Contract and direct hire employment – helping you compete in a global marketplace

Technology is constantly advancing and for businesses to grow and maintain a competitive edge, they often need talented technical staffing with certain key skill sets for projects such as:

The right human capital equals value added

The ability to be competitive starts with the “who” in your organization. In the book “Good to Great” Jim Collins and his research team identified one of the key points of great companies as “first getting the right people on the bus.”

The concept of human capital and the value added to a company’s bottom line is not new, but how companies procure this valuable staff has changed. Internal human resource departments are finding it increasingly difficult to hire top talent who are experienced and educated.

The internal problem with posting

Finding the right employee should be easier with 11.3 million people in the job market (Bureau of Labor and Statistics). However, when jobs are posted on an online job board (Monster, Indeed, or craigslist) or through a company’ s career portal, internal recruiters are quickly inundated with a massive amount of resumes. The result may lead to hindrances in efficiency and cost:

  • Difficulties in numbers: In-house recruiters are faced with the daunting task of sorting through piles of resumes many of which are from unqualified candidates.
  • Complexity of assignments: Tasks are made more complex if the position requires the use of certain software programs (Axure, Lectora and Visio), consulting backgrounds, and experience levels.
  • Corporate time, monetary losses, and compromised business objectives: Given the significant time lag in finding qualified individuals, businesses encounter long wait periods to roll out a product/service, causing strain on existing staff who must handle increased workloads, as well as lost economic opportunities that directly impact shareholder value.

Solutions in using contract and direct hire staffing agencies

Finding the right strategic talent management is critical in maintaining a competitive edge in the marketplace. According to the American Staffing Association Client Survey, “clients say that their use of temporary and contract employees is an important part of their company’s business model.”

However, much like the medical profession, there are “general practice” staffing agencies and “highly specialized” contract and direct hire recruiters. General practice recruiters are able to assist in filling mainstream job titles such as administrative, clerical and secretarial staff. Conversely, highly specialized recruiters focus on specific roles surrounding technical, marketing, and communication positions, such as:

  • User Experience Design
  • eLearning
  • Instructional Design
  • Technical Writing

There are many recruiters in the marketplace and it is important that businesses select third party personnel resource providers that have core competencies in the job area they are trying to fill. When selecting a specialized contract or direct hire agency to fulfill your personnel needs, identify a recruiter who:

  • Takes time to fully understand your corporate culture and personnel requirements by spending time with hiring managers
  • Offers a structured recruiting process to align with your goals and objectives, and who custom tailors the search accordingly
  • Holds a large active pool of passive candidates (those who are already employed but would leave their current position for greater job responsibilities) on their internal database

A qualified specialized recruiter can substantially reduce your search time and provide a small batch of high caliber candidates, making the task of the hiring manager more manageable, simplified and easy.

When looking to build your business and gain a stronger foothold in the marketplace, make sure you choose the right staffing partner who can help you find high quality human capital to add value to your bottom line and increase your competitive advantage.

Get connected to UserEdge – your competitive edge in technical and information staffing solutions.

Donna Cornelius Contributing Editor