How Hackathons Can Help You Attract, Engage, Hire, And Train Top Talent

Ever since the pandemic hit in 2020, organizations all over the world took a lot of their process online. From virtual classes for students to virtual team meetings in offices, everything was being done remotely. Even recruiting, hiring, and onboarding.

Companies relied on online hackathon platforms to not just find and hire fresh talent from across the globe but also train and upskill their existing employees. A study found that 40% of companies use a hackathon hiring process as part of their recruitment strategies.

Hackathons are design-sprint-like events, usually hosted by tech companies, to use technology, primarily coding, to hack into real-world problems and find a solution. Programmers and developers work in teams of 2–6 (or maybe more) over the course of 24–72 hours to develop a product or code that addresses the challenges laid out by the organizing company.

Hackathons are usually divided into 2 categories -

External hackathons
At an external hackathon hiring process, participants create their own projects. They might work on coding tools, websites, or mobile apps that can be used by other people in the tech world. Employers sponsor these events to find new hires and engage with potential recruits. They also offer a valuable learning experience for attendees or students who may be interested in pursuing a career in technology.

By conducting an external hackathon as part of their recruitment process, hiring managers get to observe candidates apply their skills in a real-world setting. This also helps participants enhance their tech portfolio and resume which will benefit them throughout their tech career.

Some benefits of external hackathons are -

1. Build a diverse team and find fresh talent — Through hackathon recruiting, organizations can identify top talent in the industry and create a large pool of qualified candidates for any current or future openings. Companies also get to see first-hand how participants interact with their peers. The hackathon hiring process also creates a unique opportunity for people from all over the world to come together and work on a project. These participants can later be recruited by the hackathon organizing company to join their team.
2. Network with industry experts — Tech industry experts usually sponsor hackathon events and actively participate as mentors or judges. This gives participants the chance to connect with the who’s who of the industry and expand their network.
3. Expand the developer community — Companies use the hackathon hiring process to attract developers who might not otherwise come in contact with their brand. This offers a way for the hiring manager to interact with the tech community and establish new relationships.
4. Boost corporate branding — Hackathons offer a great opportunity to increase awareness about your brand and what you have to offer. Corporate hackathon ideas allow companies to showcase their product or service in a new way that is often more effective than marketing campaigns.

Internal hackathons
These are internal or company-sponsored events that allow employees to engage in innovation and creativity. They are used by companies to upskill employees, foster teamwork, and create new products and services. Internal hackathons are a great way to get your employees excited about their work while allowing them to collaborate and build relationships with one another outside of the normal office environment. Internal hackathon ideas are perfect for tapping into the skills of the company’s workforce.

Here are some ways in which internal hackathons can benefit companies -

1. Team building activity — Hackathons give employees a fun and rewarding opportunity to get out of their comfort zone and work alongside their peers. It encourages people to work together towards a common goal while building on each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Hackathons offer a low-risk, cost-effective way for you to promote creativity within your team. It creates an environment that fosters teamwork and allows people to interact with each other in ways they normally wouldn’t be able to inside the office. It builds stronger connections between employees which can improve workplace satisfaction overall.
2. Upskill employees — Internal hackathons allow employees to try something new and possibly even learn a new skill. It allows them to build on their existing skillset and creates a great addition to their resume.
3. Boost morale — Hackathons are a great way to get employees excited about their work again while they gain new skills and work with members they probably hadn’t interacted with much in the past. Additionally, the opportunity to interact with other teams in friendly competition helps generate excitement and establish positive relationships.
4. Opportunity to build new products and services — Hackathons are a great way for employees to come up with new ideas that can eventually become successful products or services. For example, Box Brownie, the easy-to-use tool for removing backgrounds from images or enhancing them with professional features; DanceBattle, an innovative app that helps you compete in dancing battles with others using the camera of your phone or laptop, and EchoLoco, the audio map with real-time cues that helps the visually impaired stay safe and move faster in urban areas or crowded places, are all results of internal hackathons.

How to conduct a hackathon?

Now that you know how internal and external hackathons can benefit your company and the developer community as a whole, here is how you can successfully conduct Hackathons with HackerEarth -

HackerEarth’s easy-to-use online hackathon platform gives companies the opportunity to host hackathons from anywhere in the world. HackerEarth’s hackathon platform has organized over 134 hackathons creating 6,000+ challenges that helped create 2,000+ prototypes and more than 60,000 developers registered as participants across the globe in 2021 alone.

HackerEarth provides a curated experience for your company to get the engagement they need without any bandwidth drain. It makes it easy to conduct and manage hackathon challenges and helps you build a community of developers and engineers and find qualified candidates for future roles.

Hackathons can help you identify talented potential employees, engage and hire top performers, and even train new and existing employees. If you’re not already using hackathons, you may want to consider adding them to your recruiting process!