What to Look for When Interviewing an IT Recruiting Firm
If you’ve decided to talk to an IT recruiter about helping with your staffing needs versus insourcing, you’ve taken a positive step forward. Taking these needs to professionals, with carefully cultivated IT recruiting skills, means you will save the time and resources you would have allocated to this daunting task. And you can stay focused on where you need to be.
With an IT recruiting company, you can move much faster to the “final phase” of selection when you have a core group of people you are certain can add value and diversity to your company.
But, as with anything in IT, there is no one choice for your IT recruiter or IT recruiting firm. Making the right or wrong decision can have a significant impact on your bottom line and investment of money and time. So how do you make sure you pick the right IT recruiting firm? Here’s what you should consider when you’re looking at your options.
Reputation
Public perception is relevant to every single business, including yours. What are others saying about the IT recruiting company you’re looking at working with? Do you have any business acquaintances you trust who have experience working with an IT recruiter you are considering? Who are your candidates? Always remember that the best recommendations—or warnings—come from those who have been staff, clients, or customers.
Look into the online reputation your candidates have. If one of the IT recruiting companies is consistently getting similar criticisms from clients, keep this in mind. Similarly, if a business peer tells you good things about an IT recruiting firm, and is still using them, find out why and how that feedback is relevant to your needs.
Focus & Size
Do you want to go with one of the larger IT recruiting companies that serve many different industries and have substantial, sweeping operations? Or, do you want to go with a smaller, boutique, more specialized company with specific IT recruiting skills? Think about your company, your needs, and the type of recruitment process you want.
If you’re looking for particular IT positions, where you know the type of work you want will require a focused skill set, you may want to consider smaller, boutique operations.
An IT recruiting company, for example, will have an easier time understanding what your needs are, and have a much higher chance of sharing an available pool of technical talent or solutions in line with what you need.
Larger companies usually don’t “drill down” to specifics like that and may offer you a wider range of somewhat qualified, perhaps less qualified choices.
On the other hand, if your hiring roster includes more general positions, you may be fine with larger companies to help bolster your IT recruiting process.
Terms
If possible, take a look at what contract terms you would be getting into when you sign a contract. Sometimes, when you get a good look at recruitment contracts, you will find that the terms include a lot of clauses and conditions you’re not especially happy with. And if you find upon asking, that those clauses are inflexible, and you’ll have to accept them, they might not be your best partner.
However, if you see terms you want to negotiate, and the IT recruiting company is willing to sit down and adapt to your needs, they may be precisely what you’re looking for.
Always be mindful of the terms and conditions you agree to when choosing an IT recruiting firm. The kind of contractual terms you encounter may be an indicator of future ease—or difficulty—in working with this company.
Ethics
An essential quality for any company is to possess a strong sense of professional ethics. Some companies may, in their efforts to secure more job candidates, falsify information. They may even be willing to include information on resumes that’s not true, or even coach applicants to give answers that aren’t representative of their skill set.
So, similar to reputation, it is important to make sure that the IT recruiting firms you interview are adhering to common professional standards like integrity and honesty.
You want to work with a company that will be honest with you and with your potential new hires. You don’t want to work with a firm that’s only looking to get your business, with no interest in cultivating a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.
We’re Here to Help You
Poly Tech Talent has the focus and responsiveness you need to find the professionals who can take your company to the next level. If you want the ultimate advantage in your IT recruiting, then reach out to us today. We’re looking forward to hearing about your needs and would love to work hard to meet them.
For more information to build the team you’ve been visualizing, visit our Guide to Hiring Executive Tech Talent Guide.