Tried-&-True Tactics To Find The Right Person For The Job
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September 5, 2008
Many admins have spent more time than they like behind the hiring desk. But while it is usually not much fun, the process of finding the right people is one of the most important tasks managers face, as the staff can make or break an IT department.
Admins have it especially hard because a company’s human resources department may not be as equipped to screen candidates as it might be for other fields, such as marketing or accounting.
“Hiring employees is a complex and daunting task, but I proclaim that hiring IT employees is several degrees more complex and daunting,” says Michael Taivalmaa, an analyst for Corporate Integrity (www.corp-integrity.com). “First, in my opinion, quality candidates in the IT space are becoming a rare commodity. Second, I have found that many candidates can ‘talk the talk’ but not ‘walk the walk’.”
Getting the right staff the first time around in the hiring process can pay handsome dividends, measured in costs saved. “It might sound like a lot of work, but it costs companies an average of about $10,000 to replace an IT position, so it’s time and money well spent to ask the right questions of your candidates in hopes of finding a perfect fit,” says Susan Snedaker, principal consultant and founder of VirtualTeam Consulting (www.virtualteam.com).
According to John Longwell, an analyst for Computer Economics (www.computereconomics.com), the hiring process alone represents an essential part of an IT department’s total budget, while personnel costs represent about half of total IT spending in most enterprises.
Given what is at stake, it is thus crucial to get the job done right. Making sure your hiring process is really up to snuff will save a lot of pain—and money—compared to what happens if your next hire does not work out. Experts recommend a few guidelines to help you do that.
The Right Description
Published want ads can often generate hundreds of responses, most of which might not be worth the postage and paper when the applicants fail to understand the requirements. On the other end of the spectrum, potential candidates who are qualified might mistakenly think that the want ad job description does not apply to them because of overly vague or ambiguous job descriptions. A good way to start the hiring process right is to make sure you have communicated an accurate and clear description of the type of candidate you seek.
“Perhaps one of the most important aspects of hiring IT staff is making sure you fully define the job before you hire [for] it,” Snedaker says. “Even if you’re filling a vacancy, it’s time well spent to review the job requirements and make any modifications.”
If several people were hired and then left a position with less-than-stellar success, it is a good idea to make sure that the job’s description is not the problem, Snedaker says.
“Sometimes the work you’re hiring someone to do doesn’t actually match the job description, so you continually hire the wrong type of person. If you have a vacancy because you promoted the person in that job, think about what made that person successful and ensure it’s reflected in the requirements,” Snedaker says. “Sometimes someone comes into a job and brings several added skills that are not reflected in the job description, and it might well be that those skills are worth capturing.”
Unequal Skills
Want ads often communicate a long and detailed list of the desired skills that are sought in a candidate. A general network and desktop administrator, for example, might be required to have general Windows desktop support experience, Microsoft Exchange expertise, and a range of the usual fare of admin qualifications mingled with general criteria, such as “strong organizational skills” or “the ability to multitask.” For a job screener from HR with little or no knowledge of IT, all of the sought-after skills and experience might be required before contacting a candidate for an interview. Yet many successful hires bring in candidates who might be comparatively weak in some areas but can offer overall stellar results for the position.
“It’s important to assess how important each function is for success on the job,” Snedaker says.
For instance, some IT jobs may only involve writing code and interacting with technical staff, Snedaker says. “The skills required for success in this type of position are far different than an IT help desk position where a solid mix of technical and nontechnical communication skills are critical. In our consulting, we use an assessment tool called a Role Behavior Analysis that helps the hiring manager clearly articulate what’s needed for success in that role,” Snedaker notes. “It helps the hiring manager or HR define the kinds of behaviors, skills, and knowledge that should be assessed during the interview process, and we’ve found that it dramatically increases the success in hiring the right person for the position.”
Contract Hires
The perfect candidate has just walked in the door. Perfect, that is, on paper. But before you hire him, you really have no idea whether he will work out. One way to reduce the risks that come with the hiring lottery game is to hire on a contract basis.
“By hiring contract workers, you can then outright hire them if they work out after a given period of time,” Longwell says. “That is an approach [enterprises] increasingly [take].”
While the risk of hiring contract workers is that there is a tendency among some enterprises to transform their entire staff into temporary workers, it does work out for many companies as a long-term strategy, Longwell says.
Watch Them Work
Interviewing can only go so far. But at the end of the day, do you really know whether the candidate can roll up her sleeves and get the job done? After narrowing down candidates to a final two, Taivalmaa recommends a more hands-on approach.
“During the interview process, the candidates have been given plenty of opportunity to ‘talk the talk,’ but now it’s time to make them ‘walk the walk,’” says Taivalmaa. “If you are hiring a technical position like a network engineer, set up a hands-on challenge and make them do several engineering tasks they are unprepared for,” he says.
“Don’t make it a pass/fail challenge but a challenge that allows you to analyze how they go about trying to solve the problem,” Taivalmaa says. “Of course, completing the task properly and in a timely manner is a bonus. Personally, this is the biggest time-saver for me.”
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