Top IT staff can be tough to find in any economy. Their technical skills are always in demand, and IT professionals with indispensable “soft skills” like communication and project management are even tougher to wrest away from their current employers.
But finding these outstanding candidates isn’t impossible, and neither is selling them on everything your company has to offer. To secure the best IT talent, companies need to know what their IT professionals need from them – and deliver.
How can your company increase its value proposition for IT candidates? By identifying what these candidates need to thrive, including:
Structure
IT professionals have been stereotyped as condescending and egotistic. In fact, IT staff can work well with a team and take direction – if they respect their team members and understand what is expected of them.
Evaluate your IT department’s current structure and expectations by asking current staff how well instructions and expectations are communicated, how well they are supported in their work, and how effectively and thoroughly work is evaluated. Clarity is valued highly in a field where concrete results demonstrate technical proficiency, so ensure the communication and evaluations in your IT department are structured accordingly.
Connections
IT is a specialized field. Often, the professionals who are best positioned to evaluate the work and credentials of IT professionals are other IT professionals.
Consider including current IT staff in interviews for new IT professionals. By seeking the perspective of a current member of your company’s IT staff, your hiring managers improve the evaluation of IT candidates and build connections among current and potential staff. They also demonstrate to new candidates that your organization understands the technical demands of IT work and supports the team’s efforts to develop its skills.
Flexibility
Because IT work supports so much of a company’s external mission and goals, IT professionals are often called on to tackle urgent or even emergency situations, like a crashed server in the middle of the night. Acknowledge and support the work your IT team does behind the scenes and in the “off hours” by giving IT professionals greater flexibility in scheduling work hours, telecommuting, and other nontraditional ways.
At Synerfac, our experienced recruiters can help you find the skilled IT professionals your organization needs – and give them what they need to thrive. Contact us today to learn more.