Recruitment Consultants in IT: Their Role

Finding and hiring a talented well-suited specialist for the job place is always a challenge. It becomes nearly impossible to attract specialists and scale up when 66% of millennials are considering quitting their job if the job conditions are not satisfactory, as stressed by Forbes. What’s more, EY Global reports that millennials are twice as likely to leave their jobs compared to baby boomers.

It is prime time to use the persuasive talents of IT recruitment consultants to win those specialists over and make them move to your company. In this article, we’ll discuss the specifics of recruitment consultants in IT services consulting, how to choose the right expert, and where to look for them. Recruitment consultants in the IT industry play a vital role in connecting businesses with top talent, bridging the gap between hiring needs and skill availability, whether it’s to hire software developer freelance or tap into the expertise of creative staffing agencies.

Who Are IT Talent Acquisition Consultants?

Like any type of consultancy, recruitment consultancy involves assisting businesses with building the right strategy and plan for achieving goals, i.e., hiring top talents for the project or the company. IT recruitment consultants specialize in advising on the recruitment process, building a working hiring process, developing a recruiting methodology, and enhancing the knowledge and experience of the existing HR department. 

In some cases, IT recruitment consultants can also participate in the hiring process itself and assist the company with hiring the right candidates for the job position. This can be done on-demand upon initial agreement, and there are many different specialties within IT recruitment consultancy a business can opt for. For instance, a talent acquisition consultant can guide the company specifically on how to attract the right talent to the organization and make the best job offer to the selected candidates.

One of the main goals of the in-house HR department is to create a positive impression of the company and provide a positive hiring experience for all candidates. On the other hand, the main goal of the recruitment consultant is to make sure the HR department and the organization as a whole can achieve its hiring goals after being better equipped with recruitment knowledge and instruments. 

Why Companies Around the Globe Turn to IT Recruitment Consultancy: Top 5 Reasons

The primary competence of an IT recruiting consultant or consulting agency is to understand the client’s needs from the very beginning and advise on how to source and hire the most suitable IT expert to meet these needs. 

Although it may sound easy and obvious, it’s not that simple in the recruitment process, as the more qualified expert you need, the harder it may be to find and recruit them. Besides, companies that want to create a competitive product need to attract not just skilled but highly qualified personnel, which makes things even more difficult.

For this and more reasons, businesses hire IT consulting recruitment agencies and move from standard recruiting to headhunting and executive search:

• To lure the best talents. It is crucial to have the best specialists in your company in a highly competitive environment. Often, companies do not have the resources to lure specialists from competitors. Thus, they require recruiters who can provide various services that include attracting, more often poaching, a specific specialist or leader. Also, they perform a directly targeted search to find highly qualified personnel: top managers, line managers, and specialists with rare knowledge and skills. For this level, it’s hard to lure specialists with standard recruiting methods. 
• To save time. Searching for a specialist is a time-consuming process that can drag on for months in the absence of experience and a particular network. On average, the search for one employee can last about a month. Hiring recruiting agencies help speed up finding and hiring professionals of any caliber.
• To get extra recruiting resources. If you need to hire a dedicated team for a large new project, and the internal HR team cannot cope with the volume of work, then contacting IT recruitment consultancies helps relieve the load on internal departments. Also, it can help find temporary specialists who clearly understand how to solve the company’s problems quickly and efficiently.
• To get expertise in market knowledge. Professional agencies monitor salaries and compensations and study labor market trends. It is a complex process that requires specific skills and dedication. Yet, it is necessary to collect and analyze information from open sources and find a way to get to local channels of inside sources. Knowledge of the entire executive search process, from direct search, market research, monitoring salaries, and bonuses to effective poaching, is what a recruiting agency is hired for.
• To expand the hiring area and start outsourcing. To do this, you need the help of local IT recruiting consultants who can orient you on the market situation in a particular country, the general level of costs, salaries, general rules for taxes, and the level of IT specialists.

Professional Recruitment Consultancy Vs IT Recruiting Services

A company looking for IT recruitment services may face the problem of recognizing which services they need – consulting or recruiting. Oftentimes, because of the misunderstanding of these two solutions, businesses may not be fully satisfied with the outcome. 

While IT recruiters on demand can help you with sourcing and hiring new employees on behalf of your company, from crafting a job description to conducting preliminary interviews, IT recruitment consultants equip you with information and insights on hiring the experts needed. For example, they can suggest or consult on the job market trends, both locally and globally if it’s within your interest.

Recruitment consultants IT can provide your business with a complete picture of what is happening in the IT labor market, what specialists are in demand and what specialists can help your project, the average salary of such IT experts, and what trends generally exist. An IT recruitment strategic consultant can also help the business to build a hiring strategy for scaling up, guide on the market trends and outsourcing specifics, suggest the latest methodologies for recruiting and retaining talents, and more. 

And, if needed, the IT recruitment consultant can also help you implement the planned hiring activities to achieve the desired results, taking on the role of the external IT recruiter.

IT Recruitment Consultant: Roles and Responsibilities

The consultant in the IT industry is a quickly evolving profession with an expected growth rate of up to 5% within the next five years across the US. Besides, it is a highly demanded profession with more than 20,000 job positions opened and an average rate of $62,648 a year, as per Indeed data, since the recruitment consulting specialist offers a wide spectrum of services. 

