How to Attract First-Rate Candidates — Must-Haves for Companies

Every business owner, manager, HR and recruiter knows that employees are after convenient working conditions and good salaries. However, these are not the only attractive things for people who are considering several offers including yours! Find out if bonuses, free lunches, business trips are still good enticements for IT specialists and if there is something more you should communicate to candidates!

Obvious Perks

We’ll start with things that developers and other employees of IT companies consider must-haves. Such bonuses are no longer a novelty, but a norm for organizations. Check out if you have everything from this list:

1. Competitive salary. This is the first and foremost reason why people work. 🙂 Before hiring a professional, discover an average market salary for this position and if this sum is in line with the candidate’s wishes.
2. Bonuses for achievements, overtime work and other endeavors. These can be not only financial rewards but also extra days off.
3. Paid vacation and sick days are no longer new and are considered commonplace in IT companies. This is logical, as it is an indicator of how important employees are to the organization. Nobody wants to feel like a pawn in someone else’s game.
4. Discounts or paid events. These may be professional conferences, seminars and webinars, educational courses. Companies may compensate the whole sum of the event or only its part, depending on the corporate rules.
5. Healthcare compensation. Medical insurance is not a new perk today, as well as compensation for visiting the gym. They say, a healthy body = a healthy mind!
6. Gifts from the company. Organizations that care about employees’ motivation, give them small useful gifts for work — from a pen and a notebook to a power bank or a backpack with a logo. It’s great to offer such pleasant surprises when welcoming a new employee and thanking them for new accomplishments.
7. Office perks. If you work in the office, yummies in the kitchen — the same must-have as modern powerful working equipment. Also, companies should care about the leisure time of their employees and they often have board games or gaming consoles for people to relax during breaks.
8. Ability to work remotely at least a couple of days per week. After the start of the pandemic, most IT corporations and startups switched to the work-from-home format. Even after the end of strict quarantine restrictions, people are in no hurry to go to the office and prefer companies that do not require to do this every day.
9. Flexible working hours are not surprising, but some organizations haven’t yet introduced this approach. Why? Who knows! For most developers, it’s convenient to choose whether to start work at 8 AM or 11 AM. This perk doesn’t affect productivity!
10. Discounted or free access to the company’s products or services. If your company is developing a mobile app, it would be strange if you asked employees to pay for this app. If you offer services, offer them a discount for your workers.
11. Business trips for management are a real must-have, as this helps your company grow. At the top of this, some companies even welcome their employees’ relocation to other offices in different parts of the world.
12. Team-buildings better take place outside the office. Nurturing the team spirit is possible not only during daily meetings and workdays. Organize fascinating outdoor events, motivate employees with parties and active pastimes together.
13. Paid parental leaves and child-care assistance are great perks for both women and men, as all this contributes to your specialists’ well-being and motivation to work for your company.

Unobvious Attractive Points

Okay, let’s say you’ve already described to a candidate how great your company is and how much you care about your staff. However, they are still hesitating. Shorten the time from the moment of receiving your offer by a candidate to their acceptance — propose them perks that they cannot refuse!

1. The convenience of the recruiting process. It should be short and clear. Both candidates and companies have the same goal – to get work done for money. No one wants to spend a month performing test tasks without any developments.
2. Development plans are a good option to show how candidates and employees can build a career with you. IT people are commonly goal-oriented and this only engages and inspires them. Specialists can grow either to managers or expand their expertise to more areas.
3. Approach to solving problems. Being rational is natural for IT specialists. Chaos at the workplace is a con for every vacancy, so show your candidates how people in your company commonly do this.
4. The ability to influence product decisions. This motivates and inspires. People value directors and managers who not only listen to them but hear!
5. Absence of bureaucracy. Printing dozens of documents to get hired and then difficult tracing all communication paths from the closest manager to the higher ones. A friendly atmosphere is much more appreciated among IT specialists, where issues are resolved quickly and on the spot.
6. The ability to lead subprojects in the company. Even if a person is not being hired for a managerial position, offer them responsibility. It contributes to their development as an expert and motivation.
7. Mentorship is a beneficial initiative that allows both mentors and mentees to grow. Both parties are already working for you and why not use this chance? Mentors will support and monitor less-experienced workers, and mentees will get on track faster.

Conclusion

It’s obvious that a classic package (medical insurance, the number of sick leaves and vacation days, good salary, and so on) is a must-have for every modern IT company. However, people are not here for convenient conditions and money. They love great challenges, they value victorious moments of solving difficult problems, they need to develop and implement new knowledge and skills in practice. Once you offer this awesome mix of convenience and growth opportunities, candidates will more likely prefer your company rather than competitors.