Company Connect: The IT Recruitment Auction

A stable IT recruitment company provides sought after services in the IT industry.  The increasing demand for qualified professionals with technical ability in an ever expending market leaves employers fighting over the best candidates.  The lack of proper technically trained individuals in the orthodox job market has lead to an increase in business for IT recruitment specialists and recruitment agencies who are able to pre-qualify candidates and access networks of high caliber individuals.

Job boards might provide the occasional temporary solution to a client’s needs but a company solely focused on providing specialized IT recruitment services is a major attraction to the industry. While job boards can prove fruitful in industries where candidates can be found in great numbers, IT Recruitment relies on access to technically trained candidates with specific, much sought after skills.  Despite recent economic changes and the global increase in candidates pursuing careers in IT, the market remains specialist and fragmented, often leaving a candidate with multiple job offers to choose from.  A specialist IT recruitment agency will manage the number of applications, leaving the client free to search through the most relevant CVs.  They will also manage candidate expectations and mediate during the negotiation process.  This goes far beyond negotiating salaries and a recruitment agency will very often keep in constant contact with a candidate throughout the recruitment process.  They work to keep the
candidate engaged, a service which is invaluable in a market where a good candidate will very often be interviewing with different companies.  If a client’s recruitment process is delayed or stalled while internal decisions are made, the recruitment consultant maintains contact with candidates keeping both sides updated about the latest situation.

Unlike job boards alone, IT recruitment agencies are able to provide solutions to company needs.  They are in a position to provide feedback about job specifications and can predict likely responses.  They also very often have access to contract workers and may be able to suggest more cost effective solutions to project needs aside from a usual recruitment process.

Agencies’ access to job boards far outweighs that of recruiting clients who have budgeting constraints restricting the number or type of boards they use.  They have access to multiple job boards at any one time including regional and specialist sites.  They also work tirelessly to expend their database of candidates through formal CV submission and informal social networking sites.  It is this collaboration of techniques which leaves them ideally placed to search for qualified IT personnel. Furthermore, they are able to employ testimonial and referencing services prior to an offer being made.  An IT recruitment company can provide a bespoke service at the client’s request giving the client freedom to asses a relevant list of properly qualified candidates with the right area of expertise to benefit their business and achieve the completion of their projects.

Job boards, on the other hand, can deliver large numbers of CVs and where a company has the resources and time to assess these it can be an effective process.  This can be particularly useful in more generic industries where specialist technical skills are not required.  It is likely however, the client will trawl through hundreds of CVs only to find a small number with the relevant qualifications and an even smaller number worthy of interview.  In the IT recruitment industry, where the quality of candidates varies considerably and applications can be received from all corners of the world, using a recruitment agency can avoid wasted time and money.  Furthermore, most IT Recruitment Agencies provide a rebate period protecting the client from financial costs if the candidate turns out not to be suitable.  The cost of an advert on the other hand, which can cost up to and in excess of £1,000, cannot be recouped.

One of the primary objectives of an IT recruitment agency is to search for the most relevant candidates who not only have the technical skill necessary to do the job but also have the right personal attributes to compliment a client’s company culture.  An agency will put forward individuals most suited to a client’s needs and will manage the recruitment process through to the candidates first day at work.