Friday, November 29, 2013

Information Technology Staffing Firms Helps to find IT Candidates Faster

Information technology staffing firms tend to hang on to every talented IT professional they come across. They choose, retain and recruit the best IT professionals. Hence it makes perfect sense for a company to work with an IT staffing agency when it needs to find the best-of-the-breed IT professionals for its vacant positions. Though IT recruitment companies provide a wide range of staffing options, a staffing company can add real value by providing permanent staffing.

Why work with a staffing firm?

If a company is struggling to fill in a vacant position and doesn’t know how to post a vacancy advertisement to attract real talent, or if it feels it does not have time for posting advertisements, weeding through resumes - it is best to work with  information technology staffing firms. They not only assure to find candidates faster, but also assure good technological and psychological acumen of a candidate to promote a healthy work atmosphere.

Online Job Portals vs. Staffing Firms

Though there are online job portals that work as a meeting place for companies and IT professionals, these portals often lack the insight of an experienced recruiter. An IT recruiter has years of experience in recruiting candidates. He knows how to judge the technical knowledge of a candidate. He also understands that technological knowledge is not enough for a productive work culture. It is also important to judge the mentality of a candidate for a healthy working environment.

Staffing firms find candidates faster

IT recruitment agencies can also help in finding talent within strict time limits. If a company needs to have an IT professional on board within a certain time, it is better to work with a staffing agency. IT staffing companies usually have a large pool of pre-screened IT talent. Once they get a request, they try to match the request with one of their pre-screened candidates. This helps them to find candidates faster.   A boutique employment company, on the other hand, does not usually maintain such a pool and so it may take time to find the right candidate.

Ensures quality of candidates 

Information technology staffing firms also have specialized recruiters for specific technologies. Even when a company is looking for candidates for relatively newer technologies like PeopleSoft or SharePoint, it is not surprising to find an IT staffing agency with a recruiter who has specialized knowledge in this technology. He can successfully assess candidates for these technologies thus assuring companies about any candidate that they recruit through an agency. Each candidate is properly assessed and evaluated.

Can find replacements faster

An IT staffing company plays a very important role in replacement staffing. Suppose a crucial resource decides to leave a project in the middle and a business has to find a replacement as soon as possible. An IT staffing firm is an absolute necessity in situations like this. It can help find the right candidate faster than anybody else. They can also be relied on to be discreet when a company is looking to replace a resource they plan to let go.

Friday, November 22, 2013

The Success of Technical Recruiting Firms Depends on its Recruiters

Companies approach staffing companies and especially IT staffing companies to find candidates for their vacant positions faster. Moreover, when companies hire candidates through IT recruiting firms, they feel quite assured about the candidate. This is because the candidate has been properly screened by a technical recruiter. A recruiter has years of experience in screening IT candidates and finding the most appropriate candidate for an IT vacant position.  The glory of technical recruiting firms primarily rests on its recruiters. The recruiters are the strength of a staffing company because they do the tough job of finding the most appropriate candidate.

Becoming a technical recruiter is not an easy job. A person needs to have specialized skills for this. Let’s take a quick look at the primary responsibilities of a recruiter and then we will discuss the skills that he needs to have.

What are the responsibilities of a technical recruiter?

The primary responsibility of a recruiter is to fully understand the requirement of an IT position. He needs to understand what will be the day-to-day responsibility of the candidate. He also needs to understand the work culture of a particular business and accordingly find a candidate who can be productive in such an atmosphere. A recruiter needs to work closely with the company’s HR department and/or hiring manager.

He also needs to have some technological knowledge to understand the technical skills of a candidate and interview him.

A recruiter is also expected to be comfortable in all forms of interviewing including in-person, telephone or video interviews.

To carry out these tasks, a technical recruiter needs some specialized skills. What skills are required?

First, he needs to have good exposure to technologies. A recruiter should have good understanding of a particular technology so that he can specialize in it recruiting candidates in that technology.

Second, he needs to have that mental maturity to assess just not the technical knowledge of a candidate but also his mental makeup. This ensures that candidates that technical recruiting firms process promote a healthy work environment.

Third, a recruiter also needs to be inquisitive, so that he can ask questions of the candidates. He should be alert and listen to the answers a candidate provides and then ask the candidate to clarify, if he does not understand any part of the answer.

A recruiter needs to enjoy meeting and interfacing with new people every day. A recruiter needs to meet different types of candidates and employers (his clients - businesses) day in and day out. He must be a person who can enjoy this. Otherwise, soon this will become a boring and tedious job.

Lastly, a recruiter also must be able to build relationships with people. He needs to build strong relationships with candidates as well as with clients. He should be a master in managing relationships; this is the secret of a successful recruiter.  

Thursday, November 14, 2013

Benefits of Information technology staffing agencies

Information technology staffing agencies act as a bridge between IT candidates and companies. The need for IT candidates is not limited to IT companies. Almost every business needs IT candidates. Though there are firms that do IT staffing along with healthcare staffing or legal staffing, an IT staffing company is always better in finding the right candidate for a vacant IT position.  If a company is looking for an IT professional, why should it contact an IT staffing company? What are the advantages of an IT staffing agency over a general staffing firm?

Faster response

Information technology staffing agencies maintain a pool of pre-screened IT talent. When they receive a job requirement, they send it to a recruiter to match the demand with the skills of one of these candidates. This helps them in finding candidates faster. A general staffing agency might not be able to maintain such a huge pool of IT professionals.

Specially trained recruiters

It is not quite possible for a business to hire HR team members who specialize in every technology. An IT staffing agency on the other hand, has recruiters for specific technologies. It does not matter if you are looking for professionals for a technology like PeopleSoft or Share Point, the staffing agency has a specialized recruiter who is especially trained and looks into filling this vacancy.

Replacement staffing

A resource might decide to leave a company in the middle of a project. In such situations, IT staffing companies can quickly provide a new IT staff member who not only matches the technical needs of a project but is also a perfect match to the work environment of the company. Working with an IT staffing firm helps avoid decelerating the progress of a project even when a resource suddenly leaves.

No wrong hiring

The recruiter of a staffing agency has years of experience in finding and recruiting IT professionals.  A recruiter not only judges the technical knowledge of a candidate but also tries to ascertain his mental makeup. He tries to find out if a candidate will be comfortable and productive in a particular work culture.  This significantly reduces the chances of wrong hires. A wrong hires costs both time and money.  Mis-hiring can be reduced by working with a recruitment firm.

Allows you to focus on business

An employer may post an advertisement for a job requirement and receive tons of applications for the open position. Receiving applications from unqualified candidates will not do an employer any good. Rather they may waste time weeding through the unqualified resumes.  Typically an employment firm handles everything related to staffing - posting a job requirement, reviewing resumes, screening, interviewing candidates and also performing a skills assessment. It frees up your time so you can concentrate more on what you do better - your business.

An experienced IT staffing firm can make your hunt for the ideal candidate easy. It acts as a link between the demand and supply of skilled IT workers.