Whilst all of this is great, it won’t take long for any IT staff worth their salt to see through the extras if the working environment, kit and work are not up to the desired standard.
Almost all of the IT professionals I speak to are far more interested in things like:
** The work they are doing is interesting and makes a difference. Developers in particular want to build something they can then see the benefit of. Stack Overflow’s annual develop survey found that 37% of people who filled in their survey did not list salary on their list of priorities at all. 32% of them did say they wanted to work on innovate, meaningful projects.
** Flexible Working. In this day and age, with the amount of tools available for remote working and collaboration – think Slack, GitHub, Skype, Google Hangout etc. – there isn’t really an excuse to not offer it. Out of 3,000 UK professionals quizzed by Regus, more than 9 out of 10 respondents wanted flexible working. This isn’t a perk anymore. It is a differentiator. http://bit.ly/2aAWoDr
** Their colleagues. They don’t all have to like drinking on a Friday or taking part in the annual paint ball event. However, great developers want to work with great developers. Let them meet each other at interview, encourage them to talk, share ideas and maybe even do some programming. Why meet two ‘HR Officers’, the MD and the FD when interviewing for a programming job and not the lead developer? Your current tech team may well be your most underutilised recruitment tool. http://bit.ly/2aK1n0p
** Work Life Balance. This is an obvious one but so often over looked in the hiring process. Developers love to code. They don’t however, love to code 12 hours a day and never see their family & friends. 52% of the people Stack Overflow surveyed listed work life balance as one of the most important factors in a new job. Sure, people will need to stay late from time to time but don’t then chastise them for wanting to come in late every so often or leave early to catch a school play or spend some quality time with loved ones! A happy employee is a good employee.
** Kit. Yes beer is good. But a top of the range Mac (or whatever kind of computer they might want) is much, much more important. Some developers like 2 screens, some like 6! What are they going to be sitting on? 8 hours in a chair coding is pretty tough going at the best of times. Investing in a top of the range chair will go some way to appeasing your team. This article does a great job of explaining why they buy Herman Miller chairs for all of their staff: http://bit.ly/2aDo6Oc
Hiring is more competitive than ever with top drawer developers in high demand all over the country. I’ve seen candidates on £34k being offered £45k to move role!
To stand out, don’t shout from the roof tops about how good your coffee is or how many PS4s you have in the games room. Talk about the quality of work your developer’s do, the kit you provide them, the certifications you can offer them and the kind of people they will be working with.
Liam Wilson
