The unemployment rate is at or near an all-time low and organizations, now more than ever, are in need of IT help. Due to this, IT departments across the country are all facing a similar question, “Where to find qualified IT candidates?” Sure, they can ask their existing teams and HR departments to scour the internet looking for candidates to fill their open IT roles. However, technology is complicated and is filled with terms and acronyms that sound almost foreign (it basically is another language) so this approach may fall outside your HR department’s expertise. Your existing IT team members are of course qualified to identify potential hires but this would be taking them away from their current job duties, the ones they were hired to do, and stretching your team members even thinner. So what can be done? The answer is to partner with an IT staffing firm – like PSCI.
If your memory serves you well, or if you’re an avid reader of our blog, you’ll realize this topic sounds familiar. It’s true, we’ve talked about the benefits of partnering with a staffing firm in the past (The Benefits of Partnering with a Staffing Firm). In that post we talked about the benefits employers could expect to receive when partnering with a staffing firm, such as: low overhead costs, quicker hires, and an ability to conduct trial runs through making your positions contract-to-hire. However, those reasons were just the low hanging fruit. In this post we dive a little deeper.
Here are 3 more reasons your organization would be wise to partner with a staffing firm (more specifically, PSCI):
Market Knowledge
As an IT staffing firm who’s been in business for over two decades, we understand the IT hiring market. More often than not, we know which jobs will pose a challenge (due to needed skills, pay rate, location, etc.) and those where we can have candidates submitted within the day (e.g. Help Desk Technician). For example, if we receive a job posting from a client seeking an ETL Architect who possesses both Oracle BICS (Business Intelligence Cloud Service) and OBIEE (Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition) experience/knowledge, we’ll know it’ll be a tough find due to BICS being a relatively newer business tool/trend. And we’re able to advise our clients to that fact.
Another benefit to relying on staffing firm’s market and business knowledge is through consultation. For example, there are times we’ll receive job descriptions from clients where they’re attempting to backfill a long-term employee, one who has worn multiple hats and was responsible for many different disciplines. In instances such as this, we’re able to advise our clients they’ll most likely be needing two employees/contractors instead of one (there aren’t too many Java Developers with .NET development skills – the exiting employee learned one or both while in that role). Of course, that doesn’t mean we won’t at least attempt to find that needle in the haystack! But due to our market knowledge and insight, we’re able to effectively set those expectations.
Access to More Candidates
At PSCI, we have an extensive internal database of IT candidates that we’ve been cultivating and growing for the past 26 years. By partnering with us, you gain access to that database. No, we won’t give you a username and password, but every time a new position is released to us, you can trust we’re turning to that resource. We ask ourselves, who do we know and who have we worked with in the past that would fit our client’s needs. And you’d be surprised, many of these consultants can’t be found on professional networking sites (e.g. LinkedIn) or through the traditional job boards (e.g. CareerBuilder, Monster, Dice, etc.). That means we’re one of the few resources who has access to them.
Our network also consists of passive candidates – IT professionals who are currently employed but who are also open to new opportunities if the right one were to present itself. Because we develop relationships and form lasting connections with these candidates, we know what it takes to recruit them. In this way, we’re able to sell your role in a more effective way than you may be able to manage on your own.
You Get a Stronger Candidate
This isn’t true for all staffing firms but at PSCI, specifically, we won’t ever submit candidates without properly vetting them beforehand. There’s no “throw a lot of candidates at the wall and see what sticks” approach here. We know how valuable our client’s time is and we won’t waste it by submitting candidates who don’t match their needs (whether technically or culturally). With every candidate we present, we carefully pore over their resumes making sure they have the skills and experience required to do the job. But not only that, we also put each of our candidates through a technical screening process to verify their technical capabilities. Once our staff deems them qualified, then and only then, will they be submitted to the client for consideration.
So whether it be the low overhead costs, the quicker hires, the trial runs, the market knowledge, the access to more candidates, or the access to more qualified candidates, there’s little room for debate over the value a partnership with a staffing firm can provide.
Contact us today to experience this value firsthand.
