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Hiring Managers: if you can’t fill the role, you got 3 levers to pull.
Let’s first make 2 “it’s not a top of funnel problem” assumptions:
1. The job and company are actually appealing.
We’re all homers and want to think our jobs are the best. So take yourself out of it a bit with the Best Friend Referral test: would you tell your best friend to take the job? Or nah?
2. You’ve got reasonably good coverage already. An internal or external recruiter with specialization in the space who knows what they’re doing.
If both of those check out, it’s as simple as this: you want too many skills at too low of a salary in too small of a geography.
So your options are:
A. Broaden the requirements. Either the level of experience. Or cut the (potentially needless) specificity of technology and/or skills.
B. Pay more. Duh.
C. Allow full remote.
My hometown of Chicago is a huge market. Taking Java developers as an example: we only have 1.5% of the total addressable US market. For any skill set, that’s how massively you restrict yourself with onsite work.
This is not to say you can always pay less by going remote. But if you're in an expensive market (NY, SF) and you want local people, there’s a chance you find great talent in less expensive areas. (In certain skill sets anyway.)
That is all. Recruiters already know this. If they don’t, you may want to revisit point 2 above…
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3 Levers For Hard To Fill Jobs