How to Network with Tech Recruiters?
Before we move to the concept of IT recruiter networks and their benefits, I’d like to point out the common networking ways you can utilize to build valuable connections. That's where you should start.
Networking through social media. LinkedIn and Facebook are more than social media and messengers. Nowadays, they have become powerful tools for work and professional growth, let alone social networking for recruiting new employees.
Offline and online events. IT recruitment conferences, webinars, and job fairs serve the purpose of knowledge sharing as well as networking. It’s a great opportunity to broaden your professional horizons. You can often find event ads in recruitment-dedicated channels such as LinkedIn groups and professional communities.
Community-based platforms. Platforms based on a recruiter online network play a dual role. Firstly, they help hire top tech talents faster, easier, and cheaper than traditional hiring methods. On top of that, they foster support and professional enhancement among tech talent acquisition (TA) specialists.
Understanding IT Recruiter Networks
As I’ve mentioned above, IT recruiter networks are professional communities of tech talent acquisition specialists. Their members share industry knowledge, support each other, advance their hard and soft skills, plus learn about new talent acquisition tools and techniques, etc.
Such networks can be organized online and offline and be of different formats, for example, local clubs or global communities, Slack channels or LinkedIn groups, IT recruiting networking events, or meetups. These professional communities are equally beneficial for self-employed TA specialists as well as for those working for organizations.
As a business owner, you might be interested in growing your in-house recruiters by encouraging them to join such networks. Alternatively, you can leverage such networks to find a tech recruiter for your team. There are many perks of IT recruiter networks you should know about — let’s discuss the main ones!
Key Advantages of Using an IT Recruiter Network
In addition to being a growth environment for recruiters, these networks are also a great way to hire candidates. Nowadays, there are more and more platforms that unite professional talent acquisition specialists in one place to streamline tech hiring. While this approach is new, it provides a number of advantages for employers seeking effective and quality tech recruitment.
One example is Huntly — a platform that connects employers with recruiters all over the world by leveraging personal referrals on a scale. It makes the hiring process faster, easier, and cheaper. How's that? Keep reading and you’ll discover all the pros of our innovative recruitment method.
Faster and More Efficient Hiring Process
Network-based platforms aim to optimize recruitment methods to make tech hiring a more efficient and quality process.
The first thing that ensures fast hiring through community-based platforms is a great number of active recruiters on board (the Huntly community has 1000+ members as of the publication date). The more specialists that work on filling your vacancy, the faster you get a pipeline of relevant candidates. As for the quality of candidates, that’s achieved thanks to different verification methods. For example, at Huntly, we have an additional CV pre-screening performed by our Leading IT Recruiter. Thanks to thorough validation on our side, 4 out of 5 Huntly candidates get an interview invitation from employers.
Specialized Industry Knowledge
As network IT recruitment platforms aim to boost the speed and effectiveness of tech hiring, they pay close attention to recruiters who register on the platform. To ensure platforms’ good reputation and quality hiring results for employers, they allow only professional IT talent acquisition specialists on their platforms.
This is gained thanks to a meticulous registration process that aims to filter out people who don’t have enough expertise in the field. Consequently, you can be confident about the professionalism of recruiters registered on community-based hiring platforms and expect quality results.
Increased Access to a Candidates’ Pool
As recruiter network platforms have hundreds or even thousands of TA specialists on board, the number of potential candidates they can bring to one position is 10X bigger if compared to traditional hiring methods.
Moreover, in the first place, you’re connected with candidates who are open to work. An important condition of personal referrals is making sure that the candidate is aware and ready for communication with a hiring company. At the same time, there’s a big chance that recruiters know passive candidates who meet the requirements of a specific position and might persuade them to consider your offer. Thus, recruitment communities provide you with another benefit such as access to both active and passive candidates.
Targeted Candidate Matching
Targeted candidate matching is ensured thanks to detailed information provided by employers in job descriptions. As a rule, recruiter network platforms have clear requirements and templates for uploading a job description to ensure all the information necessary for effective hiring.
Once employers post a vacancy, recruiters see the details and refer candidates with corresponding skills and experience. Network-based hiring platforms have a clear process of CV uploading with numerous necessary fields and requirements, so there’s no chance of a wrong CV to land on your vacancy. For example, at Huntly, the process is the following:
- Our community uploads CVs of candidates who they think will fit a position best of all.
- Every CV is verified by the system so it is in the right format, includes necessary information about a candidate, and mandatory fields are filled properly.
- Once CVs are uploaded to the platform, they go through pre-screening done by our Leading IT Recruiter who vets all CVs (so employers don’t need to do this on their own).
This well-thought-out process ensures a 100% match with open positions and makes community-based recruitment platforms a better choice than job boards or social media. If you used traditional hiring methods, you’d have to go over hundreds of CVs manually before finding a worthy candidate. Not so with us!
Support
As community-based recruitment platforms are new to the market, some employers might need support when using them, so platforms provide it when necessary. Support can be in the form of live chats or chatbots implemented on the platform’s website. It can also be achieved with notifications or short educational videos that show how to use a platform.
For example, at Huntly, we lead you through the principles of platform operation at an intro call. Once you register, you can either work in your Employer Account on your own or request an Account Manager who will support you throughout the hiring journey. Plus, there’s a live chat you can use when visiting our website.
To conclude, I’d like to say that recruitment networking platforms are a new perspective for business owners, in-house TA teams, and individual recruiters. They serve as a bridge between employers and recruiters, thus make the tech hiring process more efficient. With the initial goal to optimize IT recruiting, they also serve as a stimulating environment for recruiters’ development.That’s exactly what Huntly is about. I invite you to register here to see how our network operates. First of all, you’ll be able to test our platform as a risk-free hiring tool, since posting a vacancy is free of charge and you pay only when you hire successfully. Secondly, you can leverage Huntly to extend your in-house TA team — we have more than a thousand recruiters on board from all over the world. I bet you’ll be impressed after working with just a few of them!
