Tech Elevator: Elevating Recruiting in the Midwest

Tech Elevator: Elevating Recruiting in the Midwest

Tech Elevator: Elevating Recruiting in the Midwest

According to the Harvard Business Review, 35% of employers reported difficulty filling jobs due to lack of available talent. This statistic illustrates the disconnect between the opportunities available and the talent pool.

We recently Terry Warnock, Partnership and Placements Manager at Tech Elevator, who gave us insight as to how they are taking strides to address this issue in the coding and development market. Tech Elevator is an educational institution that focuses on developing skilled coders for real-world employment. Their 14-week innovative model produces trained coders and matches their graduates to the right-fit employer. Here are a few takeaways:

There Is a Disconnect Between the Talent and Opportunities

In addition to the Harvard Business Review report, Tech Elevator found a disconnect between the talent and opportunities as well. They report that there are going to be 1.4 million computing job openings but only 400,000 computer science students by 2020. Tech Elevator is working to bridge that gap in the IT market with their “match-making” approach of pairing their graduates with employers.

One approach they take is similar to speed dating. They have 20+ companies come in to meet with their students. Each student meets with 10-12 companies over a day and a half for 30 minutes, including their top six picks they selected prior to the event. This concept has helped Tech Elevator fulfill their promise of a 120-day job placement guarantee.  

There’s More to Attracting and Retaining Top Talent Than Money

Believe it or not, many top performers do not see compensation as the most important job attribute when evaluating their workplace.

According to the results of the NorthCoast 99 Top Performer Survey, Challenging/Meaningful Work takes the top spot. This aligns with what Tech Elevator has found from their top talent as well. Tech Elevator noted that many of their students build more connections and trust with companies who are transparent about their organization. Their students also tend to gravitate toward companies with training programs specifically related to their field in order to continue their education.

Below are the top ranked workplace attributes top performers value most, in order of importance:

  1. Challenging/Meaningful Work
  2. Compensation
  3. Job Security
  4. Work/Life Benefits
  5. Benefits

Source: 2016 NorthCoast 99 Top Performer Engagement Survey

In order for an employer to stay competitive and remain a desirable workplace for top talent, it is important to align with what top performers want.

Pre-Screening Can Be a Valuable Step in the Hiring Process

Many employers rely on various pre-screening techniques to streamline their hiring processes, and Tech Elevator’s student application process and assessment inherently doubles as a pre-screening process for employers. It’s not easy for a student to get accepted. Their approach, which assesses aptitude in-depth through a series of tests and a behavioral interview, leads to a 5-10% acceptance rate.

Tech Elevator believes its boot camp model produces a more well-rounded kind of candidate whose background and experience are typically quite diverse.

The Wall Street Journal reported that by 2013, 57% of large employers in the U.S. are using pre-screening assessments. They also reported that “Steven Davis, a University of Chicago economist who has studied the gap between job openings and hires, found the annual sum of hires and separations—called labor-market churn—has declined by more than 25% since 2000” meaning they have a lower churn right and are improving on hiring the right people.

Recruiting top talent should not be a reactive approach, but a proactive approach. It’s an always-evolving process. Situations change. People change. Values change. Adapting your business to be resilient to those changes whether it be through pre-screening, improving workplace retention and satisfaction, or finding new recruiting approaches is a sign of a strong organization. Building a process and using the right tools could take your business to the next level.

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