Up your appeal
Take these steps to target your recruitment message.
 
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Are you a dot-com poised to go public and make your employees millions, or are you a tried-and-true brick-and-mortar company with real stock options and the promise of a stable career path? Either way, the message you send to prospective IT candidates can make the difference between snagging top-notch staffers and losing them to competing firms.
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"You need to know the candidate and meet him where he's at," says Tom Franklin, a vice president at Concours Group, an IT consulting firm in Kingwood, Texas. "These are sophisticated people. You need to realize that and target your message accordingly."
1. Know your assets
The first step, Franklin says, is assessing your department and overall company in an effort to underscore positives that can act as lures.
"If you are a dot-com, then you let candidates know you expect considerable capital growth," he says. "But if you are a brick-and-mortar company that has been around a long time, you can offer stability. You have to critically look at what you've got and present it favorably in the eyes of the candidate."
Sometimes, the lure can be as simple as geography. "I have known organizations that have attracted candidates simply because of where they are," Franklin says. "For a candidate who values access to the outdoors, a location in New Hampshire will override a similar position in New York, even if it comes with a lower salary."
What if you're not a dot-com poised to gain millions or a firm situated within minutes of a pristine wilderness? "You have to think it through," Franklin says. "Everyone has something to offer."
"For us, it is the ability to serve and make a difference," says Mollie Anderson, personnel director for the state of Iowa in Des Moines. She says state jobs traditionally entice older workers with the lure of generous retirement benefits. But the Iowa workforce's average age is 44, and in 10 to 15 years, the state will experience monumental turnover as these workers retire. As a consequence, Iowa has kicked off an all-out publicity campaign to recruit younger workers.
"You have to play up your strengths," she says. "We find younger workers look to government jobs as an opportunity to do some public good. And that's what we sell."
2. Cater to demographics
Another way to target your message is to offer multiple value propositions, depending on the demographics of the candidate.
"A 20-year-old will not be swayed by the 401(k) plan," says Linda Pittenger, president and CEO of People3, an IT consultancy in Somerset, N.J. "But a fortysomething may be." She recommends designing propositions to appeal to three lifecycle-type segments: twentysomethings and new hires; midcareerists; and those with high skill sets.
"Depending on who you're dealing with, the message will differ," she says. For a 22-year-old, you might underscore perks like a free home computer. "For candidates with families, you might stress benefits and stability. But you need to have these value propositions worked out ahead of time in order to appeal to the candidate."
3. Underscore the challenge
Perhaps more important than putting a good face on the company is emphasizing the challenge of the position, especially for IT workers.
"People in the job hunt say that even though they work for a great company, the pay is good and they like everything else, the work just isn't very interesting," Franklin says. "These candidates are motivated by the challenge."
Conversely, less-challenging positions can be tailored to meet a candidate's growth potential. "One company we work with interviewed a top-flight technician for a position working with legacy technology," Franklin says. "The salary was good, but not great, and the options were OK, but not outstanding. Where they hooked the person was in telling him it would be an opportunity to learn the operational side of the business and become more of a business manager." That factor opened the candidate to the interview process, and he was eventually hired.
4. Highlight opportunities
Depth and breadth of an opportunity is also a good sales factor. According to Janet Pennel, project director in the Information Technology Human Resources Department with Sears, Roebuck and Co. in Hoffman Estates, Ill., internal diversity is a strong selling point to candidates.
"We offer candidates the opportunity to pursue four different career tracks within IT, all of which can lead to top positions within the organization," she says. "Before, if you weren't interested in managing people, it was difficult to succeed here within IT. Now people who are primarily interested in technology can succeed just as readily, and that is a good hook."
5. Know your candidate
The bottom line is to get to know your candidates well enough to push their hot buttons.
"We had an organization that was offering a leadership position, but in a fairly mundane technology segment," Franklin says. "They found out that the candidate had an elderly mother who was seriously ill, and the one thing they could offer him was no travel. That turned the whole situation around from him wanting to hang up the phone to agreeing to talk. It made all the difference."
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