a higher level, as well as
encouraging idea sharing and allowing personalities to mix.
8
https://www.stackoverflowbusiness.com/talent/resources/global-developer-hiring-landscape-2017
“Candidates do
respond to LinkedIn
and email requests
if they are informed,
articulate and
appropriate.
Candidates also
respond to well
written job board
advertising. Focus
on what is fit for
purpose for your
organisation – there
are no silver
bullets.” –
Recruitment
Director at a high
growth tech start-
up

10. Budgetingforrecruitment
Even for experienced HR professionals, it can be challenging to create, track, and manage a
recruitment budget. Of course there are things like online recruiting and applicant tracking
systems, but there are also a lot of things that could make or break your budget for hiring
developers. Without a solid plan, you may be left in no better position by the end of the year.
Here are the critical items that you should be tracking if you aren’t already:
Promotionalmaterialsandadvertisingformeetupsandhackathons
Think about branded t-shirts, print-outs, pens and signage.
Jobboards
Analyse previous expenses on job boards and draw conclusions on which are most useful.
How much do you spend on Indeed, LinkedIn and Stack Overflow? Consider what the ROI is
for job boards in specific industries and use your estimated hires to calculate future fees.
Recruiters’salaries
This refers to any in-house recruiters.
As an industry standard, you need one
in-house recruiter for every 50 hires
planned in a year. External recruiters
can be a sensible choice for executives
and harder-to-fill positions such as
technology.
Employerbranding
From attending events to creating material (e.g. company videos and social media), this
includes all funds you need to establish an employer brand. Track how many quality
candidates you meet at each recruiting event, so you can plan to attend the most effective
ones in future.
Professionaldevelopmentandtrainingforin-housetechnicalrecruiters
Some budgets might have enough room for recruiters to attend large conferences or other
events. Other budgets may allow for online courses and reading materials. There is no such
thing as right or wrong when it comes to professional development, unless you completely
fail to include it.
Providingbreakfastorlunchforcandidates
Lunch interviews have become a common stage of the interview process because it
provides the opportunity to meet future colleagues in a relaxed setting. Determine the cost
per meal that you’re comfortable with and multiply by the number of candidates who tend to
meet that stage.

11. Travelexpensesforinterviewers
Plenty of developer interviews will take place at your headquarters or via phone, although
there are times when your interviewers will need to travel off-site. It could be at a hackathon,
an informal meeting, or a quick chat in a coffee shop. This type of interview could seem low-
cost but they can quickly add up. To avoid running out of budget, leave room for allowing
your recruiters to get around the city.
Anypartnershipswithuniversitiesorinstitutions
Think of the candidates you sources from graduate career fairs or campus events in
previous years. How many of them were worthwhile?
Discretionaryandunexpectedexpenses
No matter how much planning you do, there will always be unexpected costs to cover. For
example, your careers website may need an upgrade, you may need to upgrade on your
preferred online recruitment platforms, plus more often than not you can just underestimate
how much things cost. It is always best to leave yourself a cushion to minimise the risk of
spending your whole budget before the year has ended.
Recruitingtechnology
This will include monthly or annual software fees that you may need to pay e.g. video
interviewing tools, coding assessments, blind hiring software, background check services
and applicant tracking systems (ATS).
Separateemployerbrands
If you need to break down misconceptions, creating a separate employer brand may be part
of your hiring strategy. Remember to include all of the expected costs e.g. a website, social
media and other forms of marketing.
Costsinvolvedinimprovinghiring
For example, you may consider adding pre-employment screening, testing fees, or establish
an employee referral programme.

12. Summary:Youractionplan
Whoisyouraudience?
 Make sure you understand the real motivators of the right talent for your business
and find out the best ways to communicate with them.
 Nearly half of technology professionals aren’t working in the technology industry.
Instead you will find them in sectors such as finance, media, healthcare, or gov-
ernment. The largest occupational category in which is the Software Developers
(Applications).
 Sourcing, referrals, social networks and face to face interaction have proved to
be the most effective for internal recruiters in the technology industry.
Howtomakeitthebestpossibleexperience
 Treat your candidate like a customer and ensure there is the best level of service
possible. Implement a transparent, use-friendly recruitment process to ensure
success.
 Professionals working in the digital space tend to look to their network for rec-
ommendations and advice when they are moving roles. The quality of your re-
cruitment process can be a make or break factor in terms of your overall credibil-
ity.
 Invest in training your internal recruiters so that they have strong knowledge of
the market and a good understanding of your business’ technical needs.
Recruitmentstrategy
 The most effective in-house recruiters understand the growth trajectory of their
company and upcoming work to prioritise finding the right talent in advance.
Employerbranding
 Traditional employers have a competitive advantage over start-ups in terms of
stability, scale and ability to invest in employer branding. It is important to under-
stand these advantages effectively. However, start-ups have the benefit of being
able to take risks with their branding.
 One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to employer branding. Additionally busi-
nesses who are most successful at recruiting technology talent have carefully
crafted a separate digital employer brand to break down unhelpful perceptions or
properly sell themselves. This doesn’t mean creating a new name and branding.
For example, PwC’s careers page is full of employee stories, photos, bios, Q&A
sessions, and career timelines. They give an idea of the type of people who work
there, and show how PwC can meet their long-term career needs – an example
of great employer branding.

13. Diversity
 One million tech jobs are required by 2020 and gender diversity is still very low in
comparison to other industries. To fulfil the demand, how we recruit and retain
talent in the industry needs to be reviewed and overhauled.
 Many great organisations and initiatives are focusing on helping to get more fe-
males into tech. initiatives such as TechTalent Charter could be something that
you may consider joining as a symbol of collective change.
 Diversity doesn’t just apply to ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender. Research
shows that more diverse organisation and product teams in terms of skillset are
more commercially successful.
Alternativeapproaches
 Developing existing talent is often a highly successful way of retaining employ-
ees, and portrays your company as having a learning culture – something that
many developers look for. Make sure you have the right talent management
strategies in place.
 Remote working offers the opportunity to engage with a wider talent pool than
you would have access to otherwise.
 Partner with coding academies and training initiatives to engage highly motivated
people seeking a career change.

14. Appendix
https://www.linkedin.com/in/spattenden/
Appendix1:TechOccupationCategoryGrowth
Tech Occupation Categories 2017 Jobs YoY % Change
Software Developers, Applications 898,689 3.4%
IT Support Specialists 733,210 2.2%
Systems Analysts / Systems Engineers 649,390 2.0%
Software Developers, Systems 454,735 2.4%
Computer and Information Systems
Managers
405,314 2.7%
Network and Computer Systems
Administrators
403,294 1.3%
Computer Programmers 341,388 0.1%
Other (IT project mgr., software QA,
gaming etc.)
322,810 2.3%
Web Developers 264,238 2.8%
Network Support Specialists 224,159 1.5%
Network Architects 170,700 1.3%
Computer, ATM, and Office Machine
Repairers
159,733 -1.1%
Database Administrators 122,162 1.7%
Cybersecurity Analysts 101,051 2.5%
Computer Hardware Engineers 75,439 1.1%
Information / Data Research Scientists 28,716 2.0%
TOTAL 5,355,029 2.1%