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Building your development dream team: why working with a recruiter can give you the upper hand

By Jamie Mercer

Choosing a developer for your business is never easy. It can be an uphill task to find the right person, so why not call in the experts and take on all the benefits of using a recruitment agency.

Every aspect of web development is a significant undertaking, and to get the job done it’s vital you hire skilled developers right from the get-go.

As a business, you’ll expect your programming team to work like a well-oiled machine, but taking on all recruitment tasks in-house can lead to development delays and extra costs. So before you make your next hire, why not weigh up the advantages of working with a recruitment agency and discover how they can help build your dream team.

Why use a recruiter?

To build a successful development roster, you’ll first need to have the right core developers in place. And as these programmers will be the foundation of your team, you’ll need to make sure you hire the right people.

However, as your team grows you will find that skill and technical expertise will take a back seat, and cultural fit will factor more in the decision-making process.

What you need to remember is that expanding your team will take time. Reading CVs, interviewing candidates, and the final decision-making process will remove your current developers from their everyday roles, which can cause issues if you’re approaching a deadline.

But what if you could remove all this stress from your business? Well by outsourcing all these tasks, you’ll find that’s one of the significant benefits of using a recruitment agency.

When deploying a project, you need a cohesive team to get all tasks done on schedule. However, if you hire a developer who’s unfit for purpose, you can face production delays.

You may need to bring in more developers to solve these issues, and while this can be a smart move, it can lead to more delays and further time taken away from the development floor.

Bringing in a new developer can take weeks, and even if you do find the perfect candidate, it won’t be the best route to take if you need a job done quickly.

Recruiters, on the other hand, can cut this time down by more than half by bringing a new developer into the fold within a matter of days.

In theory, if you go with the services of a niche recruiter, they could have candidates ready to start within a matter of hours. But even if they don’t have the right people to hand, they can source a developer and secure a positive hire within a few days.

While you may think it’ll cost more, it can save you time and money in the long run, allowing your business to continue its current development sprints.

Building your developer dream team

You may still have reservations on whether a recruiter is right for your business. It could be the costs you’ll incur or the timescale in which they’ll hire someone, but whatever those concerns, there are significant benefits of bringing a recruitment agency on board.

As a business, growth and success comes down to having the right people in place, and in the digital age many of those are developers.

You may have a specific developer in mind when you start recruiting, but as you delve further into the talent pool, you’ll realise all devs are different. Of course, they’ll share a core skill set, but each will bring something different to the table.

From your initial requirements, you may find a developer straight off the bat. That, however, is easier said than done. There’ll be a limited number of developers who will match your exact needs, so if you’re struggling, you may need to broaden your search.

That said, if you list irrelevant qualifications on your job advert you may end up with numerous applications from unqualified developers. This cannot only make the process longer, but it can also lead to you getting none-relevant applications.

If you’re able to bring in a recruitment agency, you’ll have the ability to bypass these recruitment tasks. They’ll create a hard-hitting job ad and then screen candidates to make sure they’re suitable for your business.

These few actions can kick-start your recruitment process, as they’ll have already eased the workload when it comes to finding a dev. But if you’re still struggling to make the final decision, here’s what else a recruiter can offer your business.

Extensive market knowledge

The software development market is bursting with top-class talent, and by 2022, it’s estimated that there’ll be 26 million developers on the planet.

In fact, the current software dev market is so vast that you should be spoilt for choice when it comes to finding your next developer. But as there are so many skills on offer, you can face a tough task, as the talent pool can seem never-ending.

It’s during this process that a recruiter can step in and use their knowledge to solve the problems you’re facing. And by utilising their services, not only will you find the perfect candidate, you’ll also gain their extensive market knowledge.

To the untrained eye, pinpointing the right person can be tricky. But for a niche recruiter who has specialist market knowledge, it can be a walk in the park. This ability to recruit the right person comes down to training and experience, as it allows a recruiter to provide your business with the best service.

In our experience, by providing a recruiter with a specific location and tech stack, they should become an expert in their field. It’s by going this extra mile to learn the ins and outs of a technology that they’re able to find the right person for you.

Speed to market

When searching for a developer, it’s vital you find someone with the right expertise. But if you have a limited number to choose from, you can struggle to nail down a suitable candidate.

But by opening up a more extensive search radius, you’re more likely to find the right developer for your business, and one advantage of using a recruitment agency for employers is their candidate database.

