What Does it Cost to Hire an IT Technical Recruiter?

From innovative apps to SaaS solutions, today’s brands need well-qualified IT candidates if they intend to stay competitive and achieve longevity. To attract top talent, companies are turning to recruitment and placement experts for candidates skilled in web and mobile development, data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, IoT, DevOps, cloud computing, solution architecture, and technology leadership.

Why outsource your IT recruiting?

There are three common reasons why you may partner with a recruiting firm to strategically and efficiently manage your IT staffing.

#1. No in-house recruiters

Your company may not yet have its own HR or recruiting department. Tech team leaders are often tapped to do their own recruiting, and they flounder, uncertain of where to begin the daunting process of recruiting highly-skilled IT candidates.

#2. Lack of industry knowledge

Even if your company does have HR and recruiting departments, they may lack understanding of the fiercely competitive world of software development and UX. Many businesses know how to hire executives, salespeople, ops teams; but when it comes to technology hiring, they’re out of their depth.

#3. Not enough bandwidth

Finally, your company’s in-house recruiters may simply give up after months of fruitless searching. Often recruiters are tasked with hiring for dozens—or even hundreds—of roles, and they don’t have the bandwidth to fill every position.

So they turn to the experts.

What is the hard cost of IT recruiting?

Experienced technology recruiters typically bundle their placement services into a single fee-based package totaling, on average, 20-30% of the new employee’s salary.

On the costlier end of the spectrum, you’ll find retained recruiters who require position exclusivity and an upfront portion of their 30% fee.

Alternatively, you may prefer a firm that offers contingency recruiting, meaning that they do not require exclusivity, and they don’t require payment until they’ve successfully filled the role. With guaranteed exclusivity, a contingency recruiting firm may offer to reduce its fee down below 30%.

This means that your cost to obtain a skilled IT employee who is salaried at $120,000 (an average salary for an IT professional typically ranges from $24,000 to $36,000 when working with an outside IT recruiter.

But what does that get you?

Explore the start-to-finish process of IT technical recruiting

While an in-house recruiter’s job focuses narrowly on employee acquisition, IT recruitment experts expand that purpose to include a wide range of risk mitigators and quality assurances.

The advantages of assigning a firm to handle your technology hiring include:

An expansive network of IT professionals

Whether you’re seeking contract labor, contract-to-hire, direct hire, or managed staffing, your recruiting firm’s vast database will encompass a broad range of technical disciplines, to include web, mobile, and data engineers, cybersecurity, machine learning, IoT, and creative design. Decades of established technology connections equip these experts to guarantee the best-qualified candidates for every IT position.

Proven advertising strategies

Anyone can purchase ad space; but it takes skill to craft compelling job ads that attract the right talent. Expert recruiting teams own these time-consuming processes so your business can focus on its integral purpose.

Candidate communication and oversight

Along with outreach to both passive and active candidates, IT recruitment specialists manage the myriad tasks that accompany recruiting and hiring. They:

• screen resumes for appropriate work experience
• follow up with qualified applicants
• schedule and conduct interviews
• perform background checks and analyze the results
• complete reference checks and present recommendations
• conduct technical assessments to ensure each candidate meets your requirements
• guide salary and benefits negotiations
• send the job offer to your preferred candidate and receive their response

By outsourcing these necessary tasks to a skilled recruiting firm, your team can maintain focus and productivity while avoiding the missteps that can result in a bad hire. With ineffective IT hires costing companies anywhere from $20,000 to millions of dollars, the value of a good hire is nearly priceless. 

Flexible hiring solutions

One of the most effective staffing solutions is contract-to-hire. With contract-to-hire, your chosen candidate begins their role as a contractor at an hourly rate that covers the candidate’s loaded cost and recruiting markup. After six months, if this candidate has proven to be the right fit, your company may be able to convert them to full-time employment without paying any additional placement fees.

This “try before you buy” approach delivers premium, low-risk ROI—and empowers you to diffuse your placement costs across the contracted months.

A 90-day warranty on every IT placement

How do you know you’re getting top talent? Expect your firm to honor a 90-day warranty on all placements. For example, my company, SOLTECH, offers recruitment fee reimbursement or recruit replacement if you’re not satisfied with your chosen candidate within 90 days of their start date.

Trust the experts. They’ll get it right the first time.

By now, you may see the value provided by outside recruiters, and you’re ready to give your tech recruiting over to the experts.

The great news is that, over time, your professional IT recruiting team will learn your business’ unique requirements, enabling them to offer a quick turnaround on all your future technology staffing needs. With a go-to resource for IT staffing, you’ll never again struggle to obtain top-notch technical candidates.

Get started with our no-hassle guide to finding IT talent. Let’s begin building your IT dream team!

Veanne Smith

Veanne Smith serves as the CEO and co-founder of SOLTECH – Atlanta’s premier software development, technology consulting and IT staffing firm.

Prior to founding SOLTECH, Veanne spent more than 10 years in the technology industry, where she leveraged her software development and project management skills to attain executive leadership responsibilities for a growing national technology consulting firm. She is passionate about building mutually beneficial long-term relationships, growing businesses, and helping people achieve their personal life goals via rewarding employment opportunities.

Outside of SOLTECH, Veanne is considered a thought leader in Atlanta’s IT community. Currently, she serves on the Advisory Board for The College of Computing and Software Engineering at Kennesaw State University. In addition, Veanne helped launch the AxIO Advisory Council, has been a member of Vistage for 20 years, and created Atlanta Business Impact Radio – a podcast that showcases some of Atlanta’s most innovative businesses and technology professionals.

As an influential figure in the technology and IT staffing industry, Veanne consistently produces insightful articles that address both the opportunities and challenges in IT staffing. Through her writing, she offers valuable tips and advice to businesses seeking to hire technical talent, as well as individuals searching for new opportunities.

She holds a degree in Computer Science from Illinois State University.