In a market that changes more rapidly than the seasons, and with low unemployment rates, you may struggle to find and keep IT talent. Technology requires employees to continuously learn new skills. How do you, as an employer evaluate whether they have the right skills? With so many certifications and new programs and platforms emerging, it’s tough to decide what’s most important.
Outsourcing may not be in your company culture or scope. You don’t want a fly-by-night IT pro from a gig marketplace. So where do you find quality IT employees and, once you get them, how do you keep them around for the long haul?
Our HR Director, Michelle Caridi, has written about the “why factor” in the past. This is what today’s best IT professionals look for in a business; Why they should work for you, and what purpose your company serves.
Taking some time to define your company's vision and values and incorporating that into your recruiting efforts will pay off with modern job seekers. Putting your company mission on a wall somewhere isn’t enough. If you are in a leadership role, you need to define why your employees should want to come to work every day, beyond the paycheck. Modern employees are looking to be a part of something bigger, and it’s your job to emphasize that opportunity in your workplace culture.
Many companies have a stable of reliable employees, but they aren’t always technically inclined for a particular project. Perhaps your staff is technology savvy, but not keeping up with changes enough to help you implement or offer new systems.
Chose a solution to your IT challenges that aligns well with your company’s culture and overall competitive strategy. Insourcing is a great way to maintain your company’s core values and culture and may be more efficient than outsourcing, depending on your network.
Some of the biggest companies in the U.S. are insourcing IT jobs, from Starbucks and Google to GE and Ford, reports Daily Finance. Most aim to increase agility and improve customer service with faster project turnarounds and personable service.
Not everyone has the networking connections or techies already under their roof, such as Google. Where do you turn if you and your colleagues don’t have any tech chops or friends in the right places? Outsourcing may be a better fit for you.
There are many different reasons to outsource. Perhaps it makes more sense for your budget to outsource for a specific aspect of a project or a one-time or short-term need. Sometimes hiring in-house requires more resources, such as time and money for training, or office space and equipment.
Using offshore talent means lower labor expenses. Many tech companies outsource jobs to China, India, Brazil, and the Philippines, to name a few. While India is known for being the least expensive in labor for software development and other tech talents, the Philippines or Brazil may be a better fit for communications and culture. Many companies opt to spend more on labor for workers who are fluent in English and can interface with customers better.
Also, consider partnerships with industry niche VARs (Value-Added Reseller) and MSPs (Managed Service Provider) so that you never miss an opportunity. Emerge IT has more than 40 partners that benefit from our multifaceted Cisco capabilities, resulting in cost savings, maximize productivity, and a better portfolio of service offerings.
LinkedIn has become a standard for many industries looking to recruit professionals. It’s transparent and has built-in recruiting and job features. Experienced IT pros should be plentiful on LinkedIn. But, if posting your job isn’t drawing the right applicants, take a proactive approach and handpick some promising prospects by sending them a direct message inviting them to apply.
Consider joining LinkedIn IT groups, with your specific area focus, to find help locally or remotely. You can also try niche job boards such as Dice.com, Crunchboard.com, TechCrunch, GitHub, or Stack Overflow Careers.
Leveraging professional partnerships to insource is a great way to recruit IT talent. Look at LinkedIn pages of your vendors or clients to spot IT talent. Don’t be afraid to reach out to your contacts and let them know you are hiring.
A less conventional approach is to attend tech industry Meetups, where you are bound to encounter some promising IT professionals. There are a lot of IT schools or “code camps” where you can meet IT talent or advertise your open positions through.
If you’ve exhausted these strategies with no results, you’ll want to consider hiring a recruiting agency. Let them “pound the pavement” for you and spend your time focusing on interviewing the chosen candidates and building your company’s culture.
Because of the evolving nature of technology and often long hours, IT pros are prone to jumping from job to job with short tenures. Let’s look at a few strategies to keep good tech help onboard once you find them.
By offering a workplace culture that encourages continuing education, you build trust. Employees appreciate when you invest in them, not just financially, but by nurturing their IT careers.
Consider offering credits or reimbursement for online or in-person certification courses. For example, if you have a networking engineer who’s liable to become burnt out doing the same old MPLS routine, encourage them to pursue training in SD-WAN and cloud networking. Better yet, bring the training to them, book it online and schedule them in.
Always keep your company mission statement and vision in mind -- don’t write it once and forget about it, but revisit it with your new hires and existing staff. Reevaluate it, rewrite it, and keep it synchronized with your day-to-day operations and rewarding workplace culture. Remember to ask yourself, and your partners, WHY you are unique to your competitors, and how you can maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.
Making these investments may cost you up-front but in the long term will pay off tenfold for your organization.
Get the best results by outsourcing with a boutique staffing firm, at EmergeITs all we do is IT. Let us be your secret tech connection, and we have experts ready to serve your specific business needs and customers. Contact us today at 859-746-1030.