Although it is easy to see that the Polish tech industry labor market is slowing down, still many organizations decide to open new positions. In what situations is it worth deciding to work with an IT recruitment agency and what benefits can your company expect?
What should you expect from a recruitment agency?
First of all, a provider of recruitment services should deliver you more than just candidate profiles. Even if the cooperation is supposed to be short-term and end after the team is completed, it is worth using the agency for the strategic development of the company. Perhaps your organization's recruitment processes are not tailored to the needs of Polish candidates? Our observations suggest that a feedback culture and contacting people who have not been hired has a positive impact on the company's image. It is also worth noting the quality of cooperation between Hiring Managers and recruiters, which can practically always be improved.
If your organization opts for RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing), working with a recruitment agency should also involve building your organization's image. Although Employer Branding is usually an additional responsibility of recruiters, not the main one, such activities have a huge impact on the effectiveness of their work. By creating an image of the client as a good and responsible employer, the recruitment agency significantly increases the chance of successfully closing vacancies.
Simultaneously, it is important for the recruitment service company to match the client's needs, not the other way around. The more boutique the agency, the simpler it is, but a lot depends on the internal policies and habits of recruiters. Due to the uniqueness of each client and the different organizational cultures, there is no universal recipe for a good Senior Java Developer or Project Manager that will work for every tech company.
Each company will expect different solutions and services. The candidates' personality profile and competencies are also significant. Therefore, it is important to precisely define your needs and place emphasis on specific aspects. Enforcing targets from a recruitment agency will be much easier if they are specified from the beginning. Also keep in mind the costs - they affect both the decision to cooperate and the choice of the model in which recruitment will be carried out. A detailed definition of your requirements can not only help you choose the right offer, but will also protect you from unpleasant surprises like exceeding your budget.
How to effectively work with an IT recruitment agency?
Every recruitment agency is hired to achieve specific and measurable benefits. If you already know what to expect from such a company, it is worth considering the very implementation of your assumptions. The first step should be to accurately and precisely determine the state in which your organization currently is. When conducting an audit, the person appointed by the recruitment agency should focus on analyzing:
- The methodology of creating the position;
- The ways in which job advertisements are written and promoted;
- The way of searching and screening candidates;
- The quality of the onboarding;
- The recruitment practices performed in the organization.
A detailed analysis is necessary to organize efficient and, most importantly, cost-effective processes. The audit will also resolve your doubts about the sense of cooperation - you will get a clear assessment of the situation prevailing in the company and, based on it, make a more informed decision.
Above all, emphasize regular communication with the recruiters serving your organization. Regular communication about the progress and development of processes is crucial and cannot be replaced by anything. Our experience shows that weekly meetings with clients clearly increase the effectiveness of cooperation. During them we discuss key process data, for example, the response rate of candidates, the number of specialists contacted and our ongoing observations. It is the feedback culture that will allow you to continuously improve the effectiveness of your recruitment.
Also keep in mind Employer Branding activities. Although EB is not the main task of recruiters, in the IT industry it is practically necessary. Generation Z is much more focused on the image of their potential employer, and there are many young people who reject offers from companies that seem close-minded.
Approach collaboration as flexibly as possible. While some of the procedures imposed from above must remain the same, many practices can be changed. In order to do so, it may also be worthwhile to go outside your organization. Market mapping in recruitment is key to success because your company never operates in a vacuum. Therefore, it cannot be ruled out that the conditions offered by your competitors are much more favorable to candidates, and it is this factor that makes it difficult to close positions.
When is recruitment outsourcing useful?
We can say with certainty that today's recruitment is increasingly based on outsourcing. RPO brings with it a number of benefits, the major ones being:
- Hiring an agency can be cheaper than creating an in-house recruitment team;
- The results of a recruitment agency's work are measurable and quantifiable, and if they are not, terminating the cooperation is easier than firing employees from the company;
- Recruiters working on behalf of your organization will help you develop best practices and build aligned teams;
- You gain access to market data that a recruitment agency can collect for many years;
- You receive the opportunity to use the professional experience of many people at once. It is very common for recruiters working in the RPO model to consult with other agency employees, which increases their efficiency.
For small organizations with a small and often also burdened leadership team, working with itMatch definitely facilitates strategic business management. Our clients do not engage their time or resources to carry out processes that we can do more efficiently and cheaply.
Although outsourcing is primarily associated with RPO, success fees are also worth mentioning. Such a model gives the client even more flexibility - you use and pay only when you acquire candidates.
When thinking about hiring an agency, think about the problems your organization faces. Maybe you need to take care of its image, change the way you screen candidates, or adjust the way you conduct interviews to the realities in Poland? While you may not be aware of many of the problems, diagnosing your current ills will definitely make it easier to partner with someone to provide you with recruitment services. Also pay attention to your current internal resources. If your firm has recruiters, but for some reason they are unable to perform all their duties, for example, due to the number of candidates needed, cooperation with an agency will be oriented to support rather than replace the internal team.
Recruiting niche specialists
It is surprisingly common for organizations to be unable to complete recruitment successfully. This is especially true for niche, highly specialized roles. While it happens that the help of even the best professionals will not be able to close all positions quickly, the chances are certainly much higher.
The primary reason is the know-how that each agency collects. In the case of itMatch, we are talking about more than 40,000 candidate profiles in our database. By working with more than 50 companies, our recruiters have had the opportunity to conduct thousands of interviews with candidates, as well as create hundreds of advertisements tailored to market standards. Whether we are looking for a senior data scientist, network engineer or manager, we base our recruitment on real data analysis and expertise.
Is itMatch the recruitment agency for me?
As a recruitment agency in Krakow, we usually serve international companies with centers in southern Poland and Wroclaw. However, this does not mean that we are limited to a specific area. We delegate our employees to companies in other cities, and often work completely remotely, also in the RPO model. Moreover, we can see that a large part of our clients recruit specialists from all over Poland, which definitely pleases the candidates. We can therefore conclude that regardless of your office mode and location, itMatch will match you.
When we establish a cooperation with a client, we provide much more than recruitment services alone. We strive to make the organizations we support not only candidate-friendly, but also effective in their operations. That's why we take care to contact Hiring Managers, and when recruiting for leadership roles, we interview people who will work closely with the new manager. Such activities not only tighten our search, but also ensure that the newly hired person will stay with the company longer because they will find themselves there. Matching the organizational culture is the key to successful recruiting, and it's what makes us stay with clients for longer.
As a relatively small team of 20 people, itMatch operates flexibly and efficiently. Thanks to our individual approach to people and clients, we make those around us have direct contact with us and feel at ease. Do you care about flexibility, efficient operation and business partnership? If so, then itMatch will be an excellent choice.
Summary
As you can see, cooperation with an IT recruitment agency is definitely worthwhile, although you have to remember that it must not be taken hastily. You will gain a lot from it, and your team will expand with qualified employees ideal for your position.
Still wondering if your company needs the help of an IT recruitment agency? Or maybe you have just decided to cooperate with itMatch? Don't wait, contact us!