How to Win When Recruiting AI Specialists on a Global Scale
Even if your company is regional, you’re competing globally for your best AI Specialist
As everyone knows the tech sector is extremely competitive, which can make it difficult to attract and retain AI specialists.
The biggest problem is that there simply aren’t enough AI specialists to meet demand. This has only accelerated over the past two years as more and more companies began utilizing AI technology, or increased their use of it during the pandemic.
In order to attract qualified candidates, many tech companies have realized that they need to be more flexible in terms of their requirements.
The AI Talent Situation
For example, companies used to expect potential candidates to already have the skills and expertise they need to get the job done. Today, companies are much more willing to work with a potential candidate’s current skill set and teach them what they need to know for the job they’re being hired for. In other words, they are no longer looking for the perfect candidate. Instead they are willing to hire someone who is a good fit, has the aptitude and willingness to learn more, and the company is now more willing to provide additional training.
Tech companies are also offering potential candidates the ability to work remotely and offer much larger salaries than two years ago. In fact, with demand for AI specialists soaring, many tech companies have been offering lucrative salaries to try and entice potential candidates. With so many positions available, AI specialists have also been using this moment in time to their advantage and asking for larger salaries with more benefits.
One of the reasons why the labour market is so hot right now is because many AI specialists and contractors are able to work remotely. As well, due to the pandemic, many companies have gained experience with most or all of their workforce operating remotely. This has increased their flexibility in searching for and accepting contractors not only locally, but across the country and even world wide.
This means the labour market is now global in scale making it even more competitive for tech companies to attract and retain highly skilled specialists.
Help Finding AI Specialists
To help tech companies find the right talent, many have begun turning to recruitment companies specializing in highly skilled contractors to fill the gap. As it can be difficult to know which specialized tech recruiting company is a good fit to find your next AI Specialist, look for these traits:
Strong track record:
A tech recruitment firm is a partner you hire to help solve your hiring problems. Find out their acceptance rate and their fulfillment rate.
Acceptance rate refers to how many of their candidates accept a clients’ contract hiring offer. You want to work with a firm who has a high number, in the 80% region or so. What this will tell you is that after you’ve spent the time interviewing people and finally made an offer, will the candidate accept? You want to be more than 80% sure.
The other KPI to check is the mandate fulfilment rate. This number will tell you of all the open client opportunities a firm has to fill, how many do they actually fill? A number at 70% or higher is what you are looking for. This would indicate that the tech recruitment company took the time to really understand the client’s needs, the workplace, the challenges and rewards of the position and found an ideal candidate to match the client’s needs.
How is the candidate treated?
Recruiting can be very tough. Candidates can be made to feel like they are just a number and some recruiters are more focused on their commissions than on ensuring their candidates are treated well with a major career decision.
Investigate how the recruitment company treats its candidates. Find out if they help with resume updating. Do they take the time to understand the career goals of the candidate? Do they prepare the candidates for each interview? Do they debrief afterwards?
How much industry experience does the firm have?
You want to feel like your hiring needs are understood and that you are being helped. While every company started from somewhere, you want to choose the best and most experienced recruiting company in your specialty.
Find out how the owners of the firm got their start. How many recruiters do they have, and what is their experience recruiting in the industry? You have no time to waste and in today’s highly competitive environment, you want to partner with the best. This will save you time, money and can help your business succeed.
We’ve built up decades of expertise in the software contractor space and have processes and systems in place to aid our clients with hiring and keeping the best contractor talent. Contact us today to see how we can share our many years and roster of client success with you and help your next AI project succeed.
Kim Beardsell is Talent Acquisition Director at Experience AI Solutions.