How to Get the Most Out of Working with IT Contractors

According to a study penned by McKinsey & Company, the COVID-19 pandemic acted as a tipping point for organisations across the globe, speeding up digital transformation efforts and initiatives by an average rate that was initially anticipated to take seven years. As a result of this rapid transformation, business leaders, hiring managers, and CTOs alike are looking to IT contractors to bridge the skills and experience gaps in their permanent workforce. 

Despite the growth of IT contracting jobs, many managers don’t know how to get the most out of their relationship with an IT recruitment consultancy and the contractors they place. 

In this guide, we’ll explore how to maximise your contractors’ efficiency and productivity, as well as the positive impact that maintaining a robust relationship with your IT recruitment agency can have. Once we’ve done this, we’ll also explore how to drive a return on investment from your contractors, before we go on to explore how to discover the best candidates for your unique needs.

Getting the Most Out of IT Contractors

In the fast-paced and continuously evolving markets that tech-forward companies find themselves in, business leaders often leverage the services of expert IT contractors to navigate the complexity of their projects and bridge skills gaps within their permanent teams. 

But when it comes to truly maximising the positives of working with an IT recruitment agency in your interim roles, you need to think strategically about the ways in which you motivate, engage, and support your contractors. 

Maximising IT Contractors’ Efficiency and Productivity

When it comes to ensuring that your IT contractors are prepared to hit the ground running, it’s vital to focus on maximising their efficiency and productivity. Several strategies exist, but they all begin with ensuring that your project scope is clearly defined. Concrete objectives and timelines are the foundation of any IT contractor’s success, allowing them to provide high-quality deliverables well in advance of any deadlines and within budgetary constraints. 

When around 60% of projects are unsuccessful in meeting their objectives, and 40% exceed the constraints placed upon them by budgetary requirements, it’s business-critical to make certain you have a concrete scope in place. This will offer guidance and minimise the risk of scope creep that can lead to budgets and timescales ballooning. 

Beyond this, a well-defined project will also identify the roadblocks to success that stand in your way. As a result, you’ll have the confidence to know that the specialists staffing your IT contracting jobs will have the necessary tools, software, equipment, and other resources necessary to sidestep delays and remain productive, without requiring constant oversight. 

If you’re working with an IT recruitment consultancy expert to fill your vacant interim roles, you’ll likely revisit your expectations a few times before the contractor is placed. This will ensure that you and your talent partner understand the limits of what your IT contractors can successfully achieve within the timeline you’ve specified, avoiding the burnout that can hamper their productivity over the course of a project. 

Similarly, you’ll work closely with your IT contracting specialist to implement trackable performance metrics and robust KPIs for your contractors. Not only ensuring accountability, having this data will also assist your leaders in identifying areas for improvement in future projects.

Building Effective Relationships with an IT Recruitment Agency

The IT recruitment consultancy that you partner with to staff your contract roles can significantly impact the quality of the candidate that is brought on board. 

As a result, it’s vital from the outset of your relationship, you establish open and transparent lines of communication with your talent specialist, which will enable you to articulate your requirements when it comes to expertise, qualifications, skills, and cultural fit. 

By working with an IT recruitment agency with a track record of providing reputable, high-quality IT contractors, you can trust that any hire that’s placed with you will be specifically tailored to your unique needs.

Likewise, your relationship with a recruiter of contractors can be the key you need to unlock in-depth market knowledge. A great agency will have a deep understanding of the market for IT contracting jobs, providing you with insights into the latest technological trends and salary expectations that can help to differentiate you from your competitors, and empower your overall hiring strategy. 

In short, communication is the lynchpin around which your relationship with an IT recruitment consultancy hinges. You should create a feedback loop with this agency, regularly discussing the progress of your IT contractors, and ensuring that they remain aligned with your immediate and long-term vision. You can report any unsatisfactory—or satisfactory—results, and highlight your interest if you wish to extend an employee’s contract.

Achieving Cost-Efficiency and Getting ROI from IT Contractors

Investing in IT contractors shouldn’t be a drain on your resources. You should be seeing a return on investment from your partnership with an IT recruitment agency, but doing so requires you to take some steps to maximise your ROI.

First and foremost is to understand the importance of IT contracting as a scalable solution: one of the key advantages of these services is to avoid the fixed costs of hiring permanent employees, instead using IT contractors for those projects whose workloads are variable. Leverage contractors to access the specialist skills and experience you require when duties need to be completed quickly and efficiently, reducing their headcount once you’ve received deliverables or a project has come to its conclusion.

Likewise, contractors offer you a shortcut to robust competencies, minimising the need for training. Around 90% of those in IT contracting jobs are in the middle to later stages of their career, meaning that when they find a project which is well-scoped and matches their skills, they’re ready to hit the ground running. 

This is still a two-way street like all employment arrangements, however. Ensure that you’re working with your IT recruitment consultancy to negotiate flexible contract terms that align with your long-term business needs, making certain that terms are mutually beneficial and help you to rapidly adapt to changing project requirements or shifting consumer demand. 

