Types of IT Recruiting and IT Recruitment Trends

IT recruiters do both upstream and downstream recruiting. Upstream recruiting is the process of building a talent bank, the modern version of the rolodex filled with the contact information of vetted professionals. Downstream recruiting is recruitment for jobs that need to be filled today.

IT recruiters can also act as the middle-men in the development of business process outsourcing and crowd-sourcing.

IT recruiters must work on both upstream and downstream recruiting. The IT professional who is happy with his employer today may become the perfect fit for a future position when downsized by his current employer and will come calling the recruiter he knows when his contract runs out.

Passive candidates who are not interested in a position today may be willing to jump at a great offer later or provide leads to qualified candidates who are available for the position you need to fill today. Without a talent bank built up by upstream recruiting, it is hard for the IT recruiter to fill personnel requisitions quickly from the existing talent pool.

Furthermore, recruiters who keep in touch with IT personnel can update their database as the credentials and qualifications of the talent bank changes, giving them an instant lead when someone upgrades their skill set but cannot get a higher paying position with his or her current employer.

Both types of recruiting must balance speed with quality and cost. Recruiters who present poor quality candidates in short order lose credibility, while recruiters who take too long to find quality candidates will lose out when an internal company referral fills the position.

Recruiters must also balance the privacy of the job candidates with their clients. For example, a recruiter should be careful about helping those who want to leave a company for which the recruiter regularly finds new candidates. If it is discovered that you helped the person who left the company find a better job, the employer may be averse to asking you to help fill any of their open positions, much less the one your efforts led to becoming vacant.

IT recruiters are occasionally called in to assist with business process outsourcing (BPO) and IT outsourcing abroad. IT recruiters may be asked to find an international firm that can design, test and deliver a functional website or provide 24x7x365 support for virtual servers.

Or IT recruiters are asked to recommend IT firms that can take over the entire IT department's function. Which IT service providers have good reputations and can handle everything from first level technical support to server maintenance to IT security?

In an increasingly mobile workforce, recruiters need to be careful to present candidates whose schedules fit the employer's needs. Is this candidate available to start when needed? Is he or she planning on working a year on a six month contract? Does the employer need someone who can work 80 hours a week until the upgrade is done, while the candidate is looking for a part time position until eligible for retirement?

IT recruiters should look beyond the standard job of filling IT management and consulting positions. Hardware support and service are still in demand across the country, because these jobs cannot be outsourced abroad. Moving from servers in the corporate computer room to consolidated data centers has moved hardware jobs, but they have not gone away. IT certifications are proliferating.

Recruiters need to know who in their talent pool is qualified to certify a system as meeting ISO, ITAR, HIPAA and federal security standards. IT process and change management expertise are increasingly in demand, as ISO standards mandating these experts become commonplace. IT recruitment has even reached the supply chain department, as companies need to hire consultants who can help them identify the right hardware and software for their needs.

IT recruiters can help companies and small businesses find good crowd-sourcing platforms, develop crowd-sourcing project management skills within the company and train employers how to vet and manage crowd source workers.