How To

How to Find (and Keep) the Best Talent for your IT Department

Co managed ITFinding IT talent is not the easiest thing to do, and depending on your enterprise’s location, you might be in a situation where it seems difficult, if not impossible. While this makes it more complicated to find employees to fill your IT department, you need to make sure that you find someone who absolutely knows what they’re doing. We’ll give you some pointers on how to not only find the best talent, but how to retain it for as long as possible.

What to Look For

While it’s clear that you want a technician who has the skills required to perform their daily tasks, it can be helpful to find those who have other unique qualifications that stand to benefit your enterprise.

  • Experience developing for mobile platforms: If you have a prospective employee who understands the importance of mobile, and is handy with development software (particularly for Android), they can prove to be a valuable asset to your enterprise. Since mobile has quickly become the name of the game, anyone who can help your organization leverage it to your benefit is a great fit.
  • Experience with cyber security: Security is important in general, so you want a technician who has experience identifying potential threats or weaknesses in your infrastructure. Being knowledgeable about how to combat the latest threats and reinforce your infrastructure with the latest security measures is invaluable for any enterprise that wants to prioritize data security.
  • Education in business and technology: It’s understandable that you want someone who knows their technology solutions, but it takes someone special to understand the basics of how that technology affects the various parts of your business. Finding someone with an education in both business and technology shows you that they understand how your organization works and how to make technology work for it.
  • Skills in leadership: Technicians are inevitably going to be leading the charge on certain projects, be it a hardware refresh or a software deployment campaign. Having technicians who are willing and able to be a leader when it’s needed most will be a major boon for your enterprise. After all, you don’t have time to manage everything, so you want someone who you can depend on to get the job done.
  • Ability to adapt and work between departments: Flexibility is an important asset for any employee, especially when the functionality of IT is dependant on it. The ideal technician needs to understand how the rest of your business relies on IT, and tirelessly work to bridge the gap between departments.

How to Retain It

Once you’ve found talent, you want to make sure that they will stay for a while so that you can reap the full benefits of what they offer for your enterprise. Here are six great ways that your enterprise can make sure that the talent you attract won’t be going anywhere anytime soon.

Know which skills are in high demand: If you know which skills are in high demand within your industry, you can use these skills as opportunities for your technicians to learn more about their chosen trade. They will see this attempt as a way to help them better themselves, so it works from both an employer’s and an employee’s perspective.

  • Be willing to adequately compensate your technicians: One of the best ways to keep employees around is to make sure that the primary reason they work for your enterprise–their pay–meets industry standards. In fact, feel free to exceed their expectations, as the more they feel valued, the more likely they are to remain employed by your organization.
  • Remember company culture: Provide technicians with a workplace that is conducive to their productivity and they will reward you with not just good work, but exceptional work. Be prepared to show your technicians that their work is valued by your enterprise.
  • Provide plentiful and varied growth opportunities: Your technicians want to feel like they are benefiting from employment with your IT department, so give them the opportunity to expand their skills repertoire and learn new ways to do their job. Give them the chance to earn certifications and other professional development.
  • Listen to them when it matters most: Employees like to know that their opinions are valued, and an especially knowledgeable professional like an IT technician is no different. You hired them for their prowess, so listen to their thoughts and opinions when they choose to express them.
  • Keep an eye on your reviews: For these, we’re talking about reviews on sites like Glassdoor, Monster, Indeed, and other employment and job posting sites. This will give you an idea as to how you’re doing, as well as how you can improve your employee’s’ employment experiences.

While finding the best talent for your enterprise’s IT department is tough, it doesn’t have to be. Outsourcing allows your organization to find skills that are otherwise difficult to find, and at a more reliable rate than adding a salary to your budget; mainly because you know that the provider isn’t going anywhere, while an employee could drop everything and leave at any moment.

IronEdge Group is the ideal outsourced IT solution, as our trained professionals establish a relationship with your enterprise and retain it through quality results. Why hire someone who isn’t guaranteed to stay, or add multiple new salaries to your IT budget? Instead, you can know for certain that you’ll always have access to enterprise IT professionals for a predictable rate. Furthermore, with a co-managed IT solution, you can combine our knowledge with your IT department’s prowess, making sure that you always have someone to turn to, no matter the issue.

To learn more about how IronEdge Group can benefit your enterprise, give us a call at 1-713-574-5555 for our Houston office, or 1-210-757-4222 for our San Antonio office.

Ryan Lakin