The StoneHenge blog

Serving in various IT Director positions over the past 30 years I frequently found myself needing to augment my staff.

Sometimes we needed extra temporary heads simply to move a project along at a faster pace. There were other times when the requirement was for a very specific skill set for a couple of months and we didn't want to invest in a permanent employee. Lastly, there were times when management would a to agree to a temporary person, but wouldn't sign up for a permanent head count.

Regardless of the reason, I had the best success at filling a specific need by putting together a job description for the person/skill set needed. It included specific software skills, degrees, industry background and years of industry experience required. There were times that the skill set needed was very specific and other times when could compromise in areas; we were careful to point out what was most important in filling the position. We would then send the requirements to several staffing firms and see what results were delivered.

Several guidelines helped shape my opinion about the strongest staff augmentation companies and candidates. Here's what I learned:

• Start out utilizing several staffing companies to keep vendors honest - try not to depended on a single company for your needs. Over time a few companies will rise to the top of your list.
• Some staffing companies have deeper recruiting capability than others. Some companies only provided straight coders; others were only good at providing infrastructure people. The better companies are able to supply needs in a well-rounded manner.
• Low price isn't always the best value proposition. Many firms can offer a great price, but there was usually a trade off: You get what you pay for.
• "Resume avalanche" isn't what you're looking for - you want a staff augmentation company to sift through the resumes and cull the list down to the finalists that are most qualified.
• The better the relationship you have with staff augmentation firms, the better the candidates you receive.
• Provide strong feedback. In cases where you get a bad apple with a contractor, take time to visit with the recruiter - tell them how they were succeeding or missing the mark. This helps them do better next time or to keep doing a consistently good job.

I had great success augmenting my staff with the assistance of StoneHenge. Of course, what sort of VP of Operations for StoneHenge would I be if I said otherwise?

Here's my promise: Give me a call and I'll tell you how we can fill your need or if we can't. Don't believe me? My number is 918-382-1532. Give me a call and I'll give you my insight.