In today's fast-paced digital age, finding top IT talent can be a real challenge. That's where IT recruiting agencies shine. They offer solutions tailor-made for your needs, powered by advanced technology. They bring a larger pool of qualified candidates, thanks to their extensive networks and experienced sourcing strategies.
These agencies don't just know how to find talent—they understand IT. They keep up with industry trends, understand fair compensation, and even help you reach those not actively job hunting. Plus, they offer a better candidate experience, reflecting well on your company.
In short, an IT recruiting agency can simplify your hiring, save you money, and bring you closer to the perfect fit. So, let's dive into 11 reasons why investing in an IT recruiting agency is a smart business move.
1. Customized Recruitment Solutions
Before they start working with you, IT recruiting agencies build a thorough understanding of your organization. They work closely with you to understand your company's culture, the job role, and the required skill set for the position. This approach allows the agency is able to build a recruitment strategy that's built around your specific needs.
The best agencies go beyond publicly-available information, like what can be found on your website. Experienced IT recruitment services get to know everyone who will be involved in the hiring process. Delivering a candidate that's "objectively" a great fit isn't actually helpful unless the hiring manager agrees!
Taking time to learn about your current candidate experience and company culture helps tech recruiting agencies find success more quickly. Perhaps more importantly, this knowledge also increases the likelihood of a new hire staying with your company longer. Research from Robert Half showed the most likely things (other than poor performance) to lead to a failed hire are:
- Mismatched skill set
- Unclear performance expectations
- Personality conflicts
Not all "Software Developer" roles have the same skill requirements or performance expectations. Knowing what your company is looking for, what you expect, and who has those expectations is critical! Companies should be searching for "IT recruiters that get me" instead of "IT recruiters near me".
2. Leverage of Technological Systems
Recruiting is complicated, no matter if you're hiring for a niche role or a high-volume one. Conveniently, there are lots of SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms available to help. Inconveniently, they take a long time to learn and even longer to get the most out of. Plus, your first SaaS choice might not be the "right" one for your company, which will only waste more time.
A quick Google search shows ATS (Applicant Tracking System) companies that advertise things like:
- "2-4 weeks from sign-up to going live"
- "We're able to complete your data migration in 12 weeks or less"
If you need hires now, you don't want to waste an entire month just getting the software ready! This is another strength of using IT recruitment agencies; they're already expert users of these platforms. They know how to set up the automations, tasks, application process, screening, and scheduling already. As soon as they know who they're working with and who they need to hire, it's time to start receiving applicants!
With the rapid growth of AI in hiring, this is one of the biggest current benefits of working with an agency. Recruiters at these agencies are always looking for ways that technology can improve tech marketing and find tech talent more quickly. As a result, you can continue to focus on your business while they focus on the technology behind finding you employees.
3. Access to a Larger Pool of Qualified Candidates
Partnering with an IT recruiting agency has many advantages. One of these is access to a larger pool of qualified candidates. This comes from extensive network connections and software platforms that don't make sense for most companies to invest in.
For example, good recruiters hiring for senior-level positions at top companies will keep track of candidates that don't get hired. These recruiters develop an extensive "collection" of qualified individuals who weren't right for someone else but might be right for you.
4. Access to Passive Talent
This is kind of a "3b", but gets its own entry because of how often Passive Talent is still overlooked. Passive Candidates have the skills you want for your role, but they might not be actively applying for jobs right now.
Not only are IT recruitment agencies experts at locating these passive candidates, but they're better at engaging them. There's a science behind knowing when to contact a candidate who isn't actively searching for work. The best information technology recruiters know the science, and use it to deliver you candidates before they even look elsewhere!
This "first mover" advantage can't be understated; you get the advantage of a good fit without competing against other job offers.
5. Advanced Sourcing Techniques
Beyond the personal networks and contacts that tech recruiters already have, their agencies usually have access to specialized sourcing tech. For example, it's increasingly common for agencies to use "programmatic advertising" solutions to source candidates. These kinds of solutions allow for much more targeted advertising and searching than standard job boards. The drawback is that they're often too expensive or "niche" for many companies.
