Staffing vs. Recruiting

Staffing for IT, engineering and manufacturing job openings describes the process whereby candidates with specific skills are interviewed and hired to fill an open position with an operating company. It usually involves contacting and communicating with known candidates that possess the necessary background and skills required to successfully complete the project or work as defined by the operating company or client. The key here is the specific skills that the operating company needs and needs immediately. The position could be a contract or a contract to hire arrangement with a specific time period for the work to be completed. The pool of available candidates are usually completing contracting roles and are looking for their next assignment or they may be unemployed. These candidates are known to the recruiting firm and are found within their database or databases.

In the true sense of the word recruiting, as it relates to IT, Engineering and Manufacturing candidates, is the enlisting of an individual to accept a job opportunity with an operating company.  Recruiting is almost exclusively done for direct hire opportunities. Usually the recruited candidate is gainfully employed and is either active or passive in making a job change. The active candidate is responding to advertisements and interviewing. A passive candidate is happy in his/her role but will consider a change in employment if an opportunity should present itself that meets certain parameters the passive candidate has formulated.

staffing and recruiting

Trust the Process

The recruiting process involves a few steps that differentiate it from the staffing process. The first step is sourcing: the method by which a list is generated by identifying competitor companies that employ candidates with skills that are similar to the client company’s need or who are working in a comparable work environment. In this case, the candidates may be known or unknown to the recruiter. A couple of points here: the sourced list of potential candidates may be culled further by factoring specific skills, degrees, certifications and experience level that the client company requires. The next step is to contact the sourced candidates to present the opportunity. This step is key to the recruiting process and requires a discussion of the client company, its history, work environment, culture, benefits, job requirements, and, most important, the career path. Communicating with these active and passive candidates takes time and may require several steps to convince the individual to first consider the new opportunity. Both the needs of the potential candidate and those of the client company need to be discussed and explored to identify if a match exists. And, after deliberating and agreeing that a potential match is possible, the candidate will need to update their resume in order to move forward with an introduction of their background and skills to the client company. The screened candidates’ resume is then presented with any additional information that will help to generate interest on the part of the client. This additional information will focus of the candidate’s motivations for making a job change and also what the candidate hopes to achieve in his next role. The client company uses this information to assess how well this potential candidate will fit their culture and/or how well they will mesh with the team.