How to build your software development team
If your software development team needs strengthening, you’ll need to make sure you’re offering a fantastic opportunity to attract the best talent.
The Confederation of British Industry reports that two thirds of companies are struggling to fill their digital roles, at a cost of £63bn. This is bad news for British business, which will be severely limited without employees with the necessary skills and experience being hired to fill these vacancies. Companies with a strong digital workforce attract investment and can stand up to competitors. Software development is at the heart of the digital skills that are in demand. If you’re struggling to build your software development team, follow this advice to help you fill and strengthen your digital workforce.
Flexible arrangements
Modern-day workers value the importance of a healthy work-life balance, and software development is certainly a job that team members can carry out from a remote location. This can be somewhat of a stumbling block to companies who place a lot of emphasis on building a collaborative workforce who can work closely in a static office location, brainstorming ideas and bouncing off each other. If you’re struggling to imagine how remote working would suit your business environment, why not trial it out with a couple of short-term contract developers who are based overseas? Make sure you embrace the experience by providing the latest collaborative technology such as project management tools and communication apps, so that your software team members still feel united and work together towards your common goals.
Multi-skilled problem solvers
It can be tempting to want to build a team made up of individual experts in various programming specialisms. Perhaps you want to recruit a C++ expert, or a Ruby engineer? If you’re struggling to find someone of the calibre that you’re looking for, then it could be beneficial to hire someone with multiple specialisms. This will help to attract software developers who don’t want to be forever stuck wearing their C++ hat, and realise that there is scope within the role to explore different skills.
Interview technique
Some recruiters make the error of relying too much on a textbook format when interviewing candidates to fill their software development vacancy. Not only does this approach give the impression to the candidate that your company is a little stale and old-fashioned, but it also doesn’t give you the opportunity to see what the candidate is like in a real-life scenario. So long as the candidate can prove they have the necessary qualifications, why not test them in a more dynamic way? Get the white board out and present them with a custom software development challenge that needs solving. By watching their thoughts unfold and assessing how they’re able to communicate these ideas, this is an excellent indication of how they would fare in the day-to-day role you’re offering to them.
Offering incentives
When experienced software developers can have their pick of tech jobs, they’ll be looking at more than just the role and the accompanying salary when working out who they’d like to work for. Trendy tech businesses are excellent at creating a company culture that their staff are proud to be a part of. From working towards charitable goals, and providing plenty of flexibility in terms of hours, to more fun selling points such as providing table tennis tables in communal areas, have a think about how best to incentivise your employees to want to remain loyal to your company once they’ve been recruited.
For your software development team to grow and remain strong, you’ll need to work towards improving your recruitment policy so that you’re attracting and retaining top-calibre candidates.
