IT Management Reference Guide

Not all infrastructure positions can be filled from inside a company. The introduction of new technologies, company growth, or simple attrition can necessitate the need to go outside a firm to meet staffing requirements.

Larger companies normally have human resources departments to assist in recruiting, scheduling interviews, and clarifying benefits and compensation issues. Smaller firms may necessitate that IT managers recruit from the outside directly, or use professional recruiters to fill IT infrastructure openings. Recruiting directly saves costs but requires more time and effort on the part of managers, and it may take longer to locate qualified candidates this way.

Several direct recruiting methods exist to aid in this approach. Word-of-mouth recruiting by co-workers and staff can be surprisingly effective. Many companies now offer lucrative incentives for job referrals. Advertising in leading trade publications and local newspapers can also attract qualified talent. One of the quickest and simplest methods used today to recruit is the use of the Internet, which businesses of all sizes are now using to post job openings.

The use of outside recruiters is a common practice today, particularly when filling positions requiring critical or advanced technical skills. Recruiters are becoming much more specialized, enabling managers to pick and choose firms that best meet their particular recruiting needs. Care should be taken to ensure that recruiters have a proven track record, and references should be requested and checked whenever possible.

My experiences with Human Resource departments in large companies led me to a surprising source of direct recruiters: the HR recruiters themselves. While working at a small company that had no HR department I needed to recruit from to outside to fill two important web-related positions. My previous employer was a large aerospace company, and while there I had worked with its HR department several times on IT recruitment issues. The recruiters at this company and I had formed a close working relationship. This prompted me to call them for referrals of recruiters that I could use at my new job. The HR people at the aerospace company were more than willing to help me out, suggesting several firms that eventually led me to the perfect candidate.

This episode demonstrates another important lesson about the value of developing relationships with key support groups. The recruiters in the aerospace company's HR department were willing to supply me helpful information about outside recruiting firms because of the mutual cooperation and trust that was developed between the HR representatives and me. Maintaining relationships like these, even for years after leaving a company, can come back to provide benefits when you may least expect them.

Another source of outside recruiting can occur at conferences, associations and user groups. While most conferences publicize policies that restrict official recruiting, there often is informal networking that occurs among colleagues. I have not filled a position using this method, but know of other managers who have. Their only caution is to ensure no specific conference policy is violated. For example, if a conference states that a speaker's presentation cannot reference open positions, then that is the policy that should be followed.

An even more notorious method of recruiting outside staff consists of companies that hire personnel who are working for them from major consulting firms. I worked at a large entertainment company a few years ago that employed dozens of IT professionals from several of the big four accounting firms. There were reciprocal agreements in place that specifically forbid either the client or the accounting firm from hiring personnel from each other. Even with these policies in writing, both parties violated them by hiring targeted individuals. In some cases the result was a mutual understanding to look the other way. But in one instance lengthy litigation occurred that was eventually settled out of court.

Once you have selected your recruiter of choice, you should provide them with very specific information about the type of individual you are seeking. Most reputable recruiting firms have a sizable database of prospective candidates and should be able to match most of your requirements. The more detailed the job description, the more likely they will be to find a desirable candidate. Do no specify merely the skill set and level of experience required. Describe the specific kind of work you anticipate the new hire to perform, the types and versions of software products and platforms involved, and the amount of recent practical experience you expect. For leads and supervisors, request how many individuals were under a candidate's leadership and for how long.

A final suggestion on the use of recruiters: Always clarify with the recruiting firm any questions you might have on specific points of a candidate's resume prior to calling that candidate for an interview. An experience I recently encountered with a dot-com company illustrates this point.

I needed to staff a critical position for a senior Oracle database administrator. I selected a recruiting firm that specialized in these kinds of candidates and within a few days had the resume of what appeared to be the ideal person for the job. This individual stated recent extensive experience with the exact levels of Oracle needed. But upon interviewing the candidate it quickly came out that most of the recent Oracle experience had come from training classes that the prospect's spouse—a professional Oracle instructor—had provided. The recruiter was even more surprised than we were to learn of this development; needless to say, all three parties involved ended up the wiser and parted ways.

These are some of the numerous ways that IT managers can recruit from the outside. In today's competitive market for skilled, technical specialists, if never hurts to have a variety of methods available to fill that one key position.

References

Kern, Harris, and Galup, Stuart D., and Nemiro, Guy, IT Organization: Building a Worldclass Infrastructure, Prentice Hall, 2001

Schiesser, Rich, IT Systems Management, Prentice Hall, 2002