For government recruiters, it can be a struggle to create and maintain a pipeline of qualified technical candidates.
You’re facing multiple obstacles, including strict budgets and special merit rules. Not to mention, this talent pool is in such high demand that recruiting from it for any employer can be difficult.
The good news is you can reach qualified tech candidates—without breaking the bank or ignoring any rules. Here are some out-of-the-box ideas to help you reach and find tech talent.
Take advantage of strategic relationships within your community and beyond. In this case, we’re talking about educational institutions and professional associations.
Interested in building a partnership with your local community, state or private college? Start by identifying key technical departments, student clubs, faculty members or alumni from those schools in your area.
Reach out and introduce yourself, provide a list of recent openings and continue to circle back to build strong partnerships. Contact their career center, or create an internship program. The possibilities are endless, and the best part is these relationships don’t have to cost you a thing.
Connect with great technical talent through local or national professional associations. Even if you don’t pay a membership fee, you can easily discover key contributors to the associations (whether from recent articles, press releases etc.). These individuals are a great source for candidates, and can lead to more networking contacts in the future.
If you decide to become a member, attend local meetings to build visibility for yourself and your career opportunities. And lastly, don’t forget to post your jobs to the association’s website if they offer it—this ability helps get your jobs in front of their members.
Investing in digital efforts may be more costly, but the results can pay in dividends! When you choose to improve your digital presence—like updating your consumer site or career site or publishing a recruiting video—you’re creating around-the-clock marketing.
Your consumer site and career site sets the stage for prospective talent—which is why it’s critical to update both on a regular basis. If you haven’t updated either in a while, it could scare off potential tech candidates. Regardless of the great technology you may use internally.
Your updated career site is the perfect place for speaking directly to tech talent. Create content on your site that sells your tech opportunities. Explain each important role, the work environment you provide, and your best benefits to incite more technical candidates to hit apply.
It doesn’t have to be a high production video (although a professionally made one would be worth the investment). Grab your smartphone and take some video testimonials from your current tech team. Record their answers to why your agency is the best place to work. Upload the video to YouTube, send a link with your introductory emails or share it on Facebook.
If you’re interested in learning more about what you can do as a government recruiter, check out our free white paper: Compete with the Private Sector: Government Recruiting that Attracts Tech Talent. In it, we show you how to better sell your opportunities to tech candidates, the alternative channels to reach them, and key strategies that get them to stay.
