Why all your vacancies will never be filled

Sometimes it is not the recruiters’ fault that vacancies stay open for a long time. It is also useless to condemn tech candidates for their thoroughness and unwillingness to change jobs. The problem of perpetually open positions is often the strategy and global approach to recruiting in a company.

Stas Shihov, CEO at ITExpert, helped us to understand how to optimize the hiring process. During over 6 years in recruiting and 490 closed vacancies, he has helped clients solve different problems in hiring. According to our observations, if a position is not filled in the first 1-1.5 months, it will most likely stay open for another half a year. Below we describe some of the reasons that influence this.

Wrong organization of the recruiting process

We met IT companies with an average job closing time of 255 days, and they saw no problem with that. Others suggested 5-6 stages of interviews to select specialists. We believe it is unnecessary to specify why the review process at such companies is often protracted and the vacancies are open for more than a year.

For hiring in IT, this approach is fundamentally wrong. Here, applicants are “cold” by default. Most often, they will only be interested in your vacancy if the offer is truly interesting (for example, with a modern tech stack) or with a high salary. Recruiters sustain long-term negotiations to convince candidates that their position is worthwhile. If then they are offered a 6-step selection process and a test task for a few days, don’t be offended when he declines.

At the same time, if the first candidates start accepting offers from other companies while you are still thinking about the decision, it may not be possible to compare the specialists with each other. You will have to hire those who stayed or stretch the process even further. It is necessary to take into account the talent competition not to face this problem.

Ignoring the restrictions of the employee market

Managers often expect to get roughly the same number of CVs each week (recruiters work the same amount of time, right?). And they can be understood. You always want to talk to as many candidates as possible, assess the market, and select the best within the desired budget. In this case, expectations on the market do not correspond to reality and that’s why.

If you apply all of the position’s requirements, the restrictions of the market become apparent. There are vacancies for which a maximum of 200 candidates can be selected in the whole Ukraine (for example, in the case of Pixi-vacancies for the gaming field). At the same time, 80% of specialists do not consider vacancies now. If you do not hire any of the remaining 20% as soon as possible, you will be left alone with an open position.

In addition, the market shows its maximum after 2-3 weeks of intensive search, and then the number of resumes begins to decline rapidly.

At the same time, the quality of resumes is not the same over time.

For some reason, sometimes managers use the first candidates they get just to review. They do not consider them seriously and think if they delve deeper into the market, they will find and invite more talented programmers. Because of this, the first 3-6 resumes are specialists who definitely will not be hired for the position.

But the truth is quite different. Recruiters find the most suitable candidates within 2-4 weeks. After that, their number decreases, and you have to raise the budget or make concessions on technical requirements to show you someone else. The latter, of course, also affects the relevance of specialists.

Constantly changing requirements and absence of understanding what kind of specialist you need

There are situations when companies are not sure what kind of developer they need. Then the first resumes really serve as a kind of tool for the recruiter, hiring manager, or technical specialist in the team to understand each other correctly.

As mentioned earlier, if you do not hire some of the first relevant candidates, their number becomes fewer and fewer over time. As a result, you have to lower the requirements of the position, start working on the market all over again and consider even less relevant professionals. However, their number is also limited, so the process can be repeated several times. That is one way to get into the “time loop” of recruiting and create an eternally open position.

Tight budget for the position

The IT salary market increases by 5-20% per year. Programmers are often lured by better working terms and offered salaries above the market. It is no wonder when relevant candidates ask $500-$1000 above your tight budget.

It is wrong to focus only on salary studies to set your budget. The fact is that they are compiled on the basis of the numbers that exist now on the market. If you poach a candidate from their current place of work, they are likely to ask for a higher salary.

The company’s task is to offer a flexible salary range for the position. While rejecting relevant candidates due to rates, consider what is more expensive for you: paying more to the right specialist or hiring someone “weaker” but in your salary expectations. The more time you spend on hiring, the less chance to employ the necessary developer on a tech stack within your budget.

These are just a few reasons that affect position closing. Listen to the feedback from candidates and recruiters you work with. It will help you understand if you have a problem in hiring and what the true reason is.