Your workload is piling up.

New projects have come in, and your teams are stretched.

To complete these on time and give your end-user clients the service they require, you need experienced hands on deck.

Contract recruitment gives you more agility in the marketplace, allowing you to meet the demands of your customers with greater flexibility.

However, it’s not as simple as putting out a job advert.

You want to make sure the contractors you work with are high quality and care about their work.

But how do you achieve this?

Here at InfraView we know all about not only how IT solutions providers work, but also what candidates are looking for in today’s cloud jobs market.

If you’re in need of quick, personalised advice you can give us a call on 020 3617 1040 and one of our team can give their insight.

But for now, let’s learn more about what you need to know about contract recruitment.

How to know you need a Cloud & IT Infrastructure contractors

Before you even begin looking for contractors, its important to know when you actually need one.

There are some differences between the benefits of a contractor compared to a permanent hire.

Will Martin has some great insights into what you should be looking out for:

“There a number of times when an IT solutions provider may need a contractor.

This could include the need for a highly sought-after Cloud & IT Infrastructure skill, particularly in the design and implementation of certain technologies. Perhaps you may need some support or specific presales solutions architecture.

The fact that these skills are very rare means it may be more valuable to bring in a skill set-specific contractor rather hiring a permanent employee. It may be the case that you only have a particular project which needs that skill set for a short duration of time.

If you’re a managed services provider, you may have a new client that wants to have an on-site support engineer immediately. Rather than leave them without this service, it could be worth hiring an engineer on a contract basis while you take the time to find the required permanent talent.

You may have recently had a number of recent project wins. This may put your team of project managers under pressure to deliver. Rather than adding to your permanent head count, you could instead recruit a short-term contractor to help manage some of those projects, reduce the workload and once things are back under control you can let go of that individual.

Perhaps you have remote locations for a design and implementation project. You could lose one of your permanent staff for two to three months while they complete that instillation, or you could pay a contractor to complete the work at this “out of the norm” location.

As you move into new areas and take on new end-user clients, the need to find talent with niche skill sets will increase.

Working with contractors is a great way to achieve your business goals in a timely and efficient manner.”

How to find the best Cloud & IT Infrastructure contractors

It’s important to know when and if you need to find a contractor.

Once this has been decided, it’s then a case of sourcing the best candidates.

How should you go about this?

Tim Davey has some great tips to help you with your contract recruitment:

“Contract recruitment is suitable when you haven’t got the work or the budget for a permanent hire, for when the work is more project based are an urgent skill set is needed.

In the IT solutions provider channel, hiring and placing contractors is also a way to create an extra revenue stream by placing more fee-earning bodies on site.

Recruitment of contractors has a much quicker turnaround than permanent hires. The process takes a matter of days in terms of hiring instead of multiple weeks.

However, it’s not as simple as just putting out a job advert.

You don’t want to get contract hiring wrong as it could reflect badly on your business and ultimately cost you more money.

So how do you find the best Cloud & IT Infrastructure contractors?

An individual you have worked with before, for example a previous employee, is always a good start.

You want to find someone known to you for that level of quality. Someone you’ve worked with before, an ex employee, someone known to your network or yourself will provide you with some level of confidence.

Referrals and your personal network of connections is always a strong place to start when performing contract recruitment or permanent recruitment.

You could look at advertising on social media, however by doing this you are risking a level of quality by going into the unknown.

The most common, and best performing, method of contract recruitment is to utilise your recruitment agency partner. They will have a big network of ready-made contractors with experience and credibility.

How can you secure the best cloud & IT infrastructure contractors?

You should look at:

• Long term contracts (3 months, 6 months, even 1 year)
• Paying better rates
• More interesting work

Cloud & IT Infrastructure contractors all want to work on cutting-edge projects and new cloud technologies just like any permanent employee.

Your recruitment agency partner will be able to help you sell the opportunity to the best contractors on the market.”

Work with a contract recruitment specialist

Once you know you need a Cloud & IT Infrastructure contractor, you need to begin sourcing candidates.

If you’re looking for quality contractors with a quick hiring turnaround, the best way to do this is by working with a specialist recruitment agency.

Tim Cazemage lets you know what you should be looking out for in a recruitment partner:

“There are many reasons why your business may need to secure a contractor.

This could be due to:    

A lack of resources internally

Looking for niche Cloud & IT Infrastructure skills

Fulfilling an urgent project requirement

Overloaded with new project wins

The business is set up on a project-to-project basis

Even with an urgent turnaround time, it is still business critical to secure the right hire.

You should be working with a contract recruitment specialist with expert knowledge in sourcing candidates for IT solutions providers and managed services providers. They should understand your market, Cloud & IT Infrastructure technologies and ideally have worked with your business previously. Someone you trust, able to advise on daily rates, benchmark against niche skills and provide market analysis around what’s realistic for your budget.

Most importantly, you want to work with a specialist agency who will recruit a contractor that wants to actually wants to join your business.

A contractor who is fully bought into your company, the projects, the technologies and of course your end customers.

Someone who isn’t just looking for an increase on their daily rate.

At InfraView, we pride ourselves on our ability to turnaround contract hires very quickly but without jeopardising the quality and standard of our service and candidates.

We hear often that “I just need someone and need someone quickly!”

But don’t settle!

Don’t let the urgency of your contract recruitment hire lessen the quality and skill set required.

It will only cause you and your business pain later on down the line.

When hiring contractors, it’s imperative that you fully profile, pre-screen and reference check every candidate.

86% of the Cloud & IT Infrastructure contractors we place at InfraView are already known to us, so we can be sure of their quality as a technical professional as well as their personality, character, experience and their commitment to the projects on which they work.

If you’re hiring contractors, it’s crucial you trust the source of your candidates. The best way to do that is to work with a trusted, industry-known specialist recruitment consultancy.”

Conclusion

Contract recruitment allows you to meet the demands of your clients with greater flexibility in your budgets.

By spotting the signs that your business needs to find a Cloud & IT Infrastructure contractor, you can solve problems in your teams and your project workflow before they arise.

To find these contractors, you can leverage your own personal network of contacts, as well as previous and current employees to find the talent you need at short notice.

The best way to find top contractors is to work with a specialist recruitment consultancy with years of contract recruitment experience. You can be sure your contractor search is in safe hands, and will deliver the quality your business needs to achieve its objectives.

Need help today?

Give us a call on 020 3617 1040 or email hello@infraview.co.uk