How to stand out in a competitive job market and attract tech talent

In an ever-evolving, employee-first marketplace, discover how to attract and hire top tech candidates and help your business stand out over your competition.

With remote working providing a new range of possibilities, the race to secure the best tech talent is a real concern for many UK businesses.

So, how can you solve this? 🤔

Here are a few crucial pointers that will enhance your company’s reputation and ensure you position yourself as a desirable employer for the crème de la crème of tech talent.

How to attract tech candidates to your company

Attracting top tech talent to your company relies on knowing what candidates want from employers and offering something different to your competitors, starting with the following points:

Strike the work-life balance ⚖️

Work-life balance is the priority for over 2/3 of UK employees, trumping salary and employee benefits. Some features you can introduce to improve work-life balance within your company include:

• Flexible working
• Alternative working days
• Healthy incentives
• Encouraging holidays
• Providing regular breaks

The “quiet-quitting” trend that went viral in 2022 feels like a result of the disproportion in work-life balance experienced by 52% of UK staff.

So, to attract top tech talent to your business, you must consider an attractive work-life balance that serves the employee’s interests over the company.

Only the employee can boost your employer brand 📣

Despite employer branding containing “employer” within the title, it’s really the employee experience which contributes to this concept. In the power shift between employer and employee, employer branding has become the number one recruitment priority for companies worldwide by optimising the entirety of the employee experience.

Developing a strong employer brand requires connecting your business values, workforce strategy and company culture with your brand. Successful employer branding naturally showcases the company to candidates due to employee engagement, experience, and reputation, feeding the overall brand identity.

Start by aligning your workforce’s values with your business values, and you will take a step closer to achieving a successful employer brand.

Become an all-inclusive company 🌍

Talent has no specific demographic. It exists in all corners of society and has the potential to produce a positive impact on company culture, performance, and reputation.

58% of professionals look for diversity and inclusion policies when researching the background of potential employers. Diversity doesn’t just look good to onlookers, it fuels innovation, creativity, and productivity. Especially in the tech industry, where there is a skills shortage and lack of diversity.

Strong foundations support culture and environment 😄

As an employer, you’re responsible for creating a culture and environment within your workplace.

Part of building a happy culture is offering your staff the ideal environment. But ideal environments change from person to person. While tech extroverts may enjoy coming into the office to socialise, more introverted souls may prefer remote working.

So, the key is to understand your staff individually. Each person has motivations and expectations. If served, you can retain and engage existing talent and turn them into advocates to help attract others.

Plus, culture and environment go beyond office hours. Social events can help boost morale and embed deeper connections for the staff with the company.

How to stand out in a competitive job market

Now we’ve shared the latest candidate needs, it’s time to explain how you can make your existing job roles stand out from crowd!

Optimise the job ad and add personality ✍️

When looking to attract tech talent, the best way to be direct is to focus on the job ad itself. It’s your opportunity to showcase your company while appealing to the best tech candidates on the market.

But to do this, you must ensure your job ad is optimised for SEO purposes, so it ranks high on job boards and Google while remaining interesting enough to capture your candidate’s attention.

Be sure to include keywords relevant to your candidate’s search and your ideal location. Place these keywords throughout the content and keep your headers clear and concise, especially the job title.

You can use the body of the job ad to showcase your brand’s personality and values. Be honest and authentic so your candidate gets a unique impression of what makes your company different from your competitors.

Dare to be different 🦸

Ultimately, to stand out in a competitive market, you need to offer something different from the rest. Ask yourself, what can your company do which is different from your competition and serves the wants and needs of your candidates?

For example, to improve diversity, online challenger bank Monzo introduced a scheme allowing their staff to opt out of bank holiday entitlement and exchange it for another day of their choosing. Considering most UK bank holidays are based on religious or royal festivities, not every culture celebrates such dates and may choose to celebrate a different religious date instead.

This is just one example of how a business has taken an alternative approach to improve its overall employer brand. Use this as inspiration and think of ways to give employees what they want. Remember, it’s the small things that make a big difference.

Let us help you find the best tech candidates

At Revoco, we specialise in helping our clients find the best tech candidates on the market. Whether it’s product and delivery, software engineering or IT, our bespoke tools enhance the hiring process while capturing industry insights on the way.

For more information, get in touch today.