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IT Consulting | Outsourcing | Vietnam

Are you considering recruiting IT talents? There are various benefits to getting the top IT talents, as they are necessary for your company’s success. However, there are also numerous IT recruitment challenges to factor into your decision.

This may leave you wondering - What are the challenges behind recruitment for IT talents? Let's explore now in this article which factors you should be aware of and expect if you choose to recruit internally. 



## General IT Recruitment Challenges

You can reap various benefits from internal IT recruitment, including the fact that the chosen candidate is knowledgeable about the current working environment and company values. It lessens the worry of knowing whether or not they are a cultural fit and also lessens the onboarding time when it comes to introducing team members.

However, you can also hire talents outside of your company, such as an external applicant, an IT partner, or freelancer. Regardless of who you want to hire, there are challenges to keep in mind. Knowing about these challenges can prevent them from happening and delay the recruitment process in the long run:

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### **Candidate Expectations**

One mistake quite a few companies commit is the failure to communicate everything related to the open position. This may lead to the wrong expectations on the candidate’s end, resulting in misunderstandings during the onboarding process. 

Another issue comes from candidates having different expectations, particularly when it comes to the salary. Remember, IT talents have highly coveted skills and experience. As such, a higher salary range is expected.

If you don’t offer a suitable salary range, you may not receive as many quality applicants. That’s why it’s worth consulting an expert to determine the appropriate salary and benefits to provide for the chosen IT talent. 

### **Turnover**

Many companies struggle with high turnover rates among their IT department because of the competition and high demand for IT talents. As such, it can get tricky retaining IT talents with headhunters trying to poach them with better benefits, salaries, and opportunities. 

### **Remote Work**

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the work system entirely, with people now performing their duties at home. Remote work is now here to stay, and this can pose recruitment challenges. 

For instance, a candidate may expect to work remotely when your open position requires them to work in-office. Other recruitment challenges are also related to remote recruitment. While remote recruitment poses benefits such as a larger candidate pool and more flexibility, there are challenges such as having to screen more candidates, the differing time zones, and evaluating skills without meeting face-to-face. 


### **Looking in the Wrong Areas**

Unless you’re well-versed in the IT market, you might not know about the many different IT specialist forums, discussion groups, and networking platforms where top IT talents visit. 

If you’ve stuck to the usual social media and recruiting platforms like LinkedIn, it’s worth branching out, because the applicant you’re looking for might be on a whole other platform! You can discover the different platforms available by speaking with your IT department and other tech candidates to know the best places to connect with the top talents. 

## **Internal IT Recruitment Challenges**

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If you’re not familiar with what internal recruitment consists of, it refers to the process of filling open positions using existing employees within the company. Instead of publicly announcing job openings and having external candidates apply, internal recruitment will include recruiting within the existing employee pool. 

Recruiting isn’t an easy task, especially when looking for top IT talents within your company. It will take a lot of effort to find and hire the perfect candidate for the job.

To help make things easier on your end, take note of the following internal IT recruitment challenges:

### **Limited Pool of Candidates**

Because you are recruiting within your company, the available and interested pool of candidates will be smaller compared to if you were to recruit externally. While you don’t need to worry about an unresponsive candidate when recruiting externally, you’ll need to worry about finding employees interested in the job offer first!

This is crucial to look into especially when there is a need for more software developers within your company already. With a limited pool of candidates, you may end up taking even more time looking for the perfect employee for the role. 

### **Additional Role to Fill**

An important thing to factor into when going through an internal recruitment process is determining who will be in charge of taking over the hired candidate’s current position. 

Unless you are undergoing a team restructuring and removing the need to backfill, hiring an existing employee will lead to the need to fill another position, which negates the purpose of internal recruitment.

Leaving gaps in the team can disrupt business operations until you find a new hire for the second position. Filling in such gaps will waste time and money, which is something to consider before hiring within your pool of candidates. 

### **Risk of Company Strife**

Another notable challenge of recruiting top IT talents within your company is the risk of upsetting other team members or employees. Here are a few cases that may occur:

One employee might be preferred and hired for the new position over another, which may lead to additional challenges such as jealousy, disappointment, and lower engagement at work. It may even increase your employee turnover rate.
You may promote someone who has technical and soft skills but is not able to manage well. While the internal candidate has the advantage of knowing the existing team, not having enough managerial training or experience can lead to team mismanagement or retention challenges.
Some companies may promote the most hardworking employees or those who have worked with them for a long time. However, not all employees are fit or aspire to advance to leadership roles. Unfair promotions won’t only affect the feelings among team members, but hiring the wrong candidate out of loyalty can also negatively affect the business in the long run.

