Adding people to your IT department can be tough. IT staffing needs to be done thoughtfully as you have to target candidates that have both business and technical skill set.
The world of IT has changed and is evolving with each passing day. This brings in a huge challenge for small and medium sized organizations. Why? Because they don’t have a proper IT department or IT experts who can assess IT candidates for them.
Therefore, if you are struggling with hiring IT staff for your company; a handful of tips will be helpful for you. Assessing the skill set of potential candidates is really important to ensure that you are hiring the right individual or people for your organization.
Deep Resume Insight:
Before looking at the resumes, you need to have a clear insight of what you are looking for. Do you want an MBA qualified person or someone who has a skill set dedicated to technology and IT. There are some key queries that you must ask yourself whilst going through the resumes. Let’s have a look at them.
- Does the individual have the skill set that you are looking for? For example, if you are in need of a programmer; are they one?
- Are they a beginner or are they a senior? Are you willing to give space to beginners to put their skills to use?
- Do they have experience in the industry? It can be internships too.
- Do they have the tools that are required to get the IT tasks done?
- Are they within your budget?
- Have they done any internships or jobs that qualify them for the job you want them to do?
Having a thorough and focused approach while processing the resumes is very important. When you know what you need; you attract it.
Dig deeper in interviews:
Resume is just a baby step towards IT staff hiring; interview is the game changer. You need to dig deeper while questioning the potential candidate during the interview as you don’t want to hire the wrong person. If they have previous experience then you can ask the following questions during the interview:
- What roles did you play in the previous job?
- What is their technical aptitude?
- Judge their business sense through various queries.
Make sure that you listen carefully while the candidate answers and dig deep before you hire them.
Verify their IT Skills:
It is very important to have a tech specialized person before you hire anyone. You won’t be able to gauge and verify the IT skills of a candidate as you aren’t an expert of IT. an expert, with a good insight of IT will be able to judge the person accurately. You can leave it to them to question the candidate about technology and IT related skills. It is best if the tech person shuffles through the resumes too, to make sure that only the best ones come for the interview. It will save you a lot of time and effort and will make the task precise. Lastly, it is very important to check the communication and presentation skills of the individual as these are a must-have while working in any organization.
FINAL THOUGHTS: What if you don’t have an IT expert to manage hiring with you?
Many companies, especially small ones, don’t have specialised IT experts to manage hiring with you. You can either hire an IT expert for this specific project (depending on your budget). Or you can do your research thoroughly and list down queries that will make you seem like an IT expert. Make sure that you don’t fake it. Do your research properly before asking questions; you must have all the answers.
Hiring the right, professional IT candidate is a daunting process. You cannot risk hiring the wrong person as IT is a very technical field and the wrong individual can mess up your organization’s system. To avoid productivity disruptions; take your time and put in the right effort to hire the right person.
The right IT individual, with the required skill set, can be the game changer for your organization.
