Choosing the Right Recruiting Partner for Your IT Needs

Hiring and retaining the best talent is no easy feat for the modern enterprise — especially in an area like IT. The tech practice is suffering from a severe skills deficit caused by a fast-changing technological landscape. In turn, this talent shortage forces companies to compete against each other for the same candidates. To succeed, IT leaders and HR managers need to secure an edge over the competition. Recruiting firms are a great way of doing so. Discover our tips for choosing the right recruiting partner for your IT needs.

So, with hundreds of IT-focused recruiters out there, it can be hard to choose the right partner to support your IT talent needs. Three indicators can help you make a decision.

Choosing the Right Recruiting Partner: The use of technology

Digital transformation is impacting every area of business, including recruiting and human resources. When prospecting a staffing firm, it is advisable to pay attention to how it leverages technology to improve everyday operations and provide a better service. You would be forgiven for being suspicious of an IT staffing firm that doesn’t use IT to do a better job.

AI tools are a good example of the advantages that come with the clever use of technology. In the recruitment of freelancers, for example, AI makes it possible to process very quickly huge volumes of data linked to the profiles of candidates: previous gigs, areas of expertise and preferred sectors, years of experience …, but also exogenous data such as the candidate’s place of residence and travel times. AI also makes it possible to analyse the quality and interest of the positions offered, helping identify the types of projects that are most promising in terms of career development. In a field like recruitment, where time is of the essence, being able to quickly match candidate profile with company requirements is a decisive advantage.

Dedicated support and expertise

Most staffing firms tend to rely on the same person to both manage clients and identify suitable candidates. Although the two tasks complement each other in many key areas, both consume a lot of resources and time. Therefore, collapsing the two of them into one function creates a “jack of all trades, master of none” type scenario in which it is hard to hold the whole process to the highest standards.

On the other hand, the best firms tackle every job vacancy from a dual perspective. One part of the team serves as the point of contact with the client, gathering all the details and requirements for the particular position. They then coordinate with the other part of the team, in charge of identifying the right candidate. Besides increasing efficiency, speed and quality of work, the separation of roles allows both sales and sourcing to provide more personalised, dedicated support to the hiring company.

In addition to dedicated support, hiring the best IT talent requires dedicated expertise. Both the technical and soft skills needed for a position will vary depending on the field and seniority. A cloud architect position has different requirements than those for a vacancy in Java development. Therefore, the best staffing firms are structured by specialism and have staff members that are proficient in a given vacancy’s area of expertise.    

Innovation through data and insights

The third piece of the puzzle is data. As it happens in any other industry, quality insights are at the heart of a successful IT hiring strategy. Look for recruiters who know how to make the most of the data they come by with and mine.

Being in permanent contact with organisations and IT professionals allows the best staffing firms to develop a deep and well-rounded understanding of current industry trends. These firms have a good sense of the challenges and needs driving mid- and long-term goals for clients and candidates. In addition to this, data-savvy recruiters can provide you with a more qualitative level of market intelligence – like the skill requirements and salary for a typical position – from which to derive actionable insights.