So... let's start off this blog by saying it is 2022 and the great resignation is sadly all too real. Organizations from every industry are struggling to retain some of their top talent. This has been a real issue for companies, especially those with large software development teams.

We wanted to highlight some of the ways that our team has been able to recruit, attract and retain some of the best software creators on the planet! Is there a magic button that you can click to do this all in one day... sadly the answer is no. However, there are several steps that companies can put in place to improve their team’s success at winning the recruiting battle. We sat down with Mike Young, the Director of Recruiting at Jahnel Group, to find out how he and his team are connecting and hiring some of the most talented people on the job market.

Read on to get a better understanding of what Jahnel Group does to recruit (and onboard!) in this hectic market—and grab tips & tricks to help your recruiting team achieve similar success.

Having a Strong Tone at the Top

Mike could not stress enough how important it is to have leaders who both preach and practice strong morals for a team. I mean who wants to work for an organization where the leaders are not trusted and preach empty promises? At Jahnel Group, the executive team truly drives home a servant-leader philosophy. Serving the team allows for the ability to flip the script and put employees in the driver's seat, enabling a culture where everyone is on an even playing field.

Mike saw this with his own eyes when the leaders at Jahnel Group gave him the opportunity to transition from a role as a Project Manager to starting the Recruiting Team at Jahnel Group.

Job candidates want to know what a business stands for before applying to a role. Businesses that show they care and provide a stimulating environment have a competitive advantage in the battle for top talent. Layer in the fact that the Jahnel Group Recruiting Team sees the positive atmosphere with their own eyes makes their recruiting pitch genuine. Sadly there are so many organizations that aren't living up to the values and practices employees want to see and are unable (or unwilling) to communicate what they are doing authentically and effectively.

Every Person Brought On Is So Important

Mike mentioned how his favorite thing about Jahnel Group is the people. The team today is over 130 strong and has people who help inspire each other day-to-day. This aspect is crucial to the overall success of the company. Who wants to work at a company that has a bunch of jerks... or even one jerk. One bad apple can spoil the fun for the rest of the group. It is on the recruiting team to have a strong vetting process to ensure every new person that is brought on to the team, aside from being talented, should be someone who will be easy to work with and get along with. Do they need to buy into all of the cultural events that a company may have? No, but they need to be someone that the rest of the team is comfortable working with.

Being Transparent

Jahnel Group specifically acts as a software consulting firm, working with clients in a variety of ways. Though a lot of Jahnel Group’s work involves software development that you could see at any organization, Mike mentioned how the roles that Jahnel Group employees play can be different than a standard software development position. In the services industry, there is a ton of change that employees need to be ready for. The changing of teams, clients, tech stacks, and domains requires a different mindset. Mike explained how important it is to be transparent with a potential recruit. The last thing either party wants is for a recruit to join an organization and have it be a place where they do not feel comfortable. This is why it is so important to be upfront about the position. Mike mentioned that there can be great engineers out there who do not want to work for a services-based organization and he would prefer to remove them from the recruiting process earlier on rather than paint a story on a position that may not be true.

Transparency is key! The recruiting process can be a long and drawn out process for so many candidates out there. It is important for both the recruiter and the candidate to not waste anyone’s time. Recruiting teams need to have processes and hiring criteria in place to help identify any red flags which signal a candidate is not a good fit for the role. The earlier in the process you identify these red flags, the faster you can let a candidate know they are not a good fit, which can help both parties move on and find the best option for them.

Making Your Company Stand Out

With this race for talent, if an engineer is interviewing with your firm, it is likely that they are interviewing elsewhere. Outside of great leadership and a strong team, what else makes your company stand out? Mike talks through a unique practice that Jahnel Group has put in place called “Side Hustle”. So what is Side Hustle? Well, Jahnel Group describes it as “a way of allowing employees to kick ass and pile up fat stacks of cash”. Essentially, Side Hustle is an opportunity to sign up for extra work on top of your base project allocation which you will be compensated for. If a Jahnel Group employee wants to grow in a certain area and explore tech that they aren't working on, they can volunteer and get placed on a project in that area.

Mike mentioned that Side Hustle is completely flexible and again puts the power in the team members' hands. So what does this have to do with recruiting? As we mentioned earlier, it always helps if an organization can have something that can make them stand out. This job market is crazy and your organization needs to do everything it can to help add to your “Why?”. Mike and his team love to explain Side Hustle to new recruits to add even more value to the “Why Jahnel Group?” question that candidates ask.

Cut Through The Noise

Let’s face it – there are a lot of recruiters out there. I mean, a lot. You might think there are a lot of possible burrito combinations at Chipotle (over 78,000 according to Chiptole themselves), but that is nothing compared to the number of recruiters there are. So, amongst all this noise, how do you make yourself stand out from the crowd? Mike reviewed how much time his team researches candidates to make sure that their message is super personalized and stands out. Jahnel Group will do everything in its power to prove that they are the real deal and the best landing spot for candidates. Mike went as far to say that he recently bought a gift off of a candidate’s wedding registry. This may sound ridiculous to some, but the point is to show how different his team is.

Once recruiters get these candidates in the interview process, they may think that their job is done. Sadly this market is so crazy that some candidates may be out interviewing at 10+ other places. Jahnel Group takes a different approach to their interview process and uses it as a tool to show how different their team is. They do not want a candidate to have the classic mindset of feeling tested and having to prove something to the employer, but rather showing them why Jahnel Group is a good fit for them. The Jahnel Group team uses their interview process to build a candidate’s trust with their organization. Throughout this exercise, Mike and his team are always working to build a candidate’s desire to work at Jahnel Group so that once they finally hire a recruit they are motivated to hit the ground running

Conclusion

The current job market has created one of the most difficult times for companies to recruit quality candidates. Organizations need to do everything they can to create a workplace that will attract and retain talented candidates.

If you’re interested in learning more about how to create a recruiting machine at your own organization, feel free to reach out to our team. Our Recruiting Team is more than happy to give you actionable tips, tricks, and takeaways to transform your business.