Hiring project managers in the IT industry can be difficult, given that you want candidates with specific and vast experience, while not exactly knowing how to search for them and where to find them. You also have particular education requirements and fitting in with the budget you’re ready to assign to the salary of this professional. Finding the best candidates that will fit in with all of those requirements can be tricky, which is why most companies turn to staffing agencies for help. Here is what to know about those.
Reasons for working with a staffing agency to hire a top-tier IT project manager are vast. First off, sourcing may not be your strong suit, and that’s precisely what the staffing agencies are skilled for. They know exactly where to look for the best candidates, as well as how to attract them to the specific position you are offering. Furthermore, they’ll also screen the candidates so that you don’t have to, thus sending you only the best of the best to interview and potentially hire.
Going through the tedious process of screening all the resumes, shortlisting the candidates and interviewing a lot of those that clearly aren’t a good match is a thing of the past if you choose to work with these agencies. Naturally, the trick is in working with the best one, instead of hiring randomly and possibly winding up with a company that won’t exactly know how to be of help and how to select the perfect candidates for you. So, finding the best agency is a must, and I’ll tell you more on how to do that.
Check Their Track Record
A top-tier IT project manager staffing agency will already have a track record to show for, and you’ll want it to have a good one. If you somehow find that the company you’re researching wasn’t very good at completing past projects and hiring best candidates for their clients, that should be a very clear indicator that they’re doing something wrong. Checking track record will lead to understanding if the company is experienced enough to perform the tasks you’ll require from it.
Perhaps you want to read more on how staffing agencies work: https://www.business.com/articles/staffing-agencies/
Don’t Forget Testimonials
Since you’re on the path of checking if the past tasks have been completed properly, you should undeniably check out the testimonials that their previous clients have written. Usually, these can be found on those websites of the agencies you’re doing research on. The more great testimonials there are, the higher the actual chances of that specific agency being great at sourcing great top-tier IT project managers.
Check If It Specializes In That Field
If you really want to find the best company for this type of hiring, i.e. IT project management hiring, and I’m sure you do, checking its specialization is important. After all, working with a firm that, for instance, specializes in sourcing medical candidates, won’t exactly help you find your IT project manager. Pretty logical, isn’t it?
Have Interviews
Hiring an agency without first interviewing it would probably be the same as hiring that PM without having any interviews at all. Sure, it’s not completely the same, but it ranks very high at the list of mistakes you can make. Interviewing the companies will give you a feel of the actual cooperation, and you’ll know if you want to continue or not.
Inquire About The Fees
While interviewing the IT project manager staffing agencies you’ve previously researched, you’ll have to inquire about their fees, among other important things. You want to know precisely how much you’ll get charged for their services, if anything. Not knowing this can lead to surprises down the road, and financial surprises are never good. Unless they’re in your favor.
And About Availability
Availability is the next significant thing to inquire about. You need to know when the agency will actually get to start working on your hiring needs, and you should ask about their expected time-frame for completing the task at hand. Sure, they most likely won’t be able to specify the time-frame, but they’ll give you an approximation, helping you organize everything for the arrival of your top-tier IT project manager.