What the best IT Recruiting Company Can Do For You

If you are  a business that’s in the market for IT talent, you’ve got your work cut out for you. The demand for IT expertise remains at an all-time high and it takes a great degree of specialized skill and an inordinate amount of time  to find candidates interested in making a job switch.

Many businesses have responded by heavily padding the salaries of the most coveted IT positions, paying bonuses and providing other job enticements in an effort to find and retain top talent. If your business is small or can’t afford to compete with the “big players” in the field, you might be considering using the resources of a recruiting firm.

If you’ve never hired a staffing agency, you’re going to have to make a difficult decision. There are literally hundreds of recruiting firms competing for the same candidates in your region. How will you find the one with the skills to pull this off?

What makes a well-run recruiting firm?

Recruiting is all about networking, relationships, and follow-through. Look for an agency that has some of the best industry contacts – and can prove it by sharing their key techniques for sourcing the best candidates. You’ll be able to discern if they’re diving deeply into the talent pool, or just skimming the surface.

Look for the staffing agency that has a clear track record and knowledge of your industry. If they don’t have experience in your field, you may not want to give them the opportunity to learn on the job -- on your dime. Instead, consider firms with a solid track record of placements, able to truly understand and embrace the world you're living in every day.

There are many names for recruiters and not all of them are nice. The truth, though, is that these talented executives are actually an extension of your human resource department and are really on the front lines for your business. A staffing agency may be the first impression a candidate has of your company. Finding the right agency means discovering a true partner for your business.

When interviewing staffing firms, look for the ones that really strive to understand your unique business as part of their due diligence process. What kinds of qualifying questions are they asking to find out more about the role? Are they inquiring about the cultural fit for this candidate – or do you have the gut feeling that they’re just trying to fill the job requisition as quickly as possible and are cutting corners?

Finding An IT Staffing Partnership

One of the biggest frustrations we hear about staffing firms is that they frequently send a high volume of underqualified candidates or interviewees that are clearly a poor fit for your culture or the role they've applied for. If you can find a staffing solution that takes the time upfront to get to know you and your business, that's the first critical step toward solving your IT recruitment problem. A thorough fact-finding and due diligence process will help your new recruiter improve the quality of the candidates they send. The best recruiters understand that it's not about sending you a high volume of unqualified candidates -- the best staffing agencies focus on sending you a handful of carefully vetted and matched quality candidates.