There are currently many vacancies in the IT profession and a shortage of qualified people. Therefore, recruitment activities are key for companies that deliver IT projects and capacities. What attracts candidates and how should the corporate recruitment team approach them? Predrag Kulić is a Recruitment Business Partner of TIP IT Solutions. Together with his team, he is in daily contact with IT specialists as they look for the right people for vacant positions according to the needs of the company. With years of experience in the IT capacity market, he knows in detail the needs and requirements of both companies and candidates and has a unique insight into the labour market in the IT segment
Pedja, as his colleagues call him, has been in IT recruitment for over 5 years. He started as an IT Recruiter in a recruitment agency. External recruitment helped him quickly understand the IT job market, which was the best training for him. He has also experienced internal recruitment in various IT companies. So he knows the situation on both sides, which is a crucial advantage for him. He has led teams of up to 10 IT Recruiters.
As he likes to say:
IT Recruitment is a very challenging area, but I still enjoy it because I can meet new people all the time. Most importantly, I am constantly learning IT and HR
Pedja, how do you think the situation in the IT labour market has developed in recent years?
IT recruitment is getting harder and harder. The demand for IT specialists is greater than the supply. We actively address most of our new colleagues ourselves. We are constantly inventing new ways to attract potential candidates. There is currently a lot of competition in the market in the field of IT companies or recruitment agencies, which are literally fighting for every candidate. Currently, the situation is more favourable for the candidates. Unfortunately, sometimes companies do not understand that the candidate chooses them, not the other way around. The point is to make the recruitment process as fast as possible.
Candidates have multiple job offers at once, so it’s hard to make the right decision, which I really don’t envy. Therefore, each candidate should ideally have their own IT Recruiter, with whom they can always consult on what is happening in the market.
Not too long ago, you took over the IT Recruiting department at TIP IT Solutions. What has changed under your leadership?
My first main task was to strengthen the internal recruitment team. Furthermore to improve the functioning of the overall recruitment process from sourcing to onboarding. I am pleased that we have expanded our Recruiting team, which is active in sourcing or using ATS (recruitment SW). We have also improved the prioritisation of orders with the sales department, so everything is clearer, which is reflected in overall productivity and delivery. We always try to give our candidates the best possible impression of the selection process. It often happens that we very quickly receive recommendations from them for other candidates, which I consider the greatest praise for our work.
What are the key things in your company used to successfully find the right candidate?
One of the biggest added values of our recruitment process is the technical scoring of candidates by our CTO Tomáš Topinka. Tom is one of the most experienced people I have had the honor of meeting. His many years of experience in IT have helped us to filter the technical knowledge of candidates well. We also appreciate the fact that it educates us internally, for example, in the field of SDLC (software development lifecycle). Including practical programming demonstrations or various technologies.
We strive to build the loyalty of the people we reach who then join us or have been working with us for a long time by maintaining good relationships, open attitudes, honest communication and fair dealing
What tools have you implemented in your team and which have worked?
The most important tool for our work is the ATS system from Datacruit, which helps us to build our internal database of candidates. As for sourcing, we mainly use several paid licences (e.g. LITE). External and internal referrals work well for us. Also paid CV databases. Last but not least, in cooperation with our CTO, we want to automate routine recruitment and onboarding tasks so that we have more time for other activities
How flexible are you able to provide the people you need to your clients?
It always depends on the specific role required and the technologies or even the soft skills. In any case, we are able to deliver IT specialists within 1-2 weeks. In the case of more complex combinations of technologies, eg (Fullstack Developer, DevOps Engineer or Security Specialists), the time may be slightly longer.
How do you think the pandemic situation has affected IT Recruitment?
The situation in the last two years has significantly accelerated the IT Recruitment. Most companies already routinely organise the first rounds of video call interviews. During the lockdown, remote onboarding was possible at some companies. For the last 2 years, we have experienced a great trend of working from home office or fully remote. For some candidates, this is a strict requirement. However, I think social interaction with the company and colleagues is needed, so I believe the best compromise is a hybrid mode (3 days office / 2 days home office).
The IT market in the Czech Republic is extreme, so companies have to invest more time and money to strengthen internal HR, namely in recruitment, HR marketing, Employer branding, community management, etc., which is also reflected in the demand for quality IT Recruiters. Education is not yet able to generate enough IT specialists to meet the current demand and therefore I see the future, for example, in internal training academies or building specialised technical communities. There are countless IT communities or training companies, but few can offer graduates an internship in the form of a commercial project so that they can easily find employment in the job market after completing courses, training or certificates.
Pedja, under your leadership, the Recruitment team manages to deliver great results. You have a high success in finding new IT specialists and very good feedback from new consultants. Tell us why your recruitment team is nicknamed the star team in the company :-).
It will probably be the overall atmosphere of the company. We respect the human and personal approach, we care about people’s satisfaction. Specialists in IT technology are balancing themselves with gold. We have found many times that overpaying when recruiting does not solve the problem in the long run, because most candidates respect more motivational factors. E.g. what technologies they will use at work, whether they will get the opportunity for further education, they are interested in what the team / boss will be, whether they will have HO / remote, etc. There are also candidates who prefer a lower MD rate just to work on more interesting projects or as much as possible from home office. Last but not least, our fast invoice maturity is also a big motivating factor, because the competition often has this service paid for.
