should companies hire tech talent if they are all technology companies? //

We flip the model so that instead of a candidate applying for the job, the firm applies to the engineer.

Mark Chaffey is the co-founder of Hackajob. The platform is based in London and also operates in the U.S. and the U.K. It allows employers to find candidates for technology positions, such as marketing technologies and operations.

He told us that the central thesis of his business was that “every company is a technology company now.” Walmart was reported to be the biggest advertiser for tech jobs in America right now, and this is in line with what we are seeing in the U.K. Sainsbury’s is our largest client here. They are non-traditional tech businesses who realize that they need to invest in technology to ensure their future.

Partner is very important

Very sells a variety of products online, including clothing, home and garden items, games and more. Sean Allen, the head of talent acquisition for The Very Group told us they were always looking for tech talent. He said that they recruit for a wide range of tech roles. “From software engineers to QA engineers, platform and data engineers, architects and data engineers, all the way up to cyber security experts, UX designers and data scientists.”

Very has now entered its third year as a partner with Hackajob. He said that they were viewed by him as an extension of his talent acquisition team.

Chaffey explained that one concern Very had when building and staffing up a new technology hub in the North of England was the feeling that the brand was not well-known in the tech and operations space. Allen explained that Hackajob had a large talent pool of active candidates. While there’s a chance that we have connections with some talent or they may already be familiar with our brand, other candidates won’t. This allows us to reach out to active and engaged tech talent.

Chaffey said that the first thing they worked with was a six-month activation campaign. “The challenge we’re trying solve for these organisations is how to show our audience that they are technology businesses that have really interesting technical challenges.”

Hackajob refers to this as “employer branding.”

Dig deep: Find the tech talent that you need

Employer branding: It’s worth it

Hackajob’s first product is a marketplace. Chaffey said, “We hire engineers and put them through our screening process. If they pass, then they are matched with employers.”

Employer branding is the second product. Chaffey said: “If Walmart, CarMax, or Sainsbury’s – all Hackajob customers – reach out to me, and I’m a software engineer, I may think, ‘What does Sainsbury’s in technology do?’ If I go to their career site, it must speak to retail staff as well as head office staff. The value proposition for tech employees is completely watered-down.”

Hackajob suggests creating “rich and dynamic landing pages”, which are focused solely on the tech organization of the company. These pages are typically built by the client according to their brand guidelines.

Hackajob is not a job board, but a collection of content that engages with a tech- and operations-oriented audience.

“Hackathons, online events, contact marketing, newsletters, podcasts,” listed Chaffey. Users can, for example, learn that Sainsbury’s holds data on 80% adults in the U.K. and what it does with this data using machine learning and analytics. “We might get 150 people to tune in to that online event, and Sainsbury’s will get all the contact data so they can nurture this talent.”

Allen said, “We use the employer brand part of Hackajob as part of our partnership agreement.” It’s the first part we used. When I joined The Very Group, in June 2021 we were at the very beginning of a major tech transformation programme. “As the world emerged from COVID, it was important to use the hackajob offering of employer branding to tell our tech story in a wider market by tapping into the large and diverse talent pools.”

The scope of the opportunity

Chaffey said that engineers and technologists who use the Hackajob platform are often surprised at the scope of the opportunity they will be working on. These propositions are more appealing to technical people, especially during this economic climate. An organization like Sainsbury’s is more likely to survive a recession or face headwinds than a venture-backed business.

Allen is in agreement that the model needs to be reversed. In other models where the employer is doing the outreach, the conversion rate for certain roles and technologies may be lower,” he said. Hackajob’s flipping of the model ensures that we have a higher conversion rate when it comes to getting that first phone call with a potential candidate. This allows us to get to know each other better.

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