How to Discover the Best IT Contractors

With 86% of technology managers and CTOs highlighting that one of their biggest challenges is finding skills professionals that meet their application and software development needs, recent years have seen a growth in the number of business leaders leveraging IT contracting jobs to meet their responsibilities and effectively complete projects.

Finding the right contractors for your unique needs can be a daunting task, however. 

With the right approach and a robust strategy, you can discover the candidates that make all the difference for your organisation. Here’s how you can discover the best IT contractors for your requirements, regardless of the position's niche or complexity.

Defining Your IT Contracting Needs

Start by working with the IT recruitment consultancy you’ve partnered with to ensure that you’ve aligned your contracting needs with your organisation’s strategic objectives. Whether it’s a short-term or long-term project, it’s crucial to understand what skills and experience will be essential for achieving your goals. 

A skills gap analysis can supplement this strategic planning, allowing you to identify roadblocks in your in-house, permanent staff that can be overcome through the use of IT contractors.

Once you’ve developed a thorough understanding of the competencies and resources that will need to be in place to achieve your project goals, you’ll be able to allocate a realistic budget to ensure that you can bring experienced contractors on board. 

One benefit of placing contractors through an IT recruitment agency is that you can experience support every step of the way, with specialists making certain that your business is complying with all local legislation, eliminating the issues that can arise when you’re not familiar with the hiring of interim employees.

Sourcing and Evaluating IT Contractors

Beyond utilising industry-specific and general job platforms to source IT contractors, working with an IT recruitment consultancy will enable you to meet with and interview candidates who have been pre-vetted and reviewed. 

An expert provider for IT contracting jobs will have thoroughly assessed candidates’ portfolios and CVs, catching up with past employers to seek referrals and recommendations for previously completed projects. 

They’ll ensure that their past work, experience, and certifications are relevant to every role they’re putting forward, minimising the chance of a bad hire or a candidate dropping out before the completion of the recruitment process. 

Whilst you may not need to conduct interviews and technical testing at the same depth as you would with a permanent hire, evaluating and onboarding contractors will still require you to assess their skills and cultural fit. 

This can be a time-consuming process, which is why we’d always suggest working closely with an IT recruitment agency to ensure that your staff aren’t taken away from their revenue-generating duties too often.

Successfully Onboarding Candidates for IT Contracting Jobs

IT contractors can get up to speed quickly, but that isn’t to say that they completely eliminate the need for onboarding. Effectively introducing your new hires to your company can set them up for long-term success, beyond a brief orientation and training on company-specific policies and procedures. 

It begins with clearly defining their roles and responsibilities, providing a roadmap for their engagement with your organisation. This will help them to understand and manage their schedules, provide you with regular updates on progress, and evaluate their own performance in line with your expectations. 

It’s crucial to let all of the experts in your IT contracting jobs know that you’re open and receptive to their requests. This will help you to understand whether they’ll require access to tools and systems, or additional resources, to start working and delivering immediately.

If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of contractors when they’ve been successfully onboarded, see our recent guide to The Benefits of An In-House IT Team vs IT Contractors for a deep dive into the positive impact these specialists can have on your organisation.

Wrapping Up What We’ve Learned About IT Contracting Efficiency

Effectively leveraging IT contractors and maximising the productivity and benefits of your partnership with an IT recruitment agency is crucial in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital transformation, prompting businesses to turn to contractors to bridge skills gaps. To get the most out of your working relationship with these specialists, it’s essential to focus on several key aspects. 

First, maximising the efficiency and productivity of those in your IT contracting jobs begins with clearly defining your project’s scope, objectives, timelines, and budgetary constraints. This not only ensures high-quality deliverables, but also helps prevent scope creep, which can lead to budget overruns and delays. 

Building effective relationships with your IT recruitment agency is equally important. Open and transparent communication ensures that the candidates you hire are tailored to your specific needs. Additionally, it provides access to valuable market insights, helping you stay competitive. 

Achieving cost-efficiency and a return on investment from your contractors involves understanding the scalability and flexibility of this workforce. IT contractors offer specialist skills without the fixed costs and training needs associated with permanent employees. Still, it’s vital to negotiate flexible contract terms which adapt to your changing project requirements. 

Finding the best contractors for your organisation requires an approach which aligns your strategic objectives with your IT contracting needs. Ensure that you collaborate with the IT recruitment consultancy you’ve partnered with to source, vet, and interview pre-qualified candidates, ensuring they can be successfully onboarded and provided with the resources they need to succeed. 

By following these strategies, you can maximise the benefits of working with IT contractors, ultimately helping your organisation to thrive in the fast-paced and increasingly competitive technological landscape.

An Expert IT Recruitment Agency

At Fruition, our consultants are committed to supporting a broad range of innovative and fast-growing businesses within the IT industry. We offer staffing, executive search, and embedded solutions that ensure that you’re covered and can access candidates at short notice, no matter how complex the role. 

Contact us today to discuss your unique requirements with our IT recruitment consultancy specialists.