Recruiting Technology Workers Requires a High-Tech Approach

Small businesses often struggle to hire just one technical professional. But Raju Patel, cofounder of Pipeline Software, a 20-person technology firm, has managed to find plenty of high-tech workers to join his rapidly growing business.

Since Pipeline's business coordination solutions help companies better implement and manage their enterprise-resource planning (ERP), customer relationship mangement (CRM) and other critical technical systems, Patel mostly seeks job applicants with high-tech experience. In fact, almost all of Pipeline's employees work in technical positions.

While hiring about a dozen employees in 2000, Patel discovered that the best place to find qualified techies is on the Web. "With the type of people we're looking for, we want to make sure they're tech-savvy in the first place," he says. Patel feels so strongly about this that he only uses newspaper advertisements when he needs to fill administrative positions.

Currently, Pipeline has an account with online recruiter dice.com and Headhunter.net. Patel also considered using Monster.com, but that site was too expensive.

Patel says that for his growing company, online recruiting makes a lot of sense. He also believes the sites he uses provide good value. "The other nice thing is that the recruiting sites propagate [job postings] to other sites, so you get a lot of bang for your buck," he says. For instance when Patel uses Headhunter.net, he can cross-post the job listing and get it on approximately 450 job boards.

Since Pipeline started up in 1997, the company has had very low turnover rates. Patel attributes this to the company's working environment. "We focus on the intangible things. We try to make employees feel valuable by giving them autonomy," Patel says. "Compensation can only take a company so far. As a small company, we offer competitive compensation, but we're not going to win in a bidding war."

Patel also knows that employees care about more than money. "We try to provide challenging work with the latest technologies," he says. Other perks include a state-of-the-art facility, top-notch computer equipment, a recreational room and informal Friday lunches.

Pipeline's strategy seems to be working well. The company's first employee started in September 1998, and he still works there today.

— Kim Wimpsett