What is the common thread across industries and vertical markets? We all compete for technical staff people. Virtually every business needs them. There are several methods to find and keep good IT employees. Which one you select depends on the size of your company, the position you are filling or your overall hiring strategy.
In the direct marketing/fulfillment industry, Information Technology covers more than physical computers, wiring and software we use each day. Data processing (DP) is a critical component in all clients' programs, whether outgoing mail or response processing, and should fall in the IT category. What does that mean? It means your IT strategy needs to keep all of your technical people challenged and trained, not just the Webmaster or the PC technician. Whether your business has 30 or 300 employees, how you fill positions needs to be strategic. This process begins at the hiring stage.
Home Grown or Off the Shelf?
Both have advantages. Eighteen months ago, anyone who has remotely connected to a technical position was considered a white-hot commodity. Fortunately for employers, the market has softened and people actually have to interview for these positions again. Let's look at the pros and con's for both.
Home Grown (started in a different function at your company)
Pros
Cons
Off the Shelf (experienced technology person)
Pros
Cons
These two types of technical staffers need to be looked at differently when it comes to both finding and retaining them within your organization. Finding the homegrown candidates starts with looking at department rosters and reviewing potential candidates for key qualifications. Of course, you need to discuss your efforts with appropriate department managers. Recruiting from within should only be for the overall benefit of the company and the employee. If recruiting your strongest scheduler from the Traffic department weakens your company's ability to process client programs, think twice. If the scheduler is anxious to grow professionally and may leave if no opportunities appear, don't think three times. Strong staffers warrant strong efforts for retention. Loyalty is difficult to quantify when interviewing outside candidates.
What are the key qualifications necessary? Whether you need a DP programmer, network administrator or help desk support, the two non-technical ingredients of a good tech are problem solving and attention to detail.
A problem solver knows that there are usually several ways to solve most problems. Good problem solvers will use the most efficient method available that produces the desired result for the long term. They will consider · each possible method for completeness and timing, then select the right one. Weak or lazy problem solvers typically choose the easiest method, whether best or not. Their solutions tend to be Band-Aids or quick fixes. These folks can sometimes conceal bad habits, so be careful.
In the world of zeros and ones, an omission or erroneous addition can mean the end of a valuable client relationship. In the direct response/fulfillment world, a semi-colon instead of a colon could mean failing to suppress your largest client's customer list from its recent prospect mailing.
Even technical managers, who may often delegate most of the hands-on work, must learn to understand and emphasize the details. A minor oversight could render an e-commerce Web server inoperable.
Even as the labor market cools a bit, technical recruiting remains a challenge. The bursting of the dot-com bubble has helped but has not solved the problem. Finding qualified technical people in the open market can be accomplished by using several techniques. Which one you favor depends on the position you are trying to fill.
Entry-level technical positions, PC technician, help desk, maintenance programmer, etc., should be the easiest to fill. Our company has had good success recruiting from the academic arena for these roles. The required technical training and/or experience for these positions is available in traditional college curriculums. Many graduates know how to swap out hard drives, upgrade memory and install software on today's PCs. Most colleges and universities offer certificate programs, which encourage individuals with non-technical backgrounds to enter the high-tech world. Placing these folks in your organization can be mutually beneficial, provided appropriate expectations are set. Entry-level techs, if they're good, don't stay entry-level for long. They're hungry for more. A common mistake is to assume that your new employee will stay in her position for one to two years before getting the itch to move up or on. Not so, plan on eight to 12 months. If the person is a keeper, make every effort to provide more for her. If you don't feel that you will be able to satisfy her need for growth (technical or financial), keep a flow of candidates in your Human Resources department.
Experienced and more senior-level IT positions are not likely to be those individuals just out of an academic program. How much experience you need obviously depends on the position and its critical nature to your business. A Web-master for a business-selling product from its Web site may have a different value than a Webmaster for a construction company. Before the job/resume posting Web sites became popular, the choices for hiring vehicles were newspaper ads, job fairs and recruiters. All are still options, but many technical candidates and prospective employers utilize Web sites for the job seeking and hiring process. The emergence of Monster.com and other similar services has transformed looking for a job from a humbling, face-to-face self-selling effort to a shop-around, sometimes totally online process.
Most companies with Web sites have pages listing open positions, benefits and other incentives for prospective employees. Position descriptions on your own Web site can be a bit different than one you would send to a posting-type site. Someone reviewing a description on your Web site came to that site specifically to see your company's openings. You have a bit of an advantage over the Jobfind.coms. These Web sites typically work as matching engines between buzzwords in job descriptions and resumes. Verbiage you feel confident would be read on your Web site posting might never be seen by a particular candidate if the match misses on the resume service site. Cater your descriptions to the media you select, but keep the overall description consistent.
Keeping any IT position filled can be challenging and expensive. Train and orient your people to emerging technologies, whether you are cutting edge or "wait and see." Training is very expensive, especially if your newly trained employee decides to take her new knowledge to another employer. Come up with a written agreement, which acts as protection for your company while still offering training to the individuals. The agreement states that for each training program (subject to certain dollar guidelines), the trainee agrees to remain an employee for one year following the program. If the individual leaves prior to that year, she agrees to repay the company for the program, prorated to the remaining portion of the year. So if a person attends a $3,000 technical class and leaves after six months, she would have agreed to repay $1,500.
If you work for an organization with deep pockets in the technology investment area, offering your tech new toys to play with should not be difficult. New servers, network tools, upgrades, communications devices, software and desktop PCs as well as training, will provide variety for your IT staff.
If you don't have that level of cash to invest, vary job responsibilities to keep folks interested and current. We try to keep our technology in pace, but new toys are luxuries for us. We have found that our production programming staff has both interest and skills to offer regarding our network and communications systems. Our senior programmer doubles as our network administrator. Another programmer is our PC technician. It offers him a needed break from chugging out client programs and merge purges. We also keep a rolling list of technology initiatives involving both individuals and teams. Our priority is still to meet our client commitments, but these efforts succeed on two fronts. Our clients benefit from the results of these initiatives, while our DP/programming staff gains exposure to other technologies.
Money spent on hiring and retaining solid IT employees may be the most important investment your company makes. Develop a strategy, both short- and long-term, for both your technology and the staff that supports it. Spending money without a plan is simply gambling.
Mike Doherty is with Aurora Direct in Woburn, Massachusetts. For more information, e-mail mike.doherty@auroradirect.com, call him at 781-938-2860 or visit www.auroradirect.com.
