Tech talent sourcing in Central and Eastern Europe has drastically changed. The key reason is that Russia and Belarus, which used to be tech hubs, are now toxic, and almost all gigs, contracts, and long-term cooperations with these countries have stopped. Ukraine, Poland, Georgia, and other CEE countries are doing their best to get Belarusian and Russian market shares. North American clients have yet another reason to consider the European IT market: Due to the parity of the U.S. dollar to the euro, outsourcing to Europe has become even more cost-efficient. There are many more reasons why sourcing tech talent in CEE is particularly beneficial in 2022. Check them out below.
Plan your actions. Depending on what goals you’re aiming for and who you want to reach, you will choose recruiting channels. If you’re about to start a long game, think of reaching STEM students or junior specialists to hunt them when they get more hands-on experience.Write a job description. If you want to hire top talent, there must be something extraordinary in your job opportunity. Having a great HR brand might be helpful, as well as offering a salary of +15% compared to the average on the market. If you’re not yet among the world’s best employers, tell about the company’s DNA and highlight all the additional benefits your future talent will get.Choose candidate sourcing channels. Glassdoor and LinkedIn are among the most efficient global platforms to search for new talents. There are also online marketplaces, freelance platforms, and tech communities. If you prefer particular regions, opt for local talent sourcing and recruiting partners who will create a pool of candidates for you.Create a perfect candidate profile. Imagine a perfect specialist who can fill in your job position. Describe their educational background, job experience, professional skills, and personality features. Some requirements might be mandatory, like “2+ years of experience as Angular developer,” and the others will be just an advantage, like “experience in NGO.”Interact with your new findings. Get in contact with the specialists you identified as the best matches for your company. For your first contact, it’s better to write instead of calling. Make your message personalized and emphasize all the things the talent you’re reaching and your company have in common.Maintain a pool of talents. Create a pool of engaged and interested people who are willing to join your company one day. Don’t let your new contacts get lost in time. Interact with their posts on professional social networks, congratulate them on birthdays, etc.If you don’t have an in-house talent acquisition specialist who can keep in touch with the pool of talents and do pre-recruiting for you, the wise decision is to choose a reliable talent sourcing partner. In Ukraine, this can be MWDN. Apart from outsourcing and staff augmentation services, we can do recruiting and talent sourcing for you. 
Apart from that, these countries also had and still have in 2022 a large labor market size (Ukraine – 18.1 mln, Poland – 17.0 mln) and a great number of tech talents (Poland – 430.7 thousand, Ukraine – 289.2 thousand). These numbers alone make these CEE countries top destinations for applicant sourcing, however, there is more to it.
Image source: Delloite Global Outsourcing Survey 2020
