Hiring employees in IT can be tough for a number of reasons.
For starters, one of the challenges for a small business is what they can and cannot afford from an Information Technology perspective.
All too often, these decisions are made based upon limited information. Usually, those end up as minor mistakes. The wrong router, a server ends up being too small or underpowered for an application, or some other mistake that may cause earlier than expected retirement of equipment.
All of these just cost money and even though several thousand dollars may seem like a lot of money, it’s nothing compared to what can happen when things go wrong in hiring employees in IT.
Really wrong.
Hiring Employees in IT: When Things Go Wrong
Many of these IT employees don’t do it on purpose.
They do what they are asked to do and many go above and beyond. Somehow, they make it work.
At one company, there was a former IT employee that used two different technologies for VPN access. The reason was one technology worked fine for Windows XP but did not behave well for Windows 7.
So the enterprising IT employee found a low-cost solution for all of the Windows 7 users. From the CEO’s perspective, the employee got the job done.
The challenge came when that employee left and no one was quite sure how the system was all band-aided together. Usually, if there is one instance of several technologies being employed to solve one problem, there are more.
Several thousand dollars in expensive consulting and a replacement solution later, the various puzzles were unraveled.
(Read more about the hidden (and surprising) costs of software customization here)
Top Tips for Hiring Employees in IT
CEO Greg Stevens, found this out at JBC Enterprises when his longtime IT person left for greener pastures. “When everything is working fine, you don’t focus on it if it is not part of your core business.”
So how can the non-IT manager keep this from happening when they’re hiring employees for IT at their small business?
Count
Count the number of technologies and match them to the roles that they serve and keep the number as low as possible. Just like in manufacturing, complexity increases the likelihood of variability and variability is the enemy of predictability.
Consider
Consider the popularity of the technology. Paying twice as much for a brand name for the same product may not make sense in the grocery store, but in IT, sometimes it makes a lot of sense.
Yes, the capital outlay may be more upfront, but you save significantly later on.
The more popular the technology, the more engineers there are that can service it. The more engineers there are to service it, the lower the hourly rate for the same expertise.
Remember: The more engineers there are for a single technology, the less likely you will be held hostage by a departing IT employee.
Get help
Get help when blazing new trails.
The best role for an IT generalist is for them to follow a good plan developed by someone with a deeper skillset. For any project that has the potential to introduce new technologies, pay for the consultant. And then pay the consultant again to make sure that it was implemented correctly.
Outsource
Thinking of hiring employees in IT? Consider outsourcing IT operations instead.
Many outsourcers hire some very impressive talent. They can hire this talent and charge a small business less money than it would cost for hiring employees in IT. They can do this because they spread their talent out across several customers.
Also, outsourcing to a Managed Service company is a win/win.
The MSP makes their money on the monthly recurring revenue. The fewer visits they have to make to the location, the more money they make.
As a result, the fewer times that the MSP sends a resource to your company means that your company is up and running and productive. (Read even more benefits of outsourcing IT services here)
If you’re ready to outsource instead of hiring employees in IT, CloudNexus is your best bet for success.
We offer all of the cybersecurity solutions and IT managed services your company needs—all at a reasonable price.
Call us today to learn more, or click here for a free preliminary cyber-security analysis.
Did you learn a lot about hiring employees in IT in this post? Here are three more to read next:
Cyber-Security Insurance- Does Your Healthcare Facility Need a Policy?
Replacement Screens to Hijack Phones
VPN for Healthcare Workers who work from Home – Security Risks
This article was originally published in 2010 and was updated in 2021.