Strengthening IT talent: recruitment outsourcing increasingly is being used to obtain top quality IT candidates.

Strengthening talent levels was identified as the most important recruitment issue for 2005 by almost 70% of organizations based upon a recent InSearch Worldwide survey of more than 300 human resource executives. This is a significant change from the focus on cost to hire for recruitment over the past few years. Consistent with that new focus, the most important recruitment performance measures identified are now quality of hires and hiring manager satisfaction. This also reflects an increasing recognition by top management that talent quality is the critical driver of organizational performance, especially for the information technology function.

The IT function has grown in most organizations to become a true partner with the operating businesses and a driver as well as enabler of the business strategy. The IT talent requirements are evolving to better meet those needs. While growth in overall technology hiring is lackluster, there are specific IT capabilities that are growing in demand such as security, compliance and wireless. Most importantly, the IT function is seeking top talent to better support higher value activities such as providing strong strategic contributions while simultaneously moving many of the lower value roles to IT outsource providers to drive down costs.

Recruitment outsourcing is most frequently being used for the IT function. Thirty-two percent of employers are currently outsourcing part or all of their recruitment activities with 41% of those outsourcing recruitment for their IT function. Recruitment outsourcing has become a more common approach for many organizations and it's poised for significant future growth. In fact, almost half of those outsourcing IT recruitment are planning to increase their use of recruitment outsourcing due to their successful experience in terms of quality of candidates and cost to hire. The IT area has generally sought specific technology skills and expertise in its recruitment efforts, but it is now further recognizing the importance of relative talent quality in making a significant business impact.

The IT area has led the use of recruitment outsourcing for many organizations and that success is now leading to expansion with other business units and functions as well as on a company-wide basis. An additional 15% of organizations are considering initiating outsourcing recruitment in the near term. These organizations plan to use recruitment outsourcing for a variety of reasons. The most important factors identified were improving time to hire, consolidating recruitment activities and enhancing candidate talent levels and quality of recruiters.

In order to obtain top IT talent, it's increasingly necessary to take a proactive approach to find the "'passive" candidates that are not actively seeking a new employer. Selecting the appropriate channels for sourcing desirable candidates is a critical factor in achieving that objective. Job boards, career Web sites and internal recruiters are generally best suited for identifying active candidates. Using an effective employee referral approach has proven to be an effective sourcing channel for IT talent.

Search firms have traditionally been used to identify top "passive" candidates from leading competitors for the more senior IT positions. However, the emerging use of recruitment outsourcers is based upon obtaining the benefits of using a dedicated search firm with a stronger strategic relationship and integration of the professional recruiters. An array of recruitment outsource providers is being used by the IT function with a variety of backgrounds and expertise. Sixty-eight percent of survey respondents prefer to outsource recruitment to a recruitment process outsourcing specialist due to their expertise vs. 12% that prefer a human-resource business process outsourcing generalist. When selecting a recruitment outsourcing specialist, recruiting experience and processes are the most important criteria identified by the survey respondents. Functional expertise, recruitment outsourcing experience and performance track record are also important selection criteria for IT recruitment outsourcers.

Strengthening IT talent levels should be an explicit goal for forward-thinking organizations. The IT function and its human resource partner should establish a talent sourcing strategy to best enable an effective and efficient approach for recruiting the talent necessary for future success. That success is increasingly reliant on obtaining top IT talent, not just software and hardware assets, which have become more ubiquitous. Recruitment outsourcing is an emerging approach that can enable an IT organization to establish a strategic recruitment partnership to better achieve their critical talent acquisition goals.

Steven Landberg is a managing director and senior vice president of InSearch Worldwide Corp. in Stamford, Conn. He can be reached at [e-mail].