Why tech businesses need recruiters to do more than just recruit

By Nick Boulton, Client Server CEO

Recruitment businesses have been notoriously poor at offering anything other than the standard agency service. Most profess to provide more, but the reality is, you might get the occasional outdated salary survey put together in 2012 or a few links their marketing departments sent them. 

Few provide the service I think recruitment companies should offer and both clients and candidates should expect.

For years the fear of many has been, "Will we be pushed out the market by technology?" Whether that's automation, online recruitment models, ATS, or some revolutionary recruitment app that will solve all your hiring troubles at the touch of a button.

In reality, every business looking to grow, scale, or keep pace with its competitors will need a recruitment agency. What has changed – and should change – is the service you expect from a modern recruitment business.

Yes, you will always have the traditional transactional recruitment houses, either one-man bands, small private businesses or die-hard agencies that will do what they say on the tin.

That's why every technology business is building its recruitment teams. The feeling of paying high fees for candidates that are everywhere and barely vetted. Much better to hire your own team on site, which at least only works for you and won't be selling out your lovely candidates to the highest bidder, right? 

Wrong!

There is always a good argument to have a good internal recruiter, sorry, "Talent acquisition manager", onsite, they will provide the bridge between the business and the outside world, and the good ones will pay for themselves in spades. 

But the key is to partner with a proper recruitment consultancy that offers more than just recruitment services. So when the hiring tap is on, you want them to excel at their job. You don't need to be wined and dined, sent market updates on colourful slide decks or lecturing you on the difficulty of the market at the moment. You need a recruitment partner who is going to deliver and fast. 

But recruitment is cyclical, it changes like the seasons and not only in a year, but like all good weather patterns, you'll have droughts, floods, hurricanes, scorching hot summers and the occasional long-term drizzle. It's all part of the rich tapestry of recruitment.

The key to a top-quality recruiter is knowing when to adapt to the market climate, when clients want to hear from you and when they want you to shut up and get on with finding people.

For me, the evolution of a recruitment business, and the one we have taken over the last 20-something years, is to provide more value, expertise, and better service than anyone else.

How does that look, you may well ask?

Part of partnering with Client Server is about how much value we can add beyond the obvious, how we solidify those business relationships, provide better candidate experiences, and embed ourselves with clients, acting as a dedicated part of their recruitment arm servicing tech roles at the core.

Here are just two of the whole host of offerings we deliver at Client Server:

Client Server Prime 

Our split-desk approach allows us to focus on the quality of service, but CS Prime goes a step further. As a CS Prime client, we will work with you to build a compelling hiring story targeting your desired market. We will forensically analyse and review hiring data, focusing on improving efficiency, quality, diversity and candidate experience. We will engage with your hiring teams to understand their roles' WHY, and the WHAT and utilise our Marketing arm to create content that reflects that—creating a bespoke marketing package that will highlight your business and engage with your audience targeting.

We can also offer additional onsite recruiters to work as an extension of your team, taking away much of the cost, recruitment admin and leveraging our specialist consultants to source the volume of candidates needed.

Talking Tech 

This has been the evolution of Jellyfish, initially set up as an active community for technology enthusiasts, where like-minded Entrepreneurs, Business leaders, Engineering Managers, CTOs, Development Managers and a lot more could discuss current industry topics. 

It has now morphed into a "live talking tech event", hosted by our Head of Marketing, where candidates, clients and technologists can share their stories and discuss the most relevant topics. A fantastic platform for any business looking to hire, it allows you to showcase your business, technology, and opportunity to potential candidates when it is vital to stand out in this market.

Please contact us to learn more about these and other services we provide.