Originally Posted on ITProPortal.com
Finding the right recruiting company can be hard – learn how to make it easy.
As the software industry has exploded, recruiting firms have sprung up to fill the specialised needs of software companies. However, not all recruiters are made equal and finding the right recruitment partner can be the difference between success and failure. An added complication to the search for a great partner is the capability to support the search for go-to-market positions. Most software recruiting firms focus exclusively on technical roles and do not have the experience to effectively fill the go-to-market positions critical to the success of software products. Finding a partner that can support from start to finish saves time and money that would typically be lost when working with, and training, several recruitment partners who each only can service a single skillset of your company.
Are they full service?
Finding a great recruiting partner centres on a firm that can support the full lifecycle of hiring for your software teams. Your recruiting partner should excel at sourcing exceptional technical candidates as well as go-to-market employees.
Working with a single firm provides a critical advantage by eliminating the need for several different recruiting firms jumping in at different parts of the process. There are numerous advantages to a single recruitment partner, including simplified communications for your internal HR team and the ability for your recruitment partner to learn your preferences and process for the hiring of candidates.
Beyond attracting talent, working with a single partner creates a competitive advantage by giving your recruitment team the chance to build a deep understanding of your business. That understanding is critical because they will be an extension of your marketing team. The outreach they do is a representation of your brand to other industry professionals. Especially when working with passive candidates, as my firm does, recruiters become defacto brand ambassadors – often being the first contact your organisation will have with a potential employee. Having one firm that understands your business, and can speak the software language, is vital for your organisation to be represented accurately and professionally to in-demand talent.
Are they data-driven?
Data-driven firms produce results far more efficiently and successfully than those who do not rely on data. With results varying greatly between recruiting teams, it is critical that your recruitment partner is using cutting-edge, data-driven practices.
For example, tactics such as talent mapping should be used to understand the passive candidate market cost-effectively for a specific role. Then, a recruitment team can use the insights learned to provide data-driven insight into the number of individuals who match the criteria of the hiring profile. At Concero, we have found a data-driven approach to be invaluable by leveraging the data from our outreach to adjust current hiring profiles across projects as well as inform future hiring efforts to ensure alignment between available talent and the needs of the position.
With extensive use of data-driven tactics, an ideal partner will not just be able to provide real-time feedback for present and future hiring efforts, but also bring to bear a depth of experience from previous recruitment efforts to improve future projects. Insights gained from prior talent mapping and prospect research projects should be applied to optimise your organisation’s recruiting process. By tracking data points such as prospect response rates by channel, the optimum number of recruiter contacts needed before discontinuing outreach or job acceptance rates for specific positions, your recruitment partner can operate more efficiently on your behalf. Additionally, the learnings of previous efforts should be gathered and shared with you through a continual feedback loop to ensure hiring profiles are accurate thereby maintaining maximum hiring efficiency – an absolutely necessity in the highly competitive software talent market.
Are they scalable to your needs?
In an industry that moves as fast as software, a great recruitment partner must be as agile as you, with a pricing structure to match. Traditional contingent firms, who incentive structure revolves around charging placement fees, not only lack agility, but will duck filling difficult roles. To overcome the challenges presented by contingent recruiters, companies are beginning turn to recruiters that rely on flexible payment models that can scale to match your company’s needs.
For example, our team has pioneered a recruiting payment model not centred around placement fees, but mirroring the highly successful subscription-based payment models like Software-As-A-Service. This set monthly fee payment structure provides an unprecedented level of flexibility to business leaders and is something to seek out in a recruitment partner.
We have found that our subscription-based model allows our team of recruiters to continually work on those hard-to-fill positions unlike contingent firms who look for the low hanging fruit and give up on critical roles. This type of fee structure maximises the value software organisations get per dollar by incentivising your recruiting partner to pursue the right things all while providing predictability with a set monthly fee. These types of subscription-model contracts can be for durations as short as three months, providing flexibility for companies who are navigating fluctuations in hiring.
Finding the perfect partner:
Finding the right partner is always a challenge, but it is especially important in the world of recruiting where your long-term success depends on the employees sourced and hired by your recruiter.
When searching for a great fit, make sure to vet your partner by digging into their service offerings, their use of data and their ability to be agile in their response to your needs. By using the information above, you will have the edge in finding the perfect partner to get you ahead in the search for in-demand talent!
Amy Arenz CEO & Founder, Concero
