What to Look for in an IT Staffing Firm

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Finding an IT staffing firm is easy. Finding one that stands by their work, communicates timely and effectively and provides coverage over a wide array of skills and scenarios, is not.  Add these items and attributes to your checklist when evaluating who you’ll partner with.


 

Flexibility

Maybe your company prefers to only pursue full time, permanent hires, or perhaps you focus primarily on temporary, contract resources. Maybe you’ve jumped on board with the trending temp-hire model.  If you are married to any one specific talent acquisition model, then finding a firm that specializes solely in that area can’t hurt.  However, should you want to keep your candidate options open and consider multiple scenarios, you should seek a firm that has experience placing various types of professionals across a variety of working situations.  When a staffing firm can adapt to your specific needs and speak your language to candidates, you’ll see the return on the back-end both in quality applicants and fewer rejections and negotiations.

Generation

It’s simply not enough to rely on any one source or method to identify quality candidates these days.  Whoever you partner with to address your IT staffing needs should be diverse in their resume and candidate generation strategies.  shutterstock_86885704Obviously, firms that have been around a while have built and maintained a rich database of resources; but that needs to be supplemented in other areas that does not include surfing the usual job boards.  Find a Staffing Firm that is on the cutting edge of social media, that belongs to a host of user groups and associations, that attends industry related conferences and trade-shows and utilizes strategic partnerships with niche technology vendors.  Having these tools at your disposal will certainly help to identify the desired passive candidate and keep the pool of potential applicants flowing.

Availability

The life of a Hiring Manager is typically hectic to say the least.  Sometimes, there are not enough hours in the day to put out fires AND address issues requiring immediate attention; throw in reviewing resumes and interviewing candidates, and you’ve got a long day!  Your staffing firm and Account Manager should be flexible, able to answer questions and provide additional information within hours, not days and after business hours.  You also need a firm with a proven screening process in order to save you wasted time reviewing and interviewing the wrong people.  How thorough is their screening process?  Do they offer any technical testing or have in-house experts to assist in the pre-screening process? Do they ask the tough questions to assure the candidate’s goals align with those of your company, and the specific position in consideration?  These are questions you’ll want to ask before engaging a firm in search.

Integrity

This is a word often used in life, but sometimes can lack context.  Any staffing firm that claims their candidates always work out and claim to have ZERO issues with their resources is either delusional, dishonest or has been in business for about… 2 days.  The fact of the matter is regardless of how thoroughly a staffing firm screens candidates, unexpected and unforeseen issues do sometimes arise.  The question is how do they respond?  What effort do they put in to make the situation right?  Your staffing partner should work on the problem until all parties walk away satisfied with the resolution.

Have you experienced any of these situations firsthand?  Please let us know what you look for when deciding what company to utilize for your IT hiring and staffing needs.


If you want to learn more about our staffing, recruiting or professional services, schedule a free consultation to discuss how we can help you find right candidate or consultant for your business.


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