Hiring your company’s first IT professional

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For many businesses, venturing into tech hiring is a new challenge. Companies that previously outsourced their IT needs are often looking to hire their own talent to assure they get the service they need. But often, they don’t have the skills to make an effective hire. Some turn to consultants to help them with the hiring process: others hope for the best when they interview, but the cost of a bad tech hire can be catastrophic. IT hires must be eminently qualified, or your business could suffer.

Consider the cost of recruitment and hiring alone: some estimates put the amount of time and resources devoted to a single hire at 10 to 20% of the candidate’s annual salary. In addition to posting costs, the time and labor involved in screening, interviewing, verifying credentials and background amount to a huge investment.

Then consider the cost of a bad hire. The chances are high that your newest employee won’t stay on the job for very long. Up to 45% of new hires leave the company within the first year: one third quit within the first 6 months. Too many employers are in the position of restarting the recruitment process when they’ve made an ineffective hire.

Venturing into an IT hire
When it comes to hiring your first IT professional, costs can skyrocket. Talent is scarce and the cost of bringing a new hire on board can be significant. Today’s tight applicant market is upping the cost of talent across all categories, but the substantial scarcity of skilled IT professionals is historic.

With no one on staff that speaks their language, screening and interviewing can be difficult. How do you evaluate what their qualifications are when you don’t understand the computer language they speak? In some cases, business brings in a consultant to help them make the hire: that can be beneficial, but costly. But the cost of not being assured if the candidate meets your minimum qualifications can be higher.

Transitioning IT in-house
If you’re turning over IT functions to an internal hire, they’ll need to transition your company from whatever platforms or providers you’re currently using. That alone can cause disruption. If the talent you hire isn’t qualified, the disruption could be long-term and long-lasting.

Consider the data you’re putting in their care: your internal data, customer data, proprietary information. Incursions into your infrastructure could be devastating: One wrong line of code and your private employee or customer information could be ripe for picking by hackers and worse. An unqualified IT hire could be disastrous.

Even a qualified hire could be problematic: imagine their work is acceptable, but their behavior is not. They could be disruptive in the workplace, causing more problems than they solve. Separating from that employee could leave your infrastructure at risk: they may sabotage your systems, or leave malicious code that won’t strike until well after they’ve left.

Hiring an IT professional when you don’t have anyone on staff that speaks their language can be challenging. Rankdone can help. Our pre-testing platform allows you to verify every candidate you meet has the skills and experience you need. Our tests have been created by experts in the field and run the gamut of skills needed. Simply choose a pre-developed test that meets your needs and Rankdone does the rest.

Your job posting refers candidates to apply through the Rankdone platform: but before their resume crosses your desk, they’ve been prequalified with tests that verify they can do what they say they can do. Applicants take the 20 minute test and their resume, and test scores are passed on to you. You’ll see how each job seeker ranked on the testing and choose the best of the best for your hire.

If your business is looking to bring some or all of your IT functions in-house, let Rankdone help you prequalify every candidate you interview. The more confident you are of their skill set, the more confident you can be of each hire. Contact us today.