The Competition for Talent in Seattle’s e-Commerce Market Heats Up

By Jezabel Southard

Posted on October 9, 2015

Staples. Alibaba. Nordstrom. Costco. Zulily. As more and more companies place their e-commerce teams in Seattle, within easy reach of the burgeoning talent of Silicon Valley, the race for local companies to grab the best available talent has become tighter.

And the big companies have big clout. Amazon hired 1,700 Seattle-area engineers in just the last year, relying on a team of over 500 tech recruiters to find the best people available. Software engineers, developers, and user-experience specialists are in high demand. Companies who need to add these professionals to their teams must get creative in recruiting them.

How are companies attracting top talent in e-commerce? It’s tougher than one might think.

E-commerce, in and of itself, is not a highly popular industry. Instead, tech specialists must be pulled into the fold on the virtue of the projects, technologies, and challenges they’ll tackle while on the job.

To bring in great talent in a highly competitive field, companies must consider all the variables:

• Employment brand and company culture. What makes your company a great place to work? Talk to current staff, especially your top performers. Find out what they love about their work and build your employment brand to tell that story.
• Project and career opportunities. Do your managers make it a point to discuss career advancement with team members and to set out concrete goals and growth plans? Tech talent tends to value career over employer loyalty, so create an environment that makes career advancement real and concrete.
• Compensation. A competitive salary and benefits package is a must, but flexibility and creativity when it comes to nontraditional benefits can help make the difference without breaking the bank. Use the flexibility of tech to your advantage by making flex time and telecommuting easy for your staff, and boost their skill sets and sense of career advancement by offering opportunities for further education and skills development both inside your company and outside it.
• Connections. Your staffing partner can provide both the perspective and the professional connections to help you find great talent.

At TERRA Staffing, our recruiters build the personal and professional connections we need to help our clients find top tech talent every time. Find one our branches today to learn more.

Categories: HR and Management Advice, Staffing Tips & Recruiting Trends

Tags: e-Commerce Staffing Seattle, Seattle E-Commerce Staffing, Seattle Hiring Outlook eCommerce, Seattle Recruiting Services

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