Today every company finds itself in need of qualified software developers and other tech professionals sooner or later. Hiring the best available talent, especially on a tight budget, is not an easy task. You can try and go through the whole process by yourself, or pay extra for the services of companies that specialize in finding developers all over the world for your needs. In this post, we will talk about IT staffing and how to get the most out of it. 

What Is IT Staffing

IT staffing is a general term for the process of finding and hiring tech talent for specific projects. Traditionally, in the last few years term is used almost exclusively to describe a variety of services provided by specialized agencies, but IT staffing can also be done internally, with help of existing HR departments or even by the business owner himself. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of using IT staffing agencies. 

Pros And Cons

First, let’s make a list of IT staffing advantages. Using a recruitment agency will save you a great amount of time and resources that can be used somewhere else in the development process. Hiring will generally go a lot faster. Because top IT staffing companies have impressive databases, the pool of tech talent available for you will be considerably wider. You can choose different models of cooperation depending on the type of work needed and the length of the app’s development. And finally, you won’t have to worry about confirming candidates’ qualifications, it will be already done for you by recruiters. 

Talking about the cons, the main one of course is money. Hiring an IT staffing agency is not a cheap option. Sometimes it can even double your wage budget. Also, when you outsource the hiring process, you give up some portion of control over the development process and not all business owners are okay with this. If you have minimal or even no involvement in the interviewing process, you can easily end up with a developer who doesn’t fit your corporate culture and lacks some crucial soft skills. 

Tips For The Staffing Process

If you decide to hire an IT staffing company to provide tech hiring services, there are several things you will need to do beforehand. Clearly define requirements for your future employee and the goals you want to reach with this hire. The IT market becomes more niche every day and without a clear understanding of what type of coder you need, the whole recruitment process just can’t be successful.  

Professionals recommend taking a good look at your existing team, maybe someone there can take on some new responsibilities and be trained for a new position, so you won’t need a new hire at all. If it is not the case, still evaluate every team member and overall structure to define weak links and skill gaps that new developers can help with. Also, defining clear roles for every team member, now and in the future, will help with general workflow and creating a clear and engaging job description. 

When the hiring process starts, don’t be afraid of remote hiring. There are a lot of talented developers overseas that have great skills and experience and are ready to work for lower rates. Remember, English proficiency in most countries grows every year and the language barrier is unlikely to become a serious problem. When negotiating terms with an IT staffing agency try to insist on personal final interviews with viable candidates. Even if you don’t have a tech background and theoretical knowledge to confirm their hard skills, a simple conversation can help you understand if a potential hire fits your team culture and has all the soft skills necessary for a job.

Don’t forget to check recruitment agency references, social media, and do general online research. There are hundreds of IT staffing companies on the market today and you need to make sure, you will end up with the best option possible. Take a close look at the list of additional services, like business analysis, project management, quality assessment, etc. This can be useful in the future. 

Alternatives

As we mentioned earlier, IT staffing services are not for every budget. If money is an issue, you can take a look at some alternative methods. First of all, you can hire freelance developers. Entrusting the whole development process to freelancers is pretty risky, but hiring them for some portions of work to augment your existing team can be a cheap and convenient option that many business owners prefer. 

Also, you can try and hire some in-house developers yourself. Tech talent can be found on job boards, social media, sites like Reddit or Github, coding competitions, professional conferences, and other places. You will save some money, but the whole process can be pretty stressful and time-consuming. 

Finally, you can go with an outsourcing agency. With this option, you will still have to pay extra, but it’ll still be cheaper than using recruiters. The company’s specialists will find a viable candidate using your list of requirements, usually offshore, for a relatively low price. This way, you won’t have to go through the interviewing process and the whole development process will be controlled by an agency. You can even find a whole dedicated development team overseas if you don’t have one already assembled, which can be pretty convenient. 

Final Thoughts

Recruiting tech talent can be a brutal task due to the market being overflowing with the inexperienced workforce, different stages of the development process needing different types of coders and dozens of other factors. Assembling a whole team to work on your project sometimes can seem impossible. But, if you are willing to pay extra, companies providing IT staffing services can make your life so much easier. Just pick the right agency, clearly define your goals and desired app’s features and the whole process will be over in no time. If you decide to go the other way and save some budget, talent recruitment can be a difficult, but overall rewarding job.