As the demand for tech skills rises and technology evolves at pace, companies looking to hire the talent they need must navigate a competitive terrain. Working with an experienced tech recruiter with valuable industry connections, a vibrant pool of talent, and a trained eye for emerging technologies is essential.
If you want to know how to find a tech recruiter with the ability to not only streamline the hiring process but to support you in achieving your unique business goals, here is your guide on how to research and vet your potential recruitment partner.
Put industry knowledge to the test
Number one on your vetting list is to assess a recruiter’s industry knowledge and expertise. Hiring for a tech role varies from sector to sector. It’s up to your hiring team to understand the current demand for tech talent, availability of candidates, market competition, and salary expectations within your particular field. Knowledge on developing trends, potential barriers and new opportunities within a given sector, and especially for rapidly evolving tech roles is crucial in being able to place the right candidate.
Ensure your requirements line up with a recruiter’s expertise
It’s also important to align your business’ technological requirements with the expertise of your hiring professional. For example, if you’re looking for a frontend developer, would your recruitment team appreciate the importance of good time management and communication skills, as well as the ability to code and proficiency in particular programming languages? Could they effectively pair your tech stack with a candidate’s skills and experience?
A simple way to test a recruiter’s depth of knowledge is to ask about recent hires for similar roles and any sector-specific challenges they have faced. Probe a little more to find out about the processes they use to match specific tech requirements with a candidate’s skills and experience.
Dig deeper on their track record
When considering how to find a tech recruiter, a straightforward approach is to assess their online visibility through search engines and social media activity. LinkedIn is a helpful platform where you can view endorsements and recommendations, and it can also help you understand the extent of their professional network.
Have a look on their website and see if there are any recent industry awards they have picked up. Browse their testimonials page to see if their reviews reflect a pattern of maintaining long-term partnerships, providing regular updates, and having the right technical knowledge. While it’s helpful to know what tech recruitment companies say about themselves, the experiences of others can often provide more valuable insights.
Analyse cases studies and be aware of ‘red flags’
Requesting to see recent case studies from a recruiter is also worthwhile. When reading through, consider the nature of the hiring challenge and assess the steps that were taken and the results that were delivered. See if there is a timeframe between the receipt of a brief and the delivery of a candidate shortlist. Is there mention of soft skills, cultural fit, and a strong network of contacts?
This phase of the vetting process is an optimum time to spot any red flags. Poor and out-of-date website content and a jobs board that is not regularly updated should raise doubts. Trying to hurry the process without taking time to understand your business and goals and a reticence to share information about candidates or progress are also reasons to be cautious. If you’re not feeling positive about their responsiveness and transparency, this could be your time to consider another recruiting partner.
Ensure effective communication
The successful placement of a tech candidate requires frequent and ongoing communication throughout the hiring process. Chasing for updates eats into your time and can cause frustration, so establish from the beginning how and when you will stay updated.
Be curious about sourcing and screening methods
An effective hiring strategy begins with project kick-off including evaluation criteria for shortlisted candidates, search strategy, briefings, and interviews. Your recruiter should also communicate the methods they use to identify candidates, such as internal and external sourcing and candidate mapping. How they shortlist is important, too. Will there be formal assessments and interviews at this stage? Ask your recruiter what’s involved in the initial and final stages and ensure that your business needs are translated clearly into candidate requirements to avoid any mismanaged expectations.
While the onus is on your recruiter to outline their hiring procedure, it’s helpful to provide details on the specific technical skills and experience required, the importance of achieving a cultural fit, and compensation package details from the start. This will help your recruiter apply the right criteria to their screening processes.
Check out their tech community connections
Finding a tech recruiter also involves examining their level of involvement in the tech community. Leveraging industry connections is a fundamental part of talent acquisition. Whether it’s attending conferences, contributing to online forums, joining networking groups, or hosting their own events, the more active a recruiter is in the tech community, the more likely they are to have access to the talent you need.
It is often at these events where new connections are made and relationships are developed with both active and passive candidates. When a recruiter has links with tech talent not necessarily in the market for a new role, the opportunity for them to find the most qualified candidates increases significantly.
Find out about the recruitment technologies they use
However, it’s important to remember that while maximising a recruiter’s network and contacts can pay dividends, all candidates must be able to meet your requirements. Ask your recruiter whether their talent pipelines contain the cybersecurity, AI, or cloud computing professionals you want, and find out about the screening processes they use to shortlist the most suitable prospects.
Another way recruiters leverage their network is through the use of recruitment tools and technologies. For example, CRM software helps them use their database to identify relevant candidate experience, run detailed activity reports, and allows colleagues to share knowledge with each other. A recruiter’s proficiency using data and automation technologies to source candidates further streamlines the hiring process and can give them a valuable competitive edge.
Assess long-term partnership potential
To help anticipate a tech recruiter’s capacity for ongoing support, it’s helpful to look at how their own teams work. Find out what they are doing to invest in their own business, who else are they working with, and the training they offer to ensure their teams are up-to-date on the latest tech hiring trends.
Also, as competition for tech talent grows, your hiring partner must understand that to stay competitive, they must adapt in unison with ongoing changes in technology. How they engage and educate their own teams with training opportunities and development programmes is a good indicator of their long-term commitment to tech talent acquisition.
Weigh up their level of engagement
Another way to test the potential of a lasting partnership with a recruiter is to gauge the level of interest they show in learning about your business. If they want to know about your strategic aims, transformation plans, and future developments, this is a good sign. A firm grasp of the vision you have for your business, as well as your hiring expectations, will ultimately help them source the right candidate.
Working collaboratively with a tech recruiter means that, as your business develops, you will be able to work together to find solutions now and in the future, and as both your business and technology evolve, they can support you in adapting your teams and readying them for the future.
Knowing how to find tech recruiters who will take time to understand your objectives, leverage their industry connections, and demonstrate solid sector knowledge requires a simple yet thorough approach. As winner of the Best Tech Recruiter award in 2022 and 2023 at the UK Business Tech Awards, the specialist consultants at La Fosse provide excellent tech talent solutions. To find out more, please get in touch with our recruitment team today.