Geeks rule the world – that’s why companies like Facebook pay $19 Billion for other companies like WhatsApp. It’s no longer totally embarrassing to be the nerd in high school or college. However, I now wonder – what does this mean for HR professionals? I’m rather taken by surprise with the number of Technical Recruiter positions that are opening up in the West. Many if not most companies whose products revolve around app development are hunting for Technical Recruiters. Right now, Foursquare and Evernote both have the position open and they’re not even the tip of the iceberg.
The Rise of Technical Recruiters
Here’s the challenge – most programmers don’t make strong recruiters. Is it because they see the world as a complex algorithm and are not able to get a feel for the personalities of people they’re interviewing? That probably is an exaggerated version of the truth – but yes, that’s part of the story. Recruiters know that interviewing is a mix of science and art. You have to know the right questions to ask but also let intuition lead you to who will be the best fit in your organization.
How to be an Awesome Technical Recruiter
A Technical Recruiter does everything any recruiter is responsible for. However the difference is in the job title – you have to be a specialist who knows the technologies used by the company you’re hiring for. To stay up-to-date with the fast paced growth of technology, a Technical Recruiter should:
- Spend 20 minutes every day on the latest news surrounding the IT industry and the hottest apps in the market
- Attend hackathons and coding events both for networking and finding talent
- Creatively assess candidates by developing unique recruiting methods such as coding competitions to attract the Millennial Generation which may dominate the position
Why HR Professionals in Asia are being Left Behind
HR in Asia needs a revolution. We no longer should have to discuss why HR plays an important role in decision making or need to convince board members that we deserve a seat at their table. But in reality, we haven’t yet achieved a place where we are able to:
- Step back and really look at the bigger picture
- Take actions on events that are going to happen in the future
- Stop fire-fighting daily issues
The damage that that constant battles which many HR departments have to fight in Asia not only harm the operations of the function but more importantly put HR professionals a step behind their counterparts in the West. It’s almost like the favorite child getting a better education than the others. Only in this case, it’s about careers. Possibly yours.
Whether it’s Technical Recruitment or Strategic HCM, HR is still struggling in Asia to be recognized as a significant decision-making function. It could be due to the dynamic environment we operate in or because HR has simply not matured yet. What steps can we take to push our function ahead? To finally overcome challenges we’ve been seeing for the past 5, even 10 years? Push up your sleeves, get ready for battle and tell me: what are you going to do to finally break the barriers you’ve been facing.
photo credit: Campaign Monitor via photopin cc
I agree with you that understanding the business/ the big picture and interpretting how HR can really add value to the organization is a cyclic process that the HR must never loose sight of. As a recruiter, one must do their homework – reading the JD or the CV alone will not get the job done. Recruiters need to talk to business leaders, spend time understanding the complexities of the job, observe incumbents currently doing similar jobs, understand team dynamics, keep themselves updated on developments in the field, spend religeous time preparing for interviews and not just rely on their gut feel. Recruiters need to improve “their game”. The organization need to have some sort of talent aquisition strategy that is cascaded and understood by the recruiters with full committment.
Thanks for the input Faraz. Think we are on the same wave length here!
Having worked with technology companies for more than 5 years now (which just happened when I realized that no matter what systems and high tech tools we design, they wont work at all if we don’t have right people to run those techs and even cant develop – so jumped into HR). Somehow I observed that HR professionals, specially from different industries other than core IT companies, think they don’t need to be tech savvy , may be just because its not the company business they are in, maybe they are not good at tech stuff or maybe, they have got another tech person in their team who has this headache to deal with. And in dealing with technology as a separate entity or discipline, they forget that technology streak is not a discipline but one of the most effective way of doing things, be it running process, dealing with data, communications, reaching out larger target market, dealing with business analytic or simply hiring for any job role where almost all positions need to deal with some sort of tech tools (more or less). If HR people wont understand the dynamics of technology and how it affects their lives and businesses in every corner , they wont even know how to change or transform the things the way they are being done. I believe strategic actions and behavioral changes cannot be analyzed or dealt with properly, if we don’t have a clear 360 degrees view what impacts it and technology is surely the most important and evident of all the things impacting our lives day in and day out. Like I say Customer Services and Quality Assurance is not department.. its a service and a responsibility which must be done by each role, position / team regardless of title; same is the case with technology. It shouldn’t be about being a Technical Recruiter rather it should be about an effective HR professional who is well versed with all the dynamics, external and internal changes of the businesses within different industries. These days, HR person with knack of technology knowledge is like a ‘Complete package’ , not just for the business but for his/her careers too where picking up tech tools to make our lives easier is a huge benefit – as I have gone through it myself and see the same for other tech HR professionals. I think that’s the main difference that in West, roles have blurring lines and business look for people who can perform well wearing different hats while in East, we are still into compartmentalizing the roles with set boundaries.