Time is an extremely precious commodity for IT companies. They might often find themselves in a situation where they need to scale up their team rapidly. The company just won’t have the luxury of time to first seek applications from candidates, sort through them, interview the shortlisted candidates, make them offers and then negotiate before finally bringing them onboard.
If they have a time crunch on a project, they’re never going to make it. This is where IT staffing agencies can help. They simplify the entire process and enable the company to rapidly build remote tech teams that are fully aligned with their business needs.
Companies also have flexibility when it comes to IT staffing. They can hire a single software engineer if that’s all they need or set up a full-blown remote team.
IT Staffing quick overview
IT staffing is the process of using a third-party agency to help source and manage developers for specific tech positions. Whether it’s a short term need for a one off project, or a long term, ongoing role that’s hard to find, bringing in outside contractors to operate as in-house employees can be a smart way to scale a business’s capabilities over time.
Sometimes it’s confused with IT Outsourcing, but that has a broader meaning where you are looking to hire a complete team for a more hands-off approach.
It all starts with you and how fast you want to move
Even the best IT staffing agencies can’t do much to help you unless you’re providing them with the necessary information and details that they need in order to help you. Explain your needs and requirements to the staffing agency.
Give them insight into the culture of your company, the expectations that you’ll have from new hires and the workload that they’ll have to bear. Strive for open communication with your IT staffing firm, only then will they truly be able to help.
How do IT staffing companies work?
Creating an IT staffing plan is easier said than done. The agency that you work with will go through several steps to connect you with the most appropriate candidates. They include but aren’t limited to the following:
1. Sourcing
The best tech staffing agencies maintain a talent pool of skilled engineers, developers, designers, project managers, and other tech profiles from which they can draw from as and when needed. They continuously approach new talent and bring them onboard so that they can be rapidly deployed.
So when they receive a request from a client, the agency will sort through their talent pool to source the most qualified candidates for the job. They will then be recommended to the client.
2. Vetting
All of the candidates in the pool go through a strict vetting process. This ensures that their capabilities and skills have been adequately judged before they arrive on the client’s lap.
What the tech staffing agency is doing is increasing the probability of the client finding the right candidate quicker as the process involves understanding the candidate’s financial needs, professional experience and goals, as well as cultural alignment to the client company.
One important thing to mention is that this doesn’t replace the client’s interview process, it complements it as it is done before a single candidate is delivered for them to review. The company can then choose to pass that same candidate through their own interview process.
3. Coordinating interviews
Once the agency selects the most relevant candidates for the job, it will coordinate the interviews to reduce time-to-fills for the position.
Since the client has already been matched with the best-fit candidates, they can sail through the interview process and select the most promising candidate.
Staffing companies don’t just send the calendar invites, they ensure that both developers and clients are aware of the interview date and time, as well as provide reminders for both. As an added benefit some agencies even have a pre-interview with each developer to ensure they’re showcasing their best self.
What do the timelines look like when working with a staffing agency?
Many believe drawn-out timelines to be one of the biggest IT staffing risks but that’s not necessarily the case. For companies that are only just starting out with IT staffing, the initial recruitment process for new hires can take between 2 to 4 weeks.
The timeline is influenced not just by the pace at which the staffing agency works. The client’s contributions also play a major role in delaying or keeping the timeline in check. If they provide accurate details about the position, diligently follow up on the process, conduct interviews in a timely fashion then they can wrap up the process fairly quickly.
It’s also pertinent to note that filling a large quantity of roles or positions that require specific qualifications will take a bit more time. It’s best to provide the staffing agency with reasonable time so that it’s able to find the best possible candidate for the positions.
Tips to avoid IT staffing problems
You can start experiencing the IT staffing challenges even before making the first hire. This tends to be the result of poor coordination or communication with the agency. Keep the following tips in mind to avoid such problems.
Review and process resumes quickly
Once the agency recommends candidates, go through the resumes quickly. This ensures that both you and the agency will remain focused on the task at hand. Approving or declining the potential candidates will further enable the agency to provide you with exactly what you’re looking for.
There’s also the possibility that a candidate might be assigned to some other position if you took far too long to process the resumes that were sent to you. Remain diligent and work with the agency to find the perfect candidates. Taking longer than a week to make a decision with a candidate in this current market is too long.
Provide detailed feedback to the agency
When hiring a staffing agency, think of them as partners and don’t keep them in the dark. If you decline their initial recommendations or have a different point of view on something, make sure to provide them with detailed feedback.
Be as specific and thorough as you can. The more information the agency has the better they can adjust their parameters for sourcing and vetting, resulting in a better batch of resumes to review next time around and a higher probability of identifying the candidate you want to hire.
Be punctual when taking interviews
Punctuality is both polite and professional. If the agency has lined up interviews with potential candidates, always strive to be punctual when taking these interviews. It projects professionalism to the candidate and reduces the waste of time for all parties involved.
Remember that tech talent is being demanded left and right in this labor market, so they are also evaluating you during these interviews.
Extend job offers within 2 – 4 days of the last interview
So you’ve taken all the interviews and decided on the candidates you want to hire. Don’t keep everyone hanging. Ensure that job offers are sent to the shortlisted candidates within 2 – 4 days of the last interview.
This enables the agency to move quickly in getting all of the paperwork done so that the positions can be filled as soon as possible. It also provides clarity to the candidates about their job prospects and ensures your candidate is not hired elsewhere.
As a good rule of thumb, keep in mind that all engineers you’re interviewing are in 2 or more interview processes at the same time.
The one misconception about IT staffing agencies you should avoid
The biggest misconception about IT staffing agencies that people tend to have is that they’re too expensive. They think that it’s not worth paying the recruiting fees when they could just hire the person directly. What they fail to realize is the value gained and time saved by working with a staffing agency.
For starters, you can’t tap into as big of a pool as the agency can immediately. Sorting through all of the applications that do come in for a position will take more time as those that aren’t a good fit will take up time as well. Completing the entire process takes time and the longer the position remains unfulfilled, the higher the loss in productivity and revenues ends up being.
On the flip side if you’re shooting to hire international talent, you’re better off connecting with an IT staffing agency that has an already established talent pool and who understands where to find qualified candidates for tech positions. It reduces the learning curve of adapting to new markets which results in time and money saved.
Approach working with a staffing agency without this misconception in mind. It’s only going to help set you up for success.
How CodersLink can help
CodersLink is one of the best IT staffing agencies in the world. Our talent pool boasts over 15,000 pre-vetted front and back-end developers, full-stack developers, UX/UI designers, DevOps engineers, web developers and more.
We connect clients only with the best-fit candidates for their roles while also taking care of payroll, benefits and taxes for the candidates. CodersLink helps your developers get productive quickly and even evaluates their performance quickly to ensure that they keep giving their best.
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