It is acknowledged that Engineers are probably one of the most sought after professionals nowadays and that a company's recruitment strategy is vital to attracting the right candidates. Skills gap is a common issue in the engineering recruitment sector today. Therefore, companies need to work harder to find ideal engineers. Recruitment companies have started to do things in a different way in order to better engage with their audience and attract the best talent. Going to events and society meetings such as Meetups focusing on the engineering sector something that recruiters are doing more frequently in order to enlarge their candidate network. Furthermore, referral incentives seems to be the best performing reward scheme used for attracting professionals by both in-house recruiters and specialist agencies.

Recruiting Using Social Media

The traditional way of advertising jobs and candidates responding by submitting a CV to a company is currently changing rapidly. Thus, agencies have had to stay at the forefront of recruitment innovation in order to provide value added solutions. Recruited professionals are taking the recruitment process to social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Generally speaking, using hashtags on all social media is incredibly beneficial as they make online searches easier and faster, you can track relevant conversation and see how long messages stay active as well as being one of today's best free shortcuts for navigating on the web.

Maintaining an up-to-date LinkedIn profile is essential to boosting online credibility and presence, making it an effective tool in the recruitment process. You can share your company's latest updates which might be of interest to potential candidates, join engineering-related discussions or write articles that would identify you as influencer in the industry.

Understand your Client's Company Thoroughly

Before a recruiter picks up the phone to call a potential engineering candidate, they need to know your client's company thoroughly. How can the culture of the company match the needs of these professionals to obtain fulfilment of their objectives? The best recruiters present an outline of the possible career growth that they may take if they join the company. Some engineers tend to value learning and professional growth more than the salary and remuneration package. Highlight the information of your business that is associated with the motivation of the potential candidate.

Potential job applicants are now better informed than previously on a firm's history and how they are perceived in the marketplace. Website such as Glassdoor have reviews by previous employees on the employee experience with that company and in some cases describe the recruitment experience.

Talk to Your Current Pool of Engineers

Checking with your current professional network to ascertain if any colleagues or friends working in the engineering sector are looking for a career change, is one of the most effective means of recruitment, which lends itself to the use of all digital social media. Referrals are deemed to have the highest conversion rate of applicant to hire and have the shortest recruiting process. What's more, the job satisfaction rate in this case is considered to be much higher and referred people seem to stay longer at companies (46% stay over 1 year, 45% over 2 years and 47% over 3 years – According to Undercover Recruiter). Quality over quantity is another advantage of using candidate referrals – as people usually recommend someone they trust and who they think they can do the job properly.

Understand them

Understanding the sectors you recruit for and the characteristics of the people working in that sector – along with their needs and whatever makes people in the engineering sectors tick – is very important in the recruitment process. Money is not always the only source of motivation. Flexible hours to achieve a better work-life balance, working from home, doing more studies while working and corporate social responsibility are just some of the alternatives that candidates consider when choosing their next employer.

Get Involved!

There has been a rise in the number of initiatives that try to make a difference by challenging the status quo and to attract professionals to pursue a career in engineering. From schools to big contractors and public sector companies, they have all begun to take part in or start their own campaigns to attract engineering professionals. Some examples would be the Institute of Civils Engineers' Exhibition and Learning Centre (#ShapingTheWorld) and RIBA's #seemejoinme campaign addressing to everyone with the construction, property and engineering industries to try to bridge the gender gap within these sectors. Our advice is to get involved in these, go to meetings, support them on social and in return, you will constantly grow your professional network.

Think Outside the Box

Because of the well-known skills gap in the engineering industry and because talent are not actually looking through job ads, recruiters need to think outside the box in order to attract top engineering talent. Try making the recruitment process a little challenging by asking them to complete a task or to solve a problem.