Hiring the best and most skilled people to work for you isn’t always a matter of offering good conditions and perks. You can offer the best, but still come short of finding fitting employees. Sometimes, all you need is a personal touch.
This is where IT recruitment consultants come in. IT recruiters are responsible for mediating the communication between a company and the job market. They humanize the recruitment process and help turn potential candidates into full-time employees.
But what exactly is the job of an IT recruiting consultant? What makes a good recruitment consultant, as opposed to a bad one? Let’s find out.
IT Recruitment Consultant: Responsibilities and Skills
The IT recruitment consultant role can be deceptively complicated. Anyone can find candidates for any given job, but dedicated and experienced recruiters can make the difference by applying their know-how and establishing matches that fit both your company’s culture and needs. These two factors are key to keeping your future employees happy and invested in their work.
What Do IT Recruitment Consultants Do?
Here are some of the most important responsibilities an IT recruitment consultant will take when hired by a company:
- Assess a company’s hiring needs: The recruiter should work closely with the client company to evaluate exactly what they are looking for and why, so they can better prepare to look for candidates. Technologies and languages the company works with are among the most important factors they should take into account, since they will come into play when initially screening candidates. They should also research the company’s culture so they can more easily discern if potential candidates are good fits.
- Create and implement strategies for recruitment: Depending on the type of position and the job market itself, certain recruitment strategies will be more fruitful than others. A recruitment consultant should be able to understand the differences and always apply the best strategy possible. Certain technologies, for example, will have specialized communities where recruiters can more easily find candidates that use it, and recruiters should be aware of them and use them to their clients’ benefit.
- Create and post job advertisements: Given the needs of the client company, the recruiter should be able to advertise the position with key points that are informative and, at the same time, make the position appealing to possible candidates.
- Search for potential candidates through networking: Along waiting for candidates to apply for the position, recruiters can also look for candidates themselves. IT candidates nowadays can be found in various places, but by far the best place to look for one is through professional social media sites, such as LinkedIn. Another option is the use of hiring databases that work agencies and other entities compile. A good IT recruitment consultant should have an ever expanding web of contacts that allows them to find a wide array of candidates that fit a company’s technological needs.
- Assess applications and resumes: Given a position to fill, a recruitment consultant should evaluate all candidates with rigor and be able to filter exactly who is fit for the role. This is where their knowledge of technologies and languages comes into play.
- Screen and interview candidates: A good recruitment consultant should take some time before an interview to become acquainted with the candidate’s progression and skills so they can make more pointed questions during the interview itself. The information gleaned from these questions will lead to better decision making during the future selection process. The interview itself is important not only to assess the candidate’s knowledge of the relevant technologies for the job, but also figure out if they are a good cultural fit for the company they are applying to.
- Match applicants to job positions: This is especially important when the client company is looking for more than one position to fill. Recruitment consultants can sometimes find candidates that can fit the company’s needs in positions other than the one it was being interviewed for or that they applied to, and should be able to direct the candidate accordingly.
What Should I Look For In A Consultant Role?
Now that we know what an IT recruitment consultant does, there are three main skills you should consider when working with an IT recruitment consultant:
1. A good knowledge of the technology and the job market: A good recruiter will stay up to date with the technology your company deals in. Certain, if not most, tech fields are complex subjects that cannot be understood fully with a short investigation. Software Development is very different from Cyber Security, for example, but each has their own complexities in different aspects of the field. The recruiter should be aware of these complexities so they can conduct better and more informed interviews, and also more easily filter candidate CVs to find the best options that fit your requirements, saving you money and time. They should also be able to adapt a company’s image and brand to match current job market trends when creating job advertisements.
2. A professional and diligent worker: You’ll want someone that represents your company well on all occasions. A recruiter should carry themselves with a professional demeanour, be it in communication (both written and spoken), and appearance. They should also take time to review your needs so they can accurately “sell” both the company and the position to possible candidates.
3. Good communication: A recruiter with good communication is essential. You’ll ideally look for someone that answers all manner of contacts (such as e-mail and chat) promptly and without spelling errors or inaccurate information. Your recruiter should have emotional intelligence and be able answer specific and difficult questions about the company, job, or its requirements with confidence and tact. Good spoken communication is also a must for conducting interviews.
Conclusion
The best thing about working with IT recruitment consultants is that they know their way in the business. IT is one of the most competitive industries, so having someone with contacts and expertise will save you money and time.
And lucky for you, we are here to help. At DistantJob, with more than 10 years of experience, we’ve been matching companies with skilled remote developers. With our resources and methods, we headhunt candidates with the skills, culture fit, and English proficiency you need. Contact us!
