Tech giants, unicorns, and even nontech companies are looking to onboard tech talent aggressively, and thanks to COVID which has further increased the demand for tech talent globally.  HRs and Tech leaders are looking at other talent acquisition strategies including hackathons, social media hiring, and acqui-hiring to onboard superior teams. It is not unknown that most of the companies are hiring techs at volumes and it is becoming difficult to get the best talent nowadays. As the lines between verticals and industries continue to blur, every company now is becoming a technology company. Therefore, the demand for technology talent is only going to spike as time goes by.

Acqui-hiring is hence an effective talent acquisition strategy that can help companies get access to top-notch talent and expand their tech capabilities. It is one of the most efficient inorganic ways to acquire niche talent. And if you are not thinking about this, it’s time for you to think about acqui-hiring as a strategy to onboard teams.

Acqui-hiring tech talent has multiple benefits:

• It can help you onboard people at all levels (for senior, middle and junior roles) with prior established working relationships
• It can help you build niche capabilities that are difficult to find
• It can save your time on upskilling candidates, required before setting them to their tasks
• You can start a new team with the acqui-hired company, or can place between among different departments based on your requirements
• You get a team with an entrepreneurial spirit, who are more innovative and result orientated
• It also saves cost and time, needed for expensive hiring
• It saves you time to build a new product, as the team comes with the right experience to build a product fast

However, it has also few challenges, which if ignored can create issues

• Culture clash- be mindful of culture clash during this process, which can limit the smooth integration of the companies involved
• Loss of interest- if the onboarding team is not given clear roles and responsibilities, or if it doesn’t match the expectations, they may leave the job soon as planned

So, when is acqui-hiring the right option for a company? Well, acqui-hiring is best for the companies that have:

• Newly founded teams that are leveraging niche skills that are currently not present in the company
• Rapidly growing teams as the integration challenges are fewer
• Products where ownership can be rapidly transitioned to new teams
• Critical and important gaps in the product roadmap that need to be filled
• Want to expand into new geographies or open a tech center in new / lower-cost geographies

Tech leaders and HR leaders should look at key success factors to make acqui-hiring strategy successful in their companies

• Get stakeholders buy-in in for acqui-hiring companies and considering it as an alternative option for hiring superior talent
• Create a clear thesis with skills and technology that startups need to qualify to be even considered for acquihiring
• Make sure the selected team has the right skill that you need and are onboarded with the right opportunities that they need to make an impactful long term relationship
• Before placing an offer, assess culture and attitude and make sure it aligns with the organization
• Properly manage the integration process to eliminate in-house talent’s apprehensions about, and potential resentment toward, acqui-hired team members
• Be upfront on acquihire valuations, terms and conditions to avoid any last-minute surprises

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