How to Recruit in a Hot Market: Four Tips for Recruiting More Top IT Professionals

When it comes to IT recruiting, targeting professionals already working in IT is a no-brainer. But most IT leaders with their “same industry, same job” blinders on don’t realize how vast the audience of IT talent actually is. Forrester’s IT Staffing and Careers analyst Samuel Bright shares four tips for expanding your known universe of experienced IT workers and improving your recruiting effort exponentially.

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How To Recruit in a Hot Market

• Take advantage of your vendors. You’re already working with tons of talented people you might be able to hire on full-time, if only you had incorporated right-to-hire language into your third-party contracts. It may be time to reconsider the “no poaching” stance.

• Get cozier with HR. IT recruiting is only as effective as HR’s understanding of IT’s needs. Communicate expectations, establish recruiting metrics and track results just as you would with a third-party recruiter. (Yes, you should be doing this with third-party recruiters, too.)

• Think like a talent scout. The top quartile of talent is probably part of the passive majority—they’re not looking for new gigs. Take advantage of your own professional networks (CIO groups, alumni chapters and so on) to locate these hidden gems.

• If you love an IT employee, set him free. Uh, yeah, those networking opportunities are a two-way street. Professional peers and alumni buddies aren’t just going to send you their best people for nothing. Smart CIOs help their employees look for advancement elsewhere, when it’s not available internally. And the good karma follows.