Looking for IT employees? Regardless of how long your company has been recruiting, you’ve likely discovered that searching for candidates is a complicated process. Receiving the desired quantity and quality of resumes becomes difficult for businesses of all sizes due to several factors, including:
1. Brand recognition. Information technology and other related careers often seek out popular tech companies for job opportunities, which means smaller startups have to compete for the attention of candidates. Even the largest corporations, such as banks and media conglomerates, face hiring difficulties when their core industry is not technology-related.
2. Human resources. The most successful IT employers have large HR departments at their disposal.
3. Money. Successful IT recruiting often requires a large monetary investment, as HR professionals travel across the country looking for the right candidates or taking them in for interviews. Job bulletin boards and recruiting events also present significant costs to businesses, from small to large.
How an IT Recruitment Agency Can Help
To combat the above limitations, many employers choose IT recruitment agencies to help them hire the best candidates. For a predetermined fee or percentage, IT recruiters perform most or all of the necessary tasks that are typically delegated to an HR department, including:
– Identification of candidates. IT recruiters scour multiple resources, from social media to competitor websites to online job boards, to identify the best candidates for their clients.
– Candidate commitment. After identifying viable candidates, recruiters contact them through various channels, from email, phone, and social media, to learn more about them and share information about current opportunities for their clients.
– Put on screen. Initial interviews, whether by phone, Skype, or in person, help weed out the least suitable candidates and pave the way for the people clients are most likely to hire.
– Staffing. In addition to sending promising candidates to recruiting organizations, many IT recruitment agencies also offer staff augmentation services. These organizations hire candidates directly, performing everything from resume review to interviewing to hiring paperwork. IT staffing services provide short-term and long-term experience, minus the high costs of direct employment and recruitment.
Questions to ask a potential recruiter
When considering which IT recruitment agency to work with, ask potential vendors the following questions:
1. What are your credentials? Reputable IT recruitment firms should be endorsed by or affiliated with organizations such as the Better Business Bureau (BBB), the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), or the American Staffing Association (ASA).
2. What are your rates? Recruiters should be upfront about their service fees and should not present clients with a “surprise” bill after the job is done.
3. What services do you offer? Are you interested in direct hiring, contract consulting, retained search, executive search, or staff augmentation? Make sure a recruitment agency is equipped to provide these services before agreeing to work with them.
