Technical recruitment is the specialised process of sourcing, assessing, hiring and onboarding candidates to fulfil technology focused roles. Technical roles are specialised roles and therefore often harder to fill than other positions within a company. Consequently, a technical recruiter needs to have a solid grasp of a job’s technical requirements. For example, for an IT position, understanding various programming languages, platforms and methodologies such as Agile and frameworks like Scrum. This makes having an experienced and specialised recruiter crucial for a company during their technical recruitment process.

4 Key Features of Successful Technical Recruitment

1. Role Focused.
2. Hard-skill based with assessments.
3. High level of collaboration between recruiters, managers and team leaders.
4. Source candidates via online platforms and niche job boards.

Technical recruitment is important for technology roles because it reduces role turnover, expedites the hiring process and better ensures high calibre candidates. This is why many companies opt to use a recruitment company, such as the Key Recruitment Group, to oversee their technical recruitment process.

Technical Recruitment vs General Recruitment

Technical recruitment is more specific than general recruitment because the roles it seeks to fill are specialised. As such it requires a recruiter to have an in-depth understanding and specialised knowledge of the industry and the hard skills required. For example, a technical job’s requirements could involve complex programming skills, system design, technical testing of software or high level understanding of cybersecurity infrastructure. As such a technical recruitment process usually entails technical screenings and assessments often requiring a solid understanding of the diverse acronyms and abbreviations used by technical personnel in general technical conversation. This is to assess a candidate’s proficiency for a niche IT or technical position.

In contrast general recruitment tends to encompass a wide variety of roles, skills, job requirements and industries. Soft skills and culture-fit are important considerations within a general recruitment process. This means that while interview processes may have an assessment part they are usually focused on interacting with a candidate. For example, holding one-on-one, panel and/or group interviews during which hypothetical situations are presented, and behaviours are analysed to assess future performance.

7 Steps of a Technical Recruitment Process

1. Understanding the technical requirements specific to the role.
2. Sourcing candidates by using niche job boards, referrals, specialised platforms and headhunting.
3. Screening CVs and shortlisting appropriate candidates.
4. Technical assessments to assess competency and practical experience. For example, by asking applicants technical questions to evaluate understanding, running technical or project-based assessments to gauge skills level.
5. Behavioural Interviews to evaluate soft-skills such as communication, leadership ability or team suitability.
6. Contract negotiation for successful candidates.
7. Onboarding and Integration of new incumbent.

How to Find a Technical Recruitment Agency

To successfully recruit and fill a technical position, using a technically competent recruiter is strongly advised, especially as this often encourages open and enthusiastic engagement between candidates and recruiter. This ensures the selection of prospects who understand the industry, its trends and have an in-depth knowledge of the role requirements.

The Key Recruitment Group offers specialised technical recruitment services. These are focused on IT and Digital as well as Science and Engineering. Our technical recruitment consultants have experience and expertise within these fields. We offer a tailored service to ensure each of our client’s recruitment processes are delivered to a Gold Standard. Contact Us today to discuss how we can streamline, expedite and successfully serve you in securing your Engineering or IT specific appointments.