In normal circumstances, if you run out of potential candidates, you’ll need to start the recruitment process from scratch. However, a recruiter can keep your search going through their extensive database of suitable devs.

Operating within a niche corner of the industry, it’s this substantial database that means our speed to market is second to none.

Due to our candidate pool being more extensive than any other in the UK, we can provide the resources to source the perfect candidate with the right expertise.

It’s this speed to market that sets recruiters above the rest, as it allows your business to find a top developer while also staying focused on development tasks.

Struggling to fill a role within your business? Why not submit your job to our database and our experienced recruiters will find a candidate who fits the role perfectly.

So why do companies use recruiters?

It can take time to find the right developer for your business, and if you make the wrong decision, it can be costly.

As your business grows, there will be visible gaps in your development team. But with so many developers available, filling them should be easy.

That said, recruitment won’t run smoothly, and a lack of internal resources can see you turn to an external recruiter for help.

In fact, one primary reason a business turns to a recruiter is to remove pressure on the current in-house recruiting staff. A further reason is they’ll go to market and fail to find a developer.

There are exceptions to the rule, but it can be a lengthy process if you wish to persist with your in-house recruitment campaign, even if you do find the right developer.

However, if you don’t have that luxury and you need someone in your business fast, then it could be time to call in the recruiters.

From a business perspective, recruitment is a full-time job. Those developers who help hire your new staff will need to take time away from their current project, and if it’s their secondary role, it won’t be time well spent.

One advantage of using a recruitment consultancy is they can take on all aspects of recruitment, allowing your devs to get back to their primary role.

It’ll also allow you to bring in the best talent, which should add to your current roster and help improve your business performance.

What’s the cost of using a recruitment agency?

As a business, keeping your operational costs low is vital, but adding new members to your development team can be costly, especially if you make the wrong decision. So how can you keep them from skyrocketing out of control?

If you’re struggling to find the right person, and you don’t want to see the rising costs that come with a mistake, then one of the benefits of using a recruiter is they can find the right person from the get-go.

But your business may have doubts about using their services, and you think you’ll face more costs than just doing it all in-house. Of course, nothing is free when you hire a developer, especially if there is top talent in the offing. However, until you commit to a hire and sign on the dotted line, every service you receive from a recruiter will cost you nothing.

In fact, this is something that businesses often overlook. As before a candidate starts work within your organisation, recruitment is a free service. So while you may feel as though you’re paying more in the short term, recruiters still need to cover their costs. But in the long run, your business could be making a considerable saving.

I’m a small business – can I use a recruitment agency?

Businesses don’t operate in a onesize-fits-all approach, and neither does recruitment. So no matter how big your organisations is, it can take advantage of using a recruitment agency.

It could be that you’ve recently expanded or received a cash flow injection. But whatever the reason, if you’re looking for an in-house developer or a contractor, then a recruiter can help your cause.

Whichever role you’re looking to fill, calling in the experts will not only take the pressure off your business, but it can also be the start of a relationship through which you can add more developers to your team.

In fact, smaller business can often see more of the benefits of using recruitment consultancy, as recruiters can speak one on one with the person making the hiring decisions, which can speed up the entire process.

Before making a hire in a larger enterprise, you’ll have to cut through a lot of red tape to get to the person who makes the decisions. This can be a complicated situation if you need to fill the role quickly.

But in smaller businesses, you can go straight to the source, and the person who makes the final decision on whether to hire a developer. It’s also during these discussions that a recruiter can offer feedback and advice on the hiring process as a whole, which can be more beneficial to your business.

Should I use a recruiter?

Whether you’re looking to add one person to your team or design a whole development team from scratch, a recruitment consultancy can help you find the right building blocks to create the perfect team for your business.

Not only will their services take the pressure off all your staff who were previously involved in the recruitment process, as they’ll be able to get on with their development tasks, but it will also enable your business to find a developer who’s the perfect fit.

While you may have to factor in the cost of using a recruitment agency, if they can get the job done quickly, it can actually save you money. On the other hand, if you decide this route is for your business, you can put capital aside to help with recruitment.

Whichever route you decide to take, finding the right developer should be the end goal, and if you’re able to get an extra helping hand in the process, why not take up the offer.

Looking for a recruiter to find the right developer for your business? FRG Technology Consulting can source the perfect candidate to fill your vacancy.

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