Having worked and selected software engineers for more than 5 years in the HR sphere, I’ve recently realized that it’s only now when I’ve truly understood the true value of recruiting. And this is when I well succeeded in creating IT teams for clients around the world and got a lot of nice feedback. I’ve set up my own team of IT recruiters. With all the knowledge that I had now, I’ve started to actively develop it. This is my story…
It took me quite a while to find the “right” staff, frankly speaking. Those people who I wanted to hire, seemed to get rooted to their offices and I couldn’t entice them to leave their jobs. Available recruiters simply didn’t meet my requirements. They either had different values or lacked qualifications. I wondered what happened to our market and where all the good specialists were! After viewing dozens of CVs, I’ve discovered a very interesting thing – the majority of our clients faced the same kind of problem. And all those clients, who are like me were concerned about the qualification of their staff, managed to succeed in their business and seize the leading positions in the market. I’ve remembered a well-known cite from Jim Collins “Good to Great” –
“Who” goes first, “what” goes next”
This discovery got stuck in my head. I could clearly see that people are the true foundation of any business. The personnel is what should be really valuable.
I divided all the clients I’ve ever talked to into three groups:
1) those ones who don’t understand the value of people in the team; they usually say “We don’t understand what recruiters are paid for at all”;
2) those ones who understand the value of the right people in the team; unfortunately, they usually lack financing and consequently, look for a candidate through their own networking;
3) those ones who put this value forth and who are ready to pay for recruiting service; they are usually very demanding and selective. I love such clients!
Having “walked in the shoes” of my clients, I’ve realized that to find the best fit for a company is the most satisfactory feeling that managing directors and founders can have. I pictured what it would be like if I, a founder of a recruiting company, hire some other recruiters to find an IT recruiter for our team..? I liked that thought. I knew the rates of recruiters but still was determined to do so.
However, being a customer of a recruiting agency, I have certain expectations – those values that I’d be ready to eagerly pay for:
1) Find candidates who I can’t find myself;
2) Understand the qualification of a candidate. A recruiter should understand the field as well (in my case, the IT recruiting field);
3) Check recommendations of other employers;
4) Understand specification/values of my company and the whole hiring process;
5) Have big networking amongst candidates who can be interesting for me;
6) Be quick in response.
These are the true values of recruiting which can significantly save me time and relieve my daily schedule. I expect such support could solve my burning question – “Why is there such a lack of good specialists in the market today?”
Enjoy your discoveries!
