In the second of our Collab365 presentations, NFI SharePoint and Microsoft recruitment experts discuss trends in the SharePoint job market.
Hosts: Alec Porter, Team Leader SharePoint Contracts Division across North America, and Paden Simmons, Business Manager for Office 365, SharePoint and Azure across US and Canada.
This session is aimed at clients who are looking to build their teams in the current SharePoint market.
You Will Learn:
- How to hire and retain the best people for your projects
- Salary trends in the industry
- Past, Present and Future of SharePoint – what is impacting the market.
Below we summarise some key takeaways from the session but be sure to watch the full recording here.
What to Consider When Creating a Candidate Job Description:
- Detail – It is important to consider the detail that is needed for each job description. For example, Platform Architect and Infrastructure Architect are two different jobs but both may be titled as an Azure Architect, so it’s about describing the nuts and bolts of what the role actually entails.
- Attracting Candidates – Clients with HR departments that recruit for any role, from finance to Azure Cloud Platform Architect apply the same processes to recruitment and they need to be different for these niche roles so that the job advert attracts the right candidate for the job. This is very important, job titles can be anything but the description needs to be right to get the right candidate.
- Conversation – Alec and Paden help clients to tailor a job description, particularly when looking at permanent roles. These conversations are key for Nigel Frank to have with clients, to walk through and understand what function the candidate will play in the first six months, to know the roadmap for the role. Alec and Paden explained that it’s about educating the client what type of candidate is available in the market at that time and tailor the role, to find the common ground between the client and candidate.
- Requirements – There are more and more requirements needed within Office365 and Azure, this is where competition lies and there is a difference in salary expectation for these skills.
Retention
- A shift in Skills – Alec and Paden discussed the shift in skills that are requested now, for example a traditional SharePoint developer with coding and customization heavy skillset is now changing, it has been 8-12 months since a client has specifically requested these skills, clients are now asking for JavaScript, html etc. Skills that are utilizing the product out of the box as much as possible, moving to a client-side object model, so coding and client-side changes are really starting to show now.
- Requests for Roles in the Microsoft Stack – In our survey you can see the percentage split of roles and requests that are coming in these days across the Microsoft stack. SharePoint still dominates but Office 365 and Azure requirements are coming in alongside SharePoint. On the permanent side, the consumption of Azure is growing within the Microsoft space and there is a dedication in a lot of job descriptions now to have familiarity with Azure. It’s a great opportunity for candidates to get this skill.
- Sell Opportunity and Retain Staff – Alec and Paden explained that when it comes to retaining staff (appendix 3) the important items they hear about are bonus, insurance plans, and working from home flexibility. Compensation is not everything, candidates like to know if there is excitement around the project, what the growth plan within the business is and the type of impact they can have on the project. Clients need to think of what sets their business apart- as that is key. Candidates want to be sold with a clear understanding so it’s about how you sell opportunities.
- Contract Workers – The host, Andy Talbot said that from his point of view from a contract perspective, it’s not about training or career progression, but candidates want to know about the culture of the workplace so they know they can enjoy their job. Contract workers also like to know about the stability of the position, is the business stable and will the position last the duration that was on paper?
- Younger Workforce – In order to attract a younger mentality of clients should look to have a more flexible work environment i.e. working from home, it’s something that we don’t see as often in more established firms. The quality of life that goes along with the work life is also important, such as flexible hours, working from home, start times i.e. get in to work and beat rush hour, work through a lunch hour and head home earlier, or work from home on a Friday. These are the types of things that those with a younger mentality may look for.
- Stability – Job security is crucial as well as culture and career progression candidates don’t want to interview every 2-3 weeks.
- Feedback – Alec and Paden provided feedback to clients from candidates to help understand why candidates leave, this feedback is given to the recruiter and we can pass this on to clients to help them make changes if needed.
- Why Do People Leave? According to our survey, we’ve collated the top five reasons why people leave their job and salary is not one of them. In order – people leave because of:
1. Lack of career and promotion opportunities
2. Work environment
3. Company culture
4. Lack of leadership and
5. Lack of training
Watch the full session below for more advice and tips.
If you’re a candidate searching for your next role, or you’d like to find out the trends in your industry, click here for part one of our sessions from Collab365, aimed at candidates.
View our Microsoft Technology for Business Salary Survey, or our Microsoft Dynamics Salary Survey.
About Collab365
Collab365 Global Conference is the worlds biggest 24-hour online conference. 10,000 registrations. Office365, SharePoint Azure. 62 MVPs, 120+ sessions 6 MCMs.
