Your business needs proper IT support to keep it functioning and prospering in today’s digital office space, making sure that your data is secure, backed up, and available at a moment’s notice. That can mean hiring an IT manager for the first time or replacing one that didn’t quite work out for the job at hand, whether because they weren’t a good fit or have gone on to other possibilities.
As digital transformation rolls forward, the demand for these highly-trained professionals is increasing by leaps and bounds, with 2017 seeing an increase of 943,000 jobs out of a total of 2.8 million as of late 2018, an increase of nearly 50%. With an average salary of $85,310, you want to make sure that you’re hiring the best possible individual for the position, especially given current concerns over cybersecurity and similar important IT issues.
Tristan Stewart, an outsourced IT support provider in Dallas offers a quick look at some of the top things you should know when you’re hiring an IT manager.
6 Things You Need to Know When Hiring an IT Manager
- You don’t actually need to hire an IT manager. Instead of hiring a single individual to manage the IT side of your business, have you considered a managed service provider? This is an outside company that sees to all of your IT needs, but because the overall expense is spread across several companies that use those professionals, it tends to be a much less expensive option in the long run. At the same time, the company is focused on making sure that your software is updated, your filed are backed up, your website is operational and your data is secure, providing you with access to a wide-ranging team of talented specialists rather than a single generalist IT manager to take care of the entire business, all for one simple monthly fee.
- You need to not only know what questions to ask but also need to have at least a basic understanding of the answers. A company in North Carolina was seriously considering hiring an individual who had mentioned on their resume that they’d handled a particular type of server. However, not understanding the complexity of the issue, the company brought in an IT consultant to complete the final interview. The candidate sidestepped several times until it came out that he’d worked in a shipping department and had loaded and unloaded that server from trucks – obviously not the kind of candidate you want running your IT department! If you don’t have someone who understands the complexity of the systems in your business, you may want to consider a similar approach.
- Consider what your business will need the in-house IT manager to take care of. Will they need to handle desktop support? Server configuration, design, and management? Network design, configuration, and management? What about defense design and management for your cybersecurity needs? Policies and management for preventing cybersecurity breaches as well as responses to those breaches? Backups and disaster recovery? Supporting and integrating apps with your current systems? Hardware and software sourcing? Cloud and hybrid system management? Compliance with a range of possible agencies and services? Communication management? Marketing, website, and SEO integration and management? One person probably won’t have all these skills.
- How much are you able to pay? A highly-skilled and -educated individual who can handle most of these issues as your only in-house IT professional will have an average income in the US of $141,000, which may not include a range of expected and required benefits, though this amount can vary around the country and according to the professional’s experience and training. In addition, the professional will have a wide range of ongoing training requirements that need to be met to maintain certifications, stay on top of the latest security issues and create the most efficient, secure system possible for your business’ overall needs, whether you have everyone in one space, business travelers or remote workers.
- Are they capable of translating geek into other languages or understanding business strategy? Though they’re few and far between, finding an IT professional who can translate what their strategic and tactical management strategies are into plain English is well worth the effort. These individuals are also better able, in many situations, to effectively manage the disconnect between business strategy and IT support of the business’ daily operations. Because IT is one of the only parts of a business that management can’t audit the strategy or execution of, it’s common for IT professionals to work in a vacuum, making it difficult to gauge success or failure of the department’s performance.
- As digitization marches forward, many businesses are outsourcing their IT and other service departments, choosing to outsource these services to gain agility and flexibility within the business model. Because market changes can develop so rapidly, this allows the business to create a laser-sharp focus on what they do best, whether it’s developing products, handling outstanding logistics, providing superior services, or simply taking care of their position within the niche. This is part of the reason why managed service models have grown by almost 40% over the past five years. These IT firms can deliver a higher level of accountability and reliability because of their regimented processes, systems, checks and balances which are their primary focus.
If you’re not certain about whether the IT professional you’re considering is the right one for your in-house IT manager, we can help! Whether we’re providing staffing services to help you hire the right IT manager or using one of our managed service provider options to work around the problem, our experienced staff can help you find the right solutions for your business. Instead of wasting a lot of time, effort, and capital trying to find the perfect IT solutions, we can get the job done for you for less.
