Partner not service provider – How to get the best from your tech hire recruiter

Partner not service provider – How to get the best from your tech hire recruiter

Partner not service provider – How to get the best from your tech hire recruiterWhen you look to hire a new team member for a technical environment, you need to make sure that you are hiring the right person.

A bad hire

A bad hire can literally cost thousands in lost time, effort, training and of course salary. It could also have a very big impact in the workplace because changing personnel is an unsettling process. Worse still, if you have been unfortunate enough to have hired someone who brought in or developed a toxic personality, you will know the impact the wrong person can have on morale and productivity. A bad hire can be an immediate problem, a difficult HR issue to resolve, and the repercussions can rumble on for some time after the employee has left the company.

Unfortunately, we are also in an industry where the cost of staff is higher than average, particularly if specialist skill sets are involved, and the availability of suitable candidates may be limited. In short, hiring right can be the difference between a successful team that produces high-quality work and a difficult route to market with torturous development.

Get the most from the recruitment process

Here are a few things we suggest to our clients to make sure they get the most from the recruitment process.

  • Never skimp on the requirements, and make us fully aware of what sort of candidate you are looking for. In the current skills shortage impacted market you may need to compromise a little, but the more we know, the more we can help. It is very easy to underestimate what are often seen as fringe skills for example. A missing software proficiency or training need that comes up after the hire can be a nasty surprise. The more we know, the more options available to us to tailor your recruitment.
  • Money is not the biggest motivator. It is certainly true that your offer must be market value or better to attract a good candidate, but this is not all they look for. To a high earner, a few hundred a year is probably not going to swing it. Try and add other benefits to the offer such as flexible working or additional vacation time. These are things with a much lower cost to you but a higher value to the candidate. Even something as simple as a parking space can be a big motivator for an undecided candidate.
  • Make a fast offer and get the candidate on your team as soon as possible. When a candidate is ready to make the move, they are usually eager to go. A fast offer and a start date that is as soon as convenient for them says you are serious about your offer.
  • Skills are not everything so let us know more about who you want. There is a very understandable tendency to lean on hard skills and experience in the technology industries. This is clearly your starting point and the watershed for unsuitable candidates in many cases. However, the candidate is a person, not a list of skills. The perfect candidate will fit your company ethos and values as well as the personality you need on the team. Which brings us neatly to the most important advice…
  • Build a relationship with a recruitment partner rather than a service provider. The one advantage internal recruitment has is that the person hiring knows the company. Beyond that internal hiring is not cost effective or productive in most cases, so the obvious solution is to ensure your recruitment partner knows you, your company and your business needs as if they were internal. As partners we can look for a solution together, as a service provider we are missing an important piece of the jigsaw.

 

If you work closely with your recruitment partner, you stand a good chance of avoiding the dangers of a bad hire and getting the team you need.

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