Do You Have Vendors Or Partners?

When you assess your IT contracting vendors there are questions you should be asking yourself.

Does my vendor understand my business?
Over time, your vendors should understand challenges in your industry and more specifically in your organization. Understanding the obstacles you face should enable your vendors to become proactive in helping you solve your IT challenges.

Does my vendor understand my technology environment?
Understanding your technology environment should be a key objective of your vendor. They should also know why you are using that technology. Coupled with this knowledge they will be able to screen candidates that are a great fit for your environment. 

Does your vendor solicit feedback on their performance and service?
Every vendor should be focused on quality and delivering superior service. Each of your vendors should meet quarterly with you to discuss how well they have performed and suggest ways they can improve their service.

Do you want and are you willing to have a partner?
Developing strong relationships with your vendors is a win-win situation. As a partner, your vendor will understand your environment and be better able to identify consultants that will help you meet your objectives. Open communication with your vendor and defining mutual expectations not only improves relationships but can eliminate potential issues that prevent you from meeting your objectives.

Written by Lonny Leseck

Hiring the Best and the Brightest

In the staffing world the value the vendor brings is identifying and qualifying contractors that will help you meet your project objectives. In looking underneath the covers there are a few inherent obstacles that may get in the way of the vendor adding value and consequently the client receiving value. There a few considerations for both clients and vendors when going through the hiring process.

Understanding of requirements

It is very important the hiring manager is as specific as possible in communicating their requirements to the vendor. Sometimes a manager knows what they need but does not always do a great job communicating the requirements to the sales representative or recruiter. It is always better to over explain the requirements rather than under explaining them. A vendor must have the knowledge and be savvy enough to understand when they do not have a complete understanding of the requirements. In these cases they need to have the ability to ask the right questions to make sure they get enough information to find the right candidate the first time.

Presenting the candidate

Every manager has a different way of looking at resumes. In other words, what is important to one manager may not be as important to another, for example; length of past assignments, formatting of resume, and length of resume. Another area that will preclude a resume from consideration is when the resume does not clearly highlight the actual strengths of the contractors as it relates to that specific job order. The timing of the resume submittal is also a factor in the interview process. Just remember the first to the dance does not always go home with the girl. If a vendor is doing their job and screening the contractor for each unique position it may take a little longer to get the candidate to the client.

Feedback is a 2 way street

Hiring managers should try to give the vendors feedback on the resumes submitted and the interviews they are conducting. This best practice should minimize the amount of interviews that have to take place before they find the right candidate. Vendors need to take feedback and improve their search criteria as well as their screening process.