5 Key Considerations When Hiring an IT Professional Information technology professionals are responsible for the development, programming, system administration, technical support, and project management of a company. Their key responsibility areas (KRAs) include hardware/software management and network administration. In addition, tech support personnel are often required to communicate with vendors and suggest the most suitable products to meet their company’s IT needs. Consequently, whether it’s hiring employees for IT jobs in Dallas or any other location in the US, it is imperative to have a proper talent acquisition process in place to fill the positions so that professionals are hired to fulfil the long term company objectives. On that note, let’s take a look at the five elements that you need to take care of when hiring IT professionals for your company.
1. Capability to Handle Tech Support Your potential IT personnel need to be quick and organized, besides being efficient when handling tech support requests. They must be clear with their workflow and follow a structured approach to handling any emergency technical troubleshooting. When hiring people for IT jobs, therefore, it is important that HR teams ask probing questions to candidates about their process
to manage help desk requests. Ideally, candidates should be familiar with prominent help desk software such as Desk.com, Vivantio Pro, Zendesk, and Happyfox.
2. Pro-Activeness in Helping Desk Support IT employees are not there to just assist employees with resolving technical glitches in their systems. They are also required to customize, update, and clean up systems of any malware from time to time. It goes without saying that, as a business, every company wants IT professionals who not only take care of its servers but also who can suggest necessary technology tools that make the work easier for employees. Besides, potential IT staff should be able to devise effective strategies when it comes to managing your organization’s increasing IT needs.
3. Availability During Off-Duty Hours At the time of hiring, let the potential IT professionals know about the importance of stepping up during contingencies. Simply put, they should be available during off-hours to take care of any unexpected IT issues and help minimize the downtime. To achieve this objective; however, your HR team need to specify clearly the days and hours when service outages may occur, resulting receiving multiple help desk requests. Ideally, you need an IT team that has some or the other employee as a backup for managing the help desk 24/7, including the weekends.
4. Proficiency to Handle Disaster Recovery Besides their experience with data backup, learn about the disaster recovery strategies your future IT specialists have in mind. Learn how they plan to keep the in-house servers protected from any breach, fires, and natural disasters. It is, therefore, important to ask questions about their previous experiences in handling disaster recovery, and which process they followed to get over those situations.
5. Expertise to Strengthen Cyber Security Ensure that potential IT candidates have both the ability to design strategies to make your cyber-security measures robust. Pay attention to what they have to say about various aspects of IT and IT security other than firewalling, and installing anti-virus, and spam filters to strengthen network protection. In addition, talk to them about strategies they would use if your website gets hacked.
The Bottom Line While most companies try to ensure that potential IT candidates have various certifications in their field, many IT enterprises give weightage to various soft skills when interviewing them. The drive and eagerness to learn, are usually the most desirable attributes any help desk support staff should possess. Overall, both technical knowledge and commitment are required in this field. It is, therefore, important to draft a crisp job description, explaining all the qualities that you are looking to fill your company's IT job postings in Dallas. Simultaneously, when taking the assistance of a talent acquisition firm, explain them about your IT infrastructure and the specific requirements its help desk job demands.