Assessing candidate skills can be a challenging aspect of the recruitment process. Choosing the wrong candidate is very costly indeed. It should be assumed that expenses associated with getting it wrong will account for a large chunk of the hire’s salary – maybe as much as a third of a year’s wages. This includes costs linked to the actual hiring process, but also costs of productivity that fall with the wrong candidate in role.
Testing problem solving and technical skills for IT recruitment can be even harder. Yet blindly trusting that a candidate has the skills they say they do is likely to lead to some poor choices – not everyone can be trusted at their word. So what can be done to ensure that IT and technical staff have the skills they say they do? Here are our five top tips to address this issue:
- Administer technical assessments – if the role requires specific skills to be effective in the position, it is worth including technical assessments as part of the process. There are a multitude of different possibilities such as tests on networking, security, management of databases and assessments on programming languages. These can either be created in-house or purchased externally.
- Utilise coding tests – there are a range of different coding tests out there that can be bought in and customised to suit specific needs. The right coding tests are very effective at understanding skill levels in particular programming languages.
- Include a technical interview in the selection process – IT and technical candidates are likely to at least expect some technical questions in interviews. If a candidate says they have certain skills, it makes sense to ask them questions about those skills. Ask interviewees how they might handle technical challenges related to the role and how they would address problems that they might face on the job
- Consider what we can do for you and use SureSkills IT Consulting & Solutions and Training & Certification – another option is contracting SureSkills for IT Consulting & Solutions. We can offer world-class IT with our highly capable resources and we have more than 20 years of experience leading IT solutions and services. In some cases this might be a better solution than hiring someone in. Alternatively, sometimes a candidate may be the right person for the job but may be missing one or two important skills. If the fit feels right it is likely to be better to go for that person than someone who has all the right skills but the wrong attitude. This being the case, you could consider using SureSkills Training & Certification services to fill the gaps.
- Draw on the expertise of a recruiter – some recruitment agents, like SureSkills specialise in the recruitment and selection of IT and technical staff. Such companies have a wealth of experience and highly tuned skills to assess candidate suitability. Instead of trying to go it alone, one very sound option may be to gain support from a company that does this each and every day.
We excel at technical skill assessment and hiring. Why not get in touch to talk through the options?