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(Atlanta,
GA)… Technology companies have not yet found the Internet to be
a fruitful source for finding technology talent. Also, as labor markets tighten and
technology talents
become increasingly scarce, more information technology (IT) companies are looking to
outsource
their hiring, particularly for difficult-to-fill positions.
The
Van Zant Resource Group (VRG), a high tech recruitment and staffing firm, released
this finding as part of its recent "Employment Trends Survey." A regular study
of employment and
trends among leading IT companies, the VRG survey tracks emerging employment issues in the
high
tech arena such as staffing, employee sourcing mechanisms, acceptance factors and
retention issues. According to the survey findings, technology firms still rely heavily on traditional
employment search vehicles like newspaper advertisements (85%) and employee referral
programs
(67.5%) to fill technology positions. Meanwhile, more companies are using Internet
searches
(77.5%), but are less than satisfied with the results. The survey also found the most
ineffective
employment recruitment tools for IT firms were job fairs, trade magazines, job lines and
web sites. While
surveyed companies were satisfied with employee referral programs, newspaper ads
and college recruiting, internet recruiting has not delivered the results many expected.
"We found that while many professionals rely on Internet research for candidate
sourcing,
only 22 percent were satisfied with the candidates they found," said Kathy Van Zant,
President and
CEO, VRG. "As a result, more companies are moving to outside resources who use a
combination
of traditional and non-traditional sources to find skilled technology persons." "Many professionals in the IT industry are not fully aware of what
to expect with research
and sourcing firms," said Kathy Van Zant, president and CEO, The Van Zant Resource
Group.
"They often choose the wrong kinds of firms and receive disappointing
results. Today, only 32.5 percent surveyed use research and sourcing firms
as a personnel sourcing
mechanism. However, many IT professionals predicted more companies will
"outsource" their candidate
recruitment to third party providers in the next several years. Of all the firms surveyed,
only three
respondents indicated satisfaction from direct recruiting with internal staff. "Respondents cited their average cost per hire ranged from
$1,500.00 - $18,000." Van Zant
added. "The bottom line is most professionals do not know what they are paying per
hire. As a
result, the industry needs to better measure and track their hiring costs." From most new hires, base compensation remained the most important
factor in offer
acceptance while career development/training and promotion opportunities ranked second and
third.
The top three retention issues included: career opportunities (29%), base pay (21%) and
employee
relations climate (14%). "This
survey found that the primary reason for leaving a company is dissatisfaction with
management and a company's failure to appropriately address employee concerns," Van
Zant
added. "Companies who want to increase retention and reduce turnover should pay
careful attention
to these issues." We
hope this survey will create great insight into the future of high tech recruiting and
staffing operations and enable IT professionals to gain a step ahead," Van Zant
concluded.
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