Almost every recruitment firm says it understands technology. The trouble is that you usually find out whether that is true after the agreement is signed and the first batch of CVs lands in your inbox. By then you have already lost a few weeks, and the hiring managers who were waiting on those CVs have started to lose patience.
A short conversation before you sign can save most of that time. The eight questions below tend to show quickly whether a partner will make your hiring easier or simply add another inbox to manage.
Table of Contents
1. Who screens the candidates technically?
This question separates firms faster than any other. Some recruiters match keywords on a CV to keywords in your job description and pass the profile along. Others run technical assessments and competency checks before you see anyone. Ask exactly what happens to a profile between sourcing and submission, and who does it. If the answer is vague, expect to do the screening yourself.
2. Which technologies do they actually hire for?
“IT” covers a lot of ground. Hiring an SAP FICO consultant has very little in common with hiring a React developer or a SOC analyst. Ask which domains the firm recruits for regularly and push for detail. A partner that has hired for your stack before will already know where those people are, what they expect to earn and which skills are genuinely hard to find.
It is also worth asking what they consider difficult. A firm that claims every skill is easy to find has either not hired for it or is not being straight with you.
3. How will they understand your requirement?
A good partner asks a lot of questions at the start. What does the team look like? What is the project? Why is the role open? What made the last person in the role succeed or struggle? If a firm is ready to start sourcing after a two-line email, the shortlist will probably show it.
4. Who will actually work on your account?
The person who pitches to you is not always the person who will do the work. Ask who will source and screen for your roles, how many other clients they handle and how much tech hiring they have done. A senior recruiter on the sales call followed by a junior team with no tech background is a common pattern, and it is worth ruling out early.
5. What will they report back to you?
You should not have to chase anyone for updates. Ask which numbers the firm tracks and how often you will see them. Time-to-hire, quality of hire and offer acceptance rate are the useful ones, because they show whether the process is working and not only whether it is busy.
6. Do they offer more than one hiring model?
Your needs will change. Today it may be a permanent backend lead. Next quarter it may be a group of contract testers for a release, or a senior leader who needs a quieter executive search. A partner that handles permanent hiring, contract hiring and recruitment process outsourcing can grow with you, so you are not starting over with a new vendor every time the requirement shifts.
7. What happens if a hire does not work out?
Fees deserve a careful read, but the replacement terms matter just as much. Ask what happens if a placed candidate leaves or is let go within the first few months. Is there a free replacement period? Does it cover resignations as well as terminations? These terms vary a lot between firms, and they are far easier to negotiate before you sign than after a hire has gone wrong.
8. How do they treat candidates?
This one often gets skipped. But a recruiter speaks for your company every time it calls an engineer. Ask how candidates are kept informed between rounds and how rejections are handled. Careless communication can put off people who might have been right for your next opening, and engineers do talk to each other.
A few warning signs
Some answers should make you pause. Be wary of a firm that promises a shortlist within hours for a niche role without asking a single question about it. Be careful, too, if it cannot name roles similar to yours that it has filled recently, or if it sends a large batch of CVs on day one with no notes on why each candidate fits. Volume often hides weak screening.
Ask for a reference from a client who hires for roles similar to yours, and actually call them. A short chat with someone who has worked with the firm for a year will tell you more than any pitch deck.
Start small if you can
You do not have to hand over your entire hiring plan on the first day. If you are unsure about a firm, give it two or three roles first, ideally including one that has been hard to fill. Watch how it handles the brief, how good the first shortlist is and how quickly it responds when you send feedback. A few weeks of real work will show you far more than any proposal. If the results hold up, widen the mandate. If they do not, you have learned that cheaply and can move on without disrupting the rest of your hiring.
Price is only part of the decision
None of these questions is complicated. Yet many companies pick an IT recruitment agency on fees alone and spend the next few months wondering why the shortlists feel thin. A slightly higher fee from a firm that screens well can work out cheaper once you count the hours your engineers spend interviewing candidates who were never a fit.
Spending an hour on these questions upfront is far easier than discovering the gaps one rejected CV at a time. If a firm seems uncomfortable answering any of them, that discomfort is useful information too.
About the Author
Nikhil Vaidya
Nikhil Vaidya is the CEO of Prism HRC, a leading recruitment services company in India. Nikhil’s expertise in talent acquisition has been instrumental in connecting hundreds of top-notch clients with exceptional IT talent over the last 15 years.
