IT staffing specialists are the most popular recruitment tool for senior IT decision makers, according to research from IT recruiter Modis International.

The research shows specialist IT recruiters were the tool of choice for 54% of respondents, while 13% prefer to rely on referral schemes and 7% prefer company websites. Social media is the preferred tool for 5% of respondents.

Jim Albert, managing director, Modis International, says: “Given that IT recruitment and social media would seem destined to be close allies, the results of this survey are certainly surprising. It should be remembered that social media is best used as part of a wider, multi-media recruitment drive, and this could account for the low figure that has emerged from our research.

“Time constraints can often be a factor, and for this reason IT decision makers should look to share social media activity with HR teams. Updating a status on LinkedIn or Twitter to say that a given organisation is hiring can often be a simple, cost-effective and time-efficient way of driving social media traffic to a recruitment platform.”