These Companies Are Winning The War For Tech Talent

• A report by Hired, an AI-driven hiring marketplace, revealed the companies that have successfully engaged top talent in 2021. 
• Companies that want to navigate ‘the great resignation’ can gain inspiration from these companies’ handbooks. 
• Here are 4 keys to improve your chances of hiring talent, including personalizing your outreach and revamping compensation plans to match your employees’ skills and value. 

Hired, an AI-driven hiring marketplace, recently published its 2021 List of Top Employers Winning Tech Talent report. The report evaluates companies on value-driven metrics based on data from thousands of interactions occurring daily between recruiters and candidates on Hired’s marketplace.  

Hired evaluated employers on three core pillars:  

1. Equity 

How many underrepresented candidates companies interviewed and hired. The top performing companies are significantly above average metrics and prioritize diversity and equity throughout their hiring process.   

•  The top companies made 23% of interview requests to underrepresented candidates on average, compared to the overall average (among all companies evaluated) of 14%.  
• The listed companies also made 35% of job offers to underrepresented candidates on average, compared to the overall average of 12%.   

2. Efficiency  

The report found that the top companies hire faster, receive more responses from candidates due to tailored outreach, and have higher interview and final offer acceptance rates compared to overall averages.   

• The average time to hire among the top companies is 36 days, compared to the overall average of 40 days. 
• The listed companies are highly successful in their candidate outreach, seeing an astounding 84% response rate on average from talent. 
• Job offer acceptance rates from candidates are also higher than the overall average for the top companies, with 79% of candidates accepting on average.

3. Transparency 

The top-ranking companies demonstrated the least variation in the salary amounts shared with candidates for a given position. 

• Among the top companies, salaries indicated during interviews only deviated from expected, average salaries for a given role by 11%, compared to the overall average of 16%. This means the highest-performing companies are more transparent, sharing the same or similar salary with candidates they interview for the same position.   

According to Hired, the companies highlighted in the report were able to successfully navigate 2021 and the great resignation, while engaging top tech talent.  

Top Companies Attracting Tech Talent in the US & UK 

Top 3 US Small Businesses 

1. Octane 
2. Devetry 
3. DataGrail 

Top 3 US Medium Businesses 

1. Sittercity 
2. BarkBox 
3. Ripple 

Top 3 US Enterprise Businesses 

1. Insider, Inc.  
2. Maximus 
3. Nielsen 

Top 3 UK Small Businesses 

1. Thriva
2. SeedLegals
3. Cutover

Top 3 US Medium Businesses 

1. Smart Pension 
2. Zopa 
3. Compare the Market

Top 3 US Enterprise Businesses 

1. Tesco 
2. Babylon 
3. Discovery Inc

How to Attract Top Tech Talent? 

Companies that want to attract top tech talent can get inspiration from the above companies’ handbooks.  

Hired recommends the following 4 actions to help companies revamp their hiring process and improve their chances of attracting top talent. 

4 steps to improve hiring 

1. Conduct proactive, tailored candidate outreach 

Hired recommends that organizations find and engage with talent even if there are no open positions available. They key element, however, is personalization.  

Companies need to strategically personalize their outreach and categorize candidates to fill up their talent pipeline.  

Personalization can go a long way in ensuring a candidate responds to outreach efforts. Additional best practices include: 

• Emphasize candidate skills and experience 
• Highlight your company’s value proposition 
• Describe or showcase your team culture 
• End with a clear call to action. 

2. Prioritize employer branding to attract your ideal candidates 

“To attract employees and to retain them, it’s necessary to make and keep the brand promise every day. Communicate your benefits, perks, values, vision, and most importantly culture.” 

When doing outreach to candidates, companies need to make it easy for potential employees to get a sense of what it might be to work there.  

3. Strengthen the ‘Post-Employee Experience’ 

“Don’t neglect the critical period after an employee leaves, as employee enthusiasm for their former employer and engagement post-exit is key to a strong employer brand.” 

Strategies to strengthen the post-employee experience include: 

• Coach managers and teams, as necessary, to support departures and respond positively. 
• Build and engage with an active employee alumni network through dedicated LinkedIn groups or other platforms.  
• Turn former employees into loyal brand ambassadors.  
• Envision your company as an educator and a ‘mini-university’ for employees. 

4. Revamp compensation plans around employees’ skills and value 

To avoid turnover and attract top talent that supports your business growth, adjust your compensation packages to align with more flexible and remote work models.  

This means determining pay and compensation packages based on skills and experience vs geographic location. Hired also recommends companies be transparent about salary bands across different roles and seniority levels.  

To read Hired’s full report, click here.