What To Look Out For When Choosing Your AWS Recruitment Partner

As a leading cloud platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS) is used by millions of organizations worldwide. Combining optimal security with enhanced features and advanced functionality, it’s not surprising that it has become a go-to cloud provider for companies, individuals, and even governments. As a result, it’s also given rise to a whole new sub-sector of specialist IT professionals.

From AWS Developers and Architects to Engineers and Analysts, there is a whole niche community of tech experts who specialize in Amazon Web Services. However, finding the right employees and building a motivated team isn’t always easy, which is why it’s vital to choose the right AWS recruitment partner.

How Important Is It to Get Recruitment Right?

Your workforce is arguably your most important asset and the employees you hire will play a significant role in determining the success of your business. As we shift towards an ever-increasing digital working environment, companies are facing new challenges when it comes to hiring, training, and retaining staff.

The tech skills gap has highlighted just how many employees are underprepared and under-skilled when it comes to technology. As more businesses transition to flexible working and work from home becomes standard, employees are more reliant on digital skills than ever before, yet one recent survey showed that 49% of respondents only considered themselves to have ‘beginner’ level digital workplace skills.

When you’re hiring IT staff, such as AWS Developers or AWS Architects, you’ll be selecting new hires from a pool of experienced candidates, but you’ll want to confirm that your shortlist of potential employees does consist of talented AWS professionals with the expertise, experience, and skills to add value to your business.

Creating an AWS Team

When you’re building an AWS team, you’ll need to ensure that you hire a diverse mix of professionals who can help you to achieve your commercial objectives. As in-house recruitment is often managed by HR staff, hiring personnel may not be familiar with the varying roles and responsibilities that are associated with AWS deployment and development.

Depending on the type and scale of your AWS project, you may be looking for contract and/or permanent staff, or a mix of the two. As you might expect, potential permanent new hires have different priorities and expectations to contract staff, which needs to be reflected throughout the hiring process.

Furthermore, in-house recruitment teams may face notable challenges when it comes to finding and attracting those specific professionals. With many Amazon Web Services specialists already in coveted positions, enticing valuable team members to join your organization may take industry awareness, technical knowledge, and a proven track record in successful AWS placement.

General vs AWS-specific Recruiter

In-house recruitment can be a big burden for businesses, which is why many companies outsource their needs to established recruitment firms. For many positions, a general recruitment company can offer the diversity and expertise required but, for certain skills, a specialist approach can be advantageous.

When you’re choosing an AWS recruitment partner, it’s important to ensure that the team you’ll be working with has extensive knowledge of the Amazon Web Services ecosystem. As the platform and the industry has developed, AWS has evolved into a specialism of its own, and your approach to AWS recruitment should reflect this.

Consider whether a generalist recruiter has access to industry-leading resources like the Jefferson Frank Careers and Hiring Guide, access to worldwide AWS professionals, or a stellar reputation within the sector. From speaking at industry events, such as AWS re:Invent, to being recognized as an AWS Advanced Technology Partner, Jefferson Frank has spent years embedded in the community, garnering the specialist insight and reach that only an AWS-specific recruiter can offer.

In-house Recruitment vs AWS-specialist Recruiter

Finding and hiring your own staff might seem like an obvious solution when you want to build an AWS team but bringing your recruitment in-house can be time-consuming and costly, particularly for small to mid-sized organizations.

Firstly, you’ll need to research the market and determine where to advertise to attract the right caliber of candidates. Often, this involves spending a significant amount of advertising, without any guarantees that you’ll receive applications from suitable new hires. Then, you’ll need to dedicate time and resources to review the correspondence and resumes you receive, as well as developing a viable way of vetting candidates and confirming the validity and accuracy of their professional experience, before actually conducting face-to-face or virtual interviews with your shortlist of candidates.

As you can see, in-house hiring tends to result in lengthy recruitment processes that don’t necessarily deliver the best results. With limited reach and lack of specialist AWS knowledge, in-house hiring teams may lack the expertise required to engage with AWS professionals in a meaningful way, which could harm the number and quality of applications you receive.

In contrast, an AWS-specific recruiter, like Jefferson Frank, has access to a carefully curated talent pool, which can be used to access the specific skillset your company requires. With global reach and extensive industry knowledge, an AWS recruiter can help companies to shape and clarify their requirements while recognizing how to attract AWS professionals to a particular post or job role.

As a result, hiring a new employee or an entire team tends to be faster and more successful when you rely on an AWS-specific recruiter, as opposed to hiring new staff via in-house recruitment processes. With the potential to reduce your expenditure, accelerate your development and optimize your workforce, working with a dedicated AWS recruitment partner can provide you with the sector-specific skills and resources you need to succeed.

Diversify Your Tech Team

Diversification is critical to a harmonious and motivating working environment, but it isn’t necessarily easy to achieve. Creating a diverse tech team means hiring professionals with a diverse range of skills, working styles, personalities, and protected characteristics. As companies strive to develop a more diverse workplace and brand, this commitment must be carried over into the recruitment process.

If you hire new people via an in-house recruitment drive, for example, it’s easy to subconsciously hire professionals that fit into your existing workplace culture. While this may seem advantageous at first, it simply means that you’re hiring an entire team of people who reflect whoever is hiring them, often unconsciously resulting in recruits that look and think in the same way. By expanding your horizons and hiring professionals who think outside the box, you can bring in new skills, approaches, and ideas that will benefit your brand and your organization.

Similarly, assessing your existing AWS team and accurately identifying any gaps will help to hone your search for new AWS IT professionals. Of course, this applies to professional skills, as well as working styles and personalities. An entire team of ‘leaders’ can be a recipe for disaster but a diverse mix of ‘leaders’, ‘deputies’, and ‘learners’ can ensure that your AWS team flourishes.

Building an AWS Talent Pipeline

Many businesses begin advertising for a new recruit when they need to hire someone with a particular skillset, which often leads to companies hiring a new employee out of convenience and time pressures. Unsurprisingly, a rushed recruitment process rarely results in long-term success for either party. It may then increase your employee turnover rate and leave you scrambling to find a new AWS professional, which perpetuates the cycle and makes it difficult to build a reliable and successful team.

When you find the right AWS recruitment partner, however, you’ll have the opportunity to build a talent pipeline that can supplement your in-house team at any time. Creating a talent pool that can fulfill your immediate needs also means nurturing a talent community that can provide long-term access to specialist candidates. Building a talent pipeline can streamline and accelerate future recruitment processes and ensure your company always has access to the talented AWS professionals it needs.

By working with an AWS recruitment partner, you’ll gain access to a wealth of professionals without having to build or maintain your own talent pools or communities. Not only does this reduce the time, resources, and cost of finding suitable new hires, but it gives companies and businesses easy access to reputable AWS specialists.

Selecting Your AWS Recruitment Partner

To learn more about the benefits of working with an AWS-specific recruitment partner or to start your search for new AWS professionals today, why not contact Jefferson Frank now? With exclusive access to almost 20,000 AWS professionals and more than 270 consultants throughout North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific, we’re on hand to help you develop a talented and successful AWS team.

Even if you don’t choose to work with us, you’ll get a feel for the sort of questions an AWS recruitment partner should be asking in order to find the best possible hire for your organization, to make sure whichever option you select has that same dedication and industry expertise.