By working with IT recruiting agencies, you get the benefit of these software platforms without the cost (or long-term contract)!
6. Experience in Recruiting for IT Roles
For as long as companies have been hiring, having recruiters with relevant experience has often been undervalued. Many companies put together a job description and assume they know enough to start interviewing candidates. When your recruiters get their interview questions from ChatGPT instead of from experience, you wind up with unqualified hires.
Experienced IT recruiters know what questions they can ask to catch a candidate off-guard and make them think. This ability only comes with long-term experience hiring for related roles. If you've only hired a few IT roles, you'll miss important details and increase the chance of a bad hire.
7. Knowledge of Industry Trends
As we mentioned earlier, AI is rapidly entering the world of recruiting technology. At times, it's tough for even dedicated recruiters to keep on top of the new tools and techniques coming out. It's nearly impossible to understand the value of new software without hands-on experience. It's even more difficult to know if "good" software will help your company with its unique goals.
Full-time IT recruiters experience market trends first-hand, and their personal networks inform much better than Google searches. This is another example of the time savings you get by working with agency recruiters; less evaluating, more hiring. Count on your agency partner to know whether new tech is a trend worth paying attention to or not!
Additionally, this level of connectedness with the industry means they have firsthand experience with things like comp and benefits. A Realtor is a better source for up-to-the-second market data in their city. An experienced IT recruiter is a better source for up-to-the-second job market compensation and benefit comparables.
8. Understanding of Compensation Standards
Understanding market salary trends and competitive compensation for new hires is especially valuable for growing businesses. If you're still in the process of growing your IT team, you need outside input to be competitive.
Recruiters know what's fair and what isn't, and that helps them filter out candidates who make ridiculous salary requests (for example). The last thing you want is to pay way more than your budget for someone who's just really good at interviewing. Professional IT recruiters have seen it before, and are far less likely to be tricked.
9. Cost-Effective Hiring
This part is often tricky to evaluate for companies, especially companies that are growing. It's really easy to see the up-front cost of working with an agency. However, most companies don't have data to show the unrealized money they lose when they don't hire quickly. It's just as common for companies to be unaware of the money wasted by making a bad hire.
Here's a paragraph from last week's blog post that's equally applicable here:
"According to a 2019 Gallup report, a single employee's replacement cost is between 1/2 and 2x the employee's annual salary. This is apparently a "conservative estimate", but they go on to give a more tangible example of the implications. A 100-person company with average salaries of $50,000 could have replacement costs between $660,000 and $2.6 million in a single year."
These numbers show the remarkable cost of replacing production your company already had. However, if your company is growing, the unrealized potential earnings could be even more. A bad hire (or no hire at all) can bring your growth to a screeching halt before it even starts.
Suddenly paying a monthly agency fee doesn't seem so ridiculous if it means your company's growth doesn't have to slow down.
10. Better Candidate Experience
It's simple: dedicated recruiters who know the industry provide a better experience for candidates. When your job is finding and engaging with candidates, candidates don't fall through the cracks.
According to CareerBuilder, nearly 4 in 5 candidates say their experience as a candidate indicates how a company values its people. In an age where it's never been easier to find company reviews from employees and candidates, this number carries tremendous weight.
Many companies let candidates slip through the cracks because they aren't the right fit for a certain role. Those same companies can suffer from long-term hiring problems when they develop a reputation for treating candidates poorly.
Experienced recruiters know how to help you avoid these pitfalls, and as a result, your company's reputation continues to grow!
Summary
If you haven't worked with experienced IT recruiters, the value of them (and their agencies) can be hard to imagine. Thankfully, realizing that value can be as easy as sitting down for a few phone calls to evaluate some agencies.
Hoops HR is one of many agencies that specialize in everything we've covered in this article. From our experienced recruiters to the technologies we use, we might be just the solution you're looking for.
Want to learn more about how Hoops HR can help you hire top talent for your IT roles?
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