### **Filling in Skill Gaps**

External candidates or IT partners likely have the necessary skills and technical knowledge to fill the role. However, when hiring internally, the chosen candidate may need additional training or mentorship to achieve the level of proficiency expected.

This isn’t a huge challenge or disadvantage, but it will be a time-consuming process, especially with the rapid technological changes to adhere to. If you need to hire someone who can start working as soon as possible without the need for additional training, then you may want to consider hiring externally or looking for an IT partner.

### **Lack of Innovation**

One benefit that hiring external candidates brings is how they can bring in fresh ideas and new perspectives on current business practices and challenges. After all, the breath of fresh air can help move the company forward.

This is compared to promoting internally, which leads to a lack of new perspectives. As such, business agility and innovation are hindered.

Other than a lack of innovation, your company also runs the risk of a lack of diversity. If your company is largely homogenous and you would like to improve your diversity efforts, then internal recruitment can keep you from doing so.

Employees will likely be too comfortable with current work practices and routines since their systems have worked before. This is an issue when you’re dealing with an open leadership position. When hiring externally or choosing an IT partner, you can open up the company to new practices and feedback to improve operations.

### **Competition in the IT Industry**

As mentioned, there is a growing demand for IT talent, regardless of business size. It continues to increase quicker than the number of IT talents available! 

As such, competition against top companies is one of the significant challenges when recruiting top IT talents internally or externally. 

Top companies may represent themselves better on the market and provide more employee benefits, motivating skilled and niche candidates to accept competing offers rather than continue working for your company. 

Even when you’re hiring internally, you need to put more effort into standing out from other companies to attract your IT talents. While there are various things you can do to attract top talent, it can take some time and effort. That’s why choosing an IT partner is a possible option, which removes the need to look good in the competition. 

### **Long Interview Process**

Another challenge that all industries are at risk of facing is the long interview process. Some companies in the IT industry may conduct over five interview rounds, which scares your candidates off. 

Note that even when hiring internally, your chosen candidates may also be considering similar job openings at other companies. The added hassle of going through multiple interviews or waiting for an update on their application can cause them to lose interest.

### **Unrealistic Expectations**

One of the top internal IT recruitment challenges companies face is setting unrealistic expectations or workloads among IT talents. Setting such high expectations can discourage potential candidates within your company from applying.

This becomes a bigger problem when you set high standards without providing adequate salaries and benefits. This will discourage your employees from applying for the job opening, and it can even encourage them to seek greener pastures.

### **Lack of Internal IT Recruiters**

Just because you’re hiring within your company doesn’t mean your candidates shouldn’t be screened by the right recruiters.

However, your Human Resources Department may not be aware of the complex requirements of IT positions, which can lead to hiring the wrong person for the job.

That is where internal tech recruiters come in, who have the experience to identify which candidate is suitable for the role. You will also need to take on a more active role when hiring and selecting candidates within your company, though this poses another challenge: You spend more time in the hiring process rather than working on the project.

### **Risk of Negative Power Structures**

When you are considering only internal candidates, you might be overlooking talented external candidates with relevant skills and new ideas. 

Besides that, there may be resentment and tension among team members who feel passed over for growth opportunities, increasing the risk of a toxic work environment and decreasing employee morale. 

Moreover, internal recruiting for IT positions can reinforce existing hierarchies within the company, limiting opportunities for underrepresented individuals to advance in their careers. 

Internal recruitment can even affect the promoted employee, who may feel pressure to prove themselves fit for the job. They will also need to face possible criticism from colleagues who may doubt their skills, which discourages them from accepting the promotion in the first place. Transparency and clear communication about the recruitment process and criteria are a must to prevent people from crying about unfairness or favoritism. 

## Summing It Up

Hopefully, these IT recruitment challenges have informed you of what to watch out for if you plan to fill a new role with candidates within your company. If you believe that internal recruitment isn’t the best option for your job opening, consider hiring an IT partner instead.

A knowledgeable IT partner like us at Innomize will be ready with a team of top IT talents ready to provide the services you need. Upon discussion of your projects and expectations, we’ll be prepared to start reaching your goals, may it be for software development, cloud services, IT consulting, or more.

Give us a call today and let’s discuss your goals.

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