IT recruitment consultants are specialists who advise on the right actions and help accompany the hiring process from beginning to end. Consultants know the employer’s basic requirements and try to understand the requirements and needs of the candidate to ensure successful employment. It ensures a successful recruitment process and guarantees a higher retention rate.

The main tasks and responsibilities of IT recruitment consultants may also include:

• Understanding the client’s needs. They understand the business tasks, ask the right clarifying and verification questions, find out important requirements and restrictions on the position, determine its critical competitive advantages, and attract and retain the company applicant.
• Assessing market conditions. They assess the market and the adequacy of requirements and conditions. They monitor the salary rates and determine the search potential for a vacancy with the existing requirements and level of payment. They also assess the need for adjustments, offer alternatives to the client, and, if necessary, convince the customer to adjust the requirements for the position.
• Right recruiting means. They choose the best channels to post vacancies and search for candidates to build an effective search system. They know which communication channel is the most effective for the position and don’t waste resources on low potential options.
• Completing job description. They can competently formulate the vacancy offer for different media and know the language and tone to attract the desired candidate. 
• Communication is key. They communicate appropriately with candidates. Ask all the necessary questions, make a high-quality business impression, check interest in the vacancy, and more.

Resume Example of an IT Recruitment Consultant

To correctly formulate an IT recruitment consultant job description, you need to have a clear idea of the scope of tasks and responsibilities assigned to the candidate. A well-defined resume will help you quickly find a specialist at the level you need. Here is a rough resume for an IT recruiting consultant that includes their main skills and responsibilities:

How Much Does IT Talent Acquisition Consultant Make Around the World?

The services of an experienced recruiting consultant usually cost much higher than a general recruiter, as it involves deeper knowledge and specific experience in the industry. Often, along with the services of a consultant, you get access to their network built up over the years of work.

Naturally, consultants’ salaries vary mainly depending on the work area. Thus, the talent acquisition consultant salary in the US can be around $5.220 per month, which is almost two times higher than the UK rates with an average paycheck of $4,080 monthly and an average salary of $3.921 per year in Germany. The salary of a Senior talent acquisition consultant in Switzerland can get to even $7.713 per month and is much bigger than in other European countries. 

That is why many companies pay attention to more promising agencies in Eastern Europe, with Ukraine being one of the talent supply location leaders. The average salary of a consultant in Ukraine is $3,700* monthly.

*Ukrainian salaries are provided based on Mobilunity’s Recruitment Team research on the local job markets. All salaries are net and do not include the service fee (in case of hiring on a dedicated team model). The salaries are provided for comparison purposes and could be not entirely accurate. Contact us to know the exact cost of hiring a developer corresponding to the required parameters.

How to Select Experienced IT Recruitment Consultant

A recruitment consultant differs from a general recruiter whose task is to find the right specialist. The executive recruitment consultants can perform a thorough search for candidates among competing companies and freelancers and use all the persuasion skills to lure them to work for their clients. If a company wants to find a specialist for top positions, such as directors, top managers, and the like, with the help of the IT recruiting consultant, it’s important to be confident in the consultant’s skills and expertise. Here are what features to look for when working with IT recruiting consulting experts:

• Market knowledge. The consultant is knowledgeable and can provide you with the latest and expected market trends that employers should pay attention to.
• Successful experience in executive search and high-level headhunting. If you’re looking for an IT hiring consultant who can help you with the recruiting process itself, note that such consultants undergo long-term training, acquiring skills in selecting exclusive personnel. Therefore, make sure to look for the relevant qualifications and proven experience.
• Clear critical thinking and ability to understand the needs of the company. A real specialist will not immediately provide you with people from their list. He will carefully study the company’s needs before looking for a candidate for a vacancy.
• A network. There is nothing more important for a hiring consultant than the ability to find the right people in the right place quickly. The consultant must have excellent networking in the corporate environment and a recruiting world to know where to look for the needed experts and who can help them on the way.

Mobilunity – Your Reliable Provider of Recruitment Consultancy Services in Ukraine

Hiring an IT consultant recruitment agency implies having a reliable contractor, guide, and consultant at hand. By partnering with a reliable staffing agency, the company can receive a competent advice on the labor market, a guarantee of confidentiality, and time savings. 

Among Ukraine-based IT recruitment consultancy services providers, Mobilunity is a well-established name with 12+ years of experience, dozens of happy clients, and a number of specialists ready to offer you top-level IT recruitment consultancy services. Our clients note our professionalism, transparency, and synergy effect from working with Mobilunity experts. The recruitment process includes the initial market research, candidates interviewing, and negotiation of job offers, so you can find and hire the right experts within weeks from reaching out to Mobilunity.

If you want to work with a reliable partner for hiring top IT specialists, Mobilunity is the one never to disappoint.

Want to hire the best IT experts for your project? Get in touch with Mobilunity and get a top-level IT recruitment consultant on your side!

Written by:

Anastasia Stefanuk

Market Researcher

Disclaimer: All salaries and prices mentioned within the article are approximate NET numbers based on the research done by our in-house Recruitment Team. Please use these numbers as a guide for comparison purposes only and feel free to use the contact form to inquire on the specific cost of the talent according to your vacancy requirements and chosen model of engagement.