A Home Depot exec explains why it's so hard for retailers to compete for tech workers in the 'war for talent'

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"Tech talent is more interested in the project, and then the company is second," Home Depot's head of global talent acquisition, Eric Schelling, said.

• Retailers have to be strategic about approaching prospective tech hires, according to Home Depot's head of global talent acquisition, Eric Schelling.
• Schelling outlined his company's tech recruitment strategy at the National Retail Federation's 2019 Big Show.
• The exec said he and his team had to "show up differently" in order to better attract tech talent.

NEW YORK CITY - Impressing - and recruiting - tech professionals can prove to be a tricky prospect in the retail business, according to Home Depot's head of global talent acquisition, Eric Schelling. The key to success, he said, is showing prospects the kind of project they'll get to work on, rather than just selling them on a business.

Speaking on a panel at the National Retail Federation's 2019 Big Show in Manhattan on January 14, Schelling said his team would attend certain tech events as part of their push to hire 1,000 IT and technology professionals in 2018.

He said the reaction from tech workers and students was occasionally along the lines of, "Why is Home Depot here?"

"People who are studying technology at school or working for a tech company right now don't necessarily think of Home Depot as a tech company," Schelling said.

That's despite that fact that the home-improvement retailer employs thousands of tech workers who crank out approximately 90% of the company's code "in-house," according to Schelling.

Read more: A Home Depot exec explains the key reason why pushing for 'the store of the future' could backfire

But in order to better connect with potential tech hires, the Home Depot exec said that he and his team had to "show up differently."

"Tech talent is more interested in the project, and then the company is second," Schelling said. "That was a learning for us that we were not ready for, to be honest with you. We started to have to showcase to that talent what those specific projects were."

To better accommodate tech candidates, while at the same time maintaining the retailer's traditional "we are one company, we are one Home Depot" ethos, Schelling said that the company had to make some "radical changes."

Rather than assigning individual hiring managers to recruit and interview candidates, Home Depot established cross-departmental groups of employees who were all well-versed in the retailer's specific tech projects. Those teams were responsible for selecting candidates, resulting in a more project-centric approach.

Schelling said the hiring groups were also responsible for conveying the retailer's culture to tech candidates.

"Our culture is very much, 'You leave a thumbprint on your work and our CEO knows who you are,'" he said.