Are you considering working with an IT recruitment firm to staff up for a big project? Or are your existing tech teams overwhelmed by current projects and you need consultants to take on extra work? An IT recruitment firm like Genesis10 can help you find – or in some cases create – the tech talent you need to drive innovation at your company.
If you’ve never worked with an IT recruitment firm, you may be wondering where to start. Or even if you’ve worked with an IT recruitment firm in the past, you may want to better understand what the service offerings are today. Below, we’ve compiled a list of the Top 10 tips for working with an IT recruitment firm.
1. Get specific about the type of tech talent you need.
What are the specific skills and experience levels you are looking for? What are the specific roles you need to fill? The more specific you are, the better your chances of finding the right candidates.
2. Know your options.
There are many different ways to solve a tech talent challenge. For example, you can work with an IT recruitment firm to bring teams to work onsite for a specific period – say 6 months or 12 months. This is called contract staffing and under this scenario, the talent is employed by the recruitment firm but is assigned to work for you as a client. You can also have contract staff that works remotely or in a hybrid fashion.
Contract-to-hire is a variation that allows you, as the client, to bring a Genesis10 consultant onto your staff at the end of the contract term. Many of our clients appreciate this model because it allows them to build their staff with talent that has proven how valuable they are and how they fit into their organization.
At Genesis10, we also offer Flexible Workforce Solutions, where we bring consultants onsite to buildings we manage on behalf of our clients. Think of it as an alternative to offshore or nearshore staffing.
Finally, you can also use an IT staffing firm to aid in a direct hire or permanent placement search where the IT talent joins your staff. This is a great option for a company that wants to grow, but doesn’t have the internal talent acquisition team to undertake the search process.
At Genesis10, we work with clients in all of these modes.
3. Document your company culture.
If you are going to work with an IT recruitment firm, you’ll want to communicate your company’s work culture clearly. Think about your company’s values. What do you look for in a new employee? While it may seem obvious, not all companies share the same values. At Genesis10, we always seek to understand the company’s culture so that we can bring the best candidates to hiring managers.
To ensure fit, we put every candidate through a thorough screening process that evaluates the applicant's technical skills as well as their ability to fit the client’s culture. This helps reduce the number of interviews hiring managers must do and it increases the likelihood that a consultant will be a good fit.
We can also make delivery directors available. A delivery director is responsible for making sure your Genesis10 consultants are fitting in and performing up to expectations.
4. Expect guidance around current salary levels.
A good IT staffing firm will be able to give you guidance on current salary levels for the positions you are hiring for. This will help you avoid underpaying your candidates or overpaying for talent.
The dynamics of the IT talent market in the United States has undergone dramatic fluctuations over the last three years. Genesis10 specializes in this area of staffing and will be able to give you up-to-the-minute insights on markets throughout the U.S. Our team of recruiters, who have an average of more than 17 years of industry experience, have built relationships locally and nationally, which means they can provide our clients with in-depth market knowledge.
5. Be realistic when it comes to niche technologies.
If you are looking for someone with niche skills in technologies like Pega, ServiceNow, AEM, Informatica, or Salesforce, you may need to be more patient in your search for talent. You may also need to be more flexible when it comes to work style – for example, opening up a niche technology role to remote workers. The following tip (No. 6) can also address this issue.
6. Consider talent creation.
If you can't find the right candidates, you may want to consider creating your own talent through Dev10, our tech talent development arm. Through Dev10, we provide college graduates with 12 weeks of software development training that gets them ready to work competently within a variety of complicated tech stacks.
7. Ask for timelines.
How long will it take to find the right candidates? How long will it take to onboard them? Having a clear understanding of the timelines will help you manage your expectations and make sure that you are on track to meet your hiring goals.
8. Understand your recruitment firm’s process.
How do they find candidates? How do they screen candidates? How do they present candidates to you? Understanding your recruitment firm's process will help you make sure that you are getting the best possible service. At Genesis10, we have developed processes to remove as much slack out of the timeline as possible.
9. Ask about on-boarding best practices.
Onboarding is critical to the success of new employees, so it's important to make sure that your recruitment firm has a good onboarding process in place. At Genesis10, we not only provide detailed onboarding plans to our clients, but we also offer ongoing support to our consultants throughout their contract periods.
10. See your IT recruitment firm as a partner.
Your IT recruitment firm should be a partner in your hiring process. They should be working with you to understand your needs and find the best candidates for your team. They should also be providing you with feedback and advice throughout the process.
By following these tips, you can make the hiring process for tech talent more efficient and effective. The tech talent market is evolving rapidly and the demands on businesses are also changing. At Genesis10, we can help you navigate the market and craft a solution that suits your goals.
Genesis10 is an award-winning, New York-based staffing firm that helps clients and individual job seekers achieve their goals.
