10 top tips for choosing the best technical recruitment agency

A technical recruitment agency specialises in recruitment services for jobs that require specialised and technical skills. For your business to gain the most benefit it’s important to choose an agency that not only has the skills, knowledge and ‘know how’, but also fits well with your business. Here are our 10 top tips for choosing the best technical recruitment agency.

Reputation

Researching the reputation of a technical recruitment specialist is vital for ensuring that the agency can deliver highly skilled candidates for your required job roles.

While not the only factor, reputation will be a significant factor in determining whether the agency will be the best choice for your recruitment needs. The best way to check an agency's reputation is through online reviews and comments.

The best places to check an agency's reputation online are through reviews and comments on various third-party sites to avoid any bias. Platforms like Google, Trustpilot, Rated, Clutch, and Facebook are the top places to check.

Expertise

Another tip for choosing the best technical recruitment agency is to check their expertise. Different technical recruiters will have different areas and specific job sectors. Given how specialised technical recruitment is with many different disciplines, this is a key factor.

That’s because certain agencies may have experience or expertise in a certain aspect or discipline of technical recruitment. As such, a particular technical recruitment agency will have specific industry knowledge or expertise for a given discipline.

Ensuring you opt for an agency that has expertise in your particular specialist area will make a significant difference in their success rate. With expertise and experience, the agency will better understand the needs and requirements of your business.

Responsiveness

Another crucial tip you should consider when choosing the best technical recruitment agency for your business is ensuring they are responsive. Given the complex challenges and demands of the recruitment process, ensuring an agency maintains communication with you is vital.

As such, an agency you decide to partner with must maintain open communication at every stage of the recruitment process. Throughout the recruitment process, there are likely to be main aspects that will need discussing or clarifying.

Open communication and responsiveness are also important so the agency fully understands the needs of your organisation and the best candidate to suit a job vacancy. This ensures your chosen agency will be able to deliver the best high-quality candidate for your company.

Aspects of open communication and responsiveness throughout the recruitment process may include keeping you updated on the recruitment process, answering any questions or resolving any issues, arranging necessary meetings, and providing details of ideal candidates.

Unfilled vacancies

One of the best ways to judge the success of a technical recruitment agency is by checking its success rate. This means the amount of job vacancies they fill compared to the unfiled vacancies. If an agency has a much higher success rate, it shows that it can deliver results.

When researching agencies, make sure to ask about their success rate and how successful they have been at sourcing candidates for similar businesses or roles. During the research phase, this should be one of the top questions you ask when determining suitability.

Top quality and professional agencies should be willing to provide this information. An agency that doesn’t likely have something to hide. Checking for job vacancies older than 3 months can also be a good indicator of success rate as it shows they have difficulty filling these roles.

Age

Age is another top tip you should consider when choosing the best technical recruitment agency or how long the agency has been around. Typically, agencies with a longer history are more established and will have a stronger track record.

Agencies with a strong track record and age are much more likely to have experience in handling the dynamics of a fast-changing industry. As such, they are more likely to have a strong commitment to deliver for your business.

Technical recruitment agencies with a stronger track record and more experience also reflect positively on developing trust and positive relationships with their clients and industry-specific stakeholders. The experience they have gained over the years will be highly beneficial in fulfilling your recruitment needs.

Track record

Checking the track record of a technical recruitment agency is another top tip for ensuring you choose the best for your business. Looking at a technical recruitment agency's track record is a good way to determine their past performance.

Doing so gives you a good insight into their performance and success. Looking at previous clients is a good way to determine a technical recruitment agency's track record. If they’ve worked with some successful clients, it’s a good sign of a good track record.

Testimonials

Testimonials are also another top tip to look out for when choosing the best technical recruitment agency. It’s also another good way for you to determine the track records. Client testimonials will provide you with a first-hand account of how well the agency works.

From this, you can gather some positives or strengths alongside some drawbacks or weaknesses. This will allow you to better understand what you can expect from a particular agency. When looking at testimonials, you should consider:

• Positive testimonials – anything to showcase how well the agency works, its professionalism, how well it works with clients, its ability to source top talent and reliability.
• Negative testimonials – anything red flags that indicate shortcomings or downsides to working with the agency, such as their approach to sourcing candidates or communication with clients/candidates.

A dedicated contact

Whether the technical recruitment agency assigns your organisation a dedicated contact is another top tip you should consider when choosing the best technical recruitment agency. Typically, these dedicated contacts will be someone with relevant experience in your niche or business.

Given the vast and complex needs of recruiting for technical roles, having a direct point of contact can be a big help. These dedicated contacts will be experienced recruiters at the agency who can provide guidance, assistance, and progress throughout.

Cost

The price of cost of hiring a technical recruitment agency will also be another factor you should consider when choosing the best technical recruitment agency. Recruitment agencies are businesses just like any other and so will charge for their services.

However, how an agency charges and how much will differ. Typically, the duration, job role, and type of employment will be factors affecting cost. Whether you hire the agency temporarily or permanently will also make a difference.

Speak to past clients

The last tip we’ll cover for choosing the best technical recruitment agency is speaking to past clients. If you can’t find any previous contacts through your research, ask the agency to put you in touch. Any good technical recruitment agency should be more than obliging.

When speaking to past clients, you may be able to gain much greater and deeper insight into how the agency works. Also, check whether they have any long-standing relationships with reputable clients.

Choosing the best technical recruitment agency for your business can be a challenge. With so many factors to consider, it can be a lengthy and time-consuming process to select the best one. By following the tips above, you’ll be in a good position to choose the best agency that can fully support your technical recruitment hiring needs.