Alert: Your software engineer candidates and tech employees are being hunted

• We’re facing the tech talent shortage in Singapore, which explains we don’t find the right software engineer candidates after months of searching and hunting.
• Great resignation has hit Singapore employers (including us) real hard, that’s why people leave our team.
• We never hire remote software engineers, it is, thus, too risky to try this option.

Companies usually choose to convince themselves that the above are rational enough to explain why they find it hard to hire and retain software engineers in Singapore. Not many dare step out of their comfort zone, acknowledge those are just excuses and face the root causes for their failure in keeping dedicated software engineers stay and finding new placements. However, in return, they are the ones that soon recover with significant improvement in their tech recruitment and retention.

Now let’s tap into the true reasons for software engineer candidates and employees deciding to leave a company and how to overcome this.

Great software engineer candidates tend to assess your company as you assess them

In fact, software engineer candidates just evaluate the company they tend to or are invited to apply to as much as the company does them. You have more than one candidate to proceed with the evaluation rounds, on the other hand, candidates also will not limit their choice to just one employer.

Serious software engineer candidates will study your JD carefully, look up your ex-employees on LinkedIn who had that role and ask what it was like working there before deciding to apply. As you can see, they do the scanning and reference review just like how you source a CV and check their references.

During the assessments, they will gather information to sense your company’s work culture, what their future tech lead and colleagues are like and how matching is your product with their tech skills and preference. Though companies can control which info will be published on their socials and job posts, experiencing the recruitment process gives candidates an opportunity to verify whether what they say about themselves is true.

Both software engineer candidates and employees don’t want to be forced to work in a way they don’t like

Returning to the office may be a moment of joy for some who love to see and be around their colleagues, while can be the trigger for others to switch to employers that let them work from home. According to a study by McKinsey, 29% of people say they are likely to change jobs if their employers require them to work exclusively onsite.

Be aware that preferences in work style differ among individuals. Let the employees and candidates know that your company will support their choice. Whether it is remote work or office-based, they are the ones who decide.

Also, don’t forget you also have software engineer employees to take care of

Recent research warns companies about even their best-committed employees are also being recruited. Yet not a surprise to the tech recruitment industry as talent hunting is more and more aggressive, both active and passive job seekers have been approached more than ever.

To win against competitors, many companies in need of tech talent may end up paying a premium for new hires. Sometimes, the pay is greater than that of his or her peers who have been with the company for a while.

If those situations, it’s advised to analyze new-hire premiums to uncover potentially problematic pay matters that can occur in your organization. This doesn’t mean that all firms need to reverse course and either lower new-hire salaries or raise compensations of established employees. However, acknowledging just how much the gap between average base salaries is within the organization is vital for the sustainability of its talent and rewards programs.

Are the best-performed software engineers being paid their market value? If they fall behind, adjustments may be needed. As retention adjustments are less pricey than replacement hires at premium pay, and employees are the company’s brand ambassadors. Candidates may ask their judgment on your company to decide whether they should apply to your company.

A few things to take away

Thoroughly prepare in every step of your hiring process. Because there’s no better chance to show candidates your company is the amazing workplace that they have been looking for than that.

The thing is, some businesses are indeed the real deals, yet they are not good at delivering their charm to candidates. That happens quite often with small-sized companies. It’s hard to have a strong employer brand from the very beginning. They also are on the stage to prioritize their product development, and thus, resources allocated to other tasks such as building a solid recruitment process constructed by an in-house team are not on their upcoming plans. Does that also speak for your company?

If so, it is advised to shake hands with a tech recruitment firm that can assure you of their expertise in sourcing software engineer candidates. In this way, you can focus on the company’s development without worrying about recruitment marketing, specialized manpower for headhunting and tech candidates’ assessments, etc.

Drop us a message here to explore further how we help Singapore companies like yours hire and manage remote software engineers in Vietnam.