Hiring IT Specialists and Measuring Their Success

Guest Post by Mike Smith, Director at Greenlight ITC

As a business owner, you’re likely to have found yourself in the position of hiring staff without a clear idea of what their responsibilities or KPIs should be. Hey, I’ve done it.

Maybe you did a few Google searches and looked at the sort of responsibilities and experience other companies typically look for. While it’s a clever workaround what you don’t know is that a lot of those companies are doing the exact same thing.

Why re-invent the wheel, right? Well, when it comes to people, it’s a little more complicated than that. Simply because the system isn’t ‘broken’, it doesn’t mean it is any good. When it comes to hiring, I’m sure you want a better guarantee than that.

The recruitment process can be tedious, and the time and money involved are not insignificant. For this reason, many companies choose recruitment process outsourcing, or RPO, to companies over having a dedicated resource manage the process.

With close to ten years’ experience in hiring IT support staff—and with many mistakes along the way—I feel like sharing some of that experience so that you can avoid some of the pain that comes with getting it wrong.

Here are my 4 favourite tips on setting IT Support responsibilities that will help you hire and assess your next IT Support staff member, contractor, or managed IT Support provider.

1. Attracting the right talent

Just like in sales, there is a level of psychology required in attracting and engaging the right employees. Great IT Support specialists generally have a certain personality type which can be a great success indicator, which I will touch on in a minute.

When I first set out hiring IT Support specialists, I thought their key motivator would be money. I mean, who doesn’t like money?

As it turns out, I was actually turning the wrong lever. What technical specialists value most is learning and training above all else. There is a reason why so much software is free, and why there are so many communities with hundreds and thousands of people sharing information for free, and working together to develop open source projects. IT people work in this space because it is their PASSION, and your ad should speak to that.

 If you hope to attract and retain great talent— and maximise the value they bring to your company— you must be willing to support and invest in their education. At Greenlight we have specifically had the most success in supporting technical training and certifications, customer support training and time management.

On that note, you should never be afraid of improving the skills and qualifications of your employees because you are scared they will leave. I’m not saying nobody will leave, but the benefits bring immense value to your company, both financially and in terms of employee retention and loyalty.

2. Screening applicants

Imagine you’ve now had an influx of eager applications for your IT Support role. You feel happy that so many technical specialists are clamouring to work for YOUR company. You obviously said something right in your ad, and now you’re faced with a fairly big challenge.

That challenge is separating the wheat from the chaff—you’re not an IT specialist yourself, so how can you determine who has the right skills, and who is just saying what you want to hear?

This is perhaps the biggest obstacle for a small business to surmount, but it isn’t a deal breaker. You may have some friends or past co-workers who understand IT, and who could be brought in to help screen talent and ask the right technical questions.

Our company sometimes offer these services to clients—from screening to an in-person interview—in order to help determine whether the candidates can ‘walk the walk’. We do this through a standardised technical skills test, followed up by an interview with one of our senior technicians.

The effort involved in doing this pales in comparison to the direct and indirect costs—usually thousands of dollars—that hiring the wrong candidate can have on a business.

3. Personality tests

You and I know we like to think that we are great at reading people—and in nearly all cases, we are—it is just incredibly difficult to gauge somebody’s personality traits in the matter of a few hours.
 

There are many different personality types, and about as many different tests that can be taken to better identify the traits in an individual. We want to hire somebody who will get along with both ourselves and our employees, partners and clients.

Is there a ‘personality’ that best performs as a technical specialist? In a way, there is. The traits that we find deliver the most value in this space are individuals who are patient and methodical, and who are able to deliver great customer service.

Personality tests can help you identify whether those traits exist in your top candidates. You will hire people who will deliver consistent results, and who will make life easier for your clients and employees.

4. IT Support Responsibilities

If you’ve ever worked for anybody else in your life, you probably know about KPIs, or Key Performance Indicators. These are the metrics by which you assess the performance of yourself, your staff, and your business.

 KPIs for IT Support employees or managed IT Support providers can range broadly depending on the type of business you operate. If you’re hiring an internal technical specialist to look after your people and systems, the KPIs are much less formal than if you’re using an external team.

Internal IT Support

Consider the metrics that matter to your business. Why are you hiring an internal technical specialist? It could be to:

•   Guarantee the uptime of your network

 

•   Resolve any hardware and software issues quickly

 

•   Manage your website

 

•   Develop and resolve bugs in software

 

Whatever the metric, you should be setting minimum acceptable NUMBERS to objectively assess performance. It is then critical to track and improve those numbers by creating systems for each task. 

If you are not tracking metrics, how can you possibly tell if you are improving on them?

Creating systems can be as simple as a Word document that details:

•   What is the task?
•   Why are we doing it?
•   Who is doing it?
•   How do we do it?

Managed IT Support

When working with a managed services provider, KPIs take on the term SLA—or Service Level Agreements. The most common metrics are:

Abandonment Rate – percentage of calls abandoned before being answered

Average Speed to Answer – when something goes wrong, we want fast access to make sure the problem is going to get fixed as soon as possible.

Time Service Factor – the percentage of calls answered within a specific agreed timeframe. For instance: 80% of calls being answered within 20 seconds.

First-Call Resolution – having to contact technical support departments to ‘follow up’ on the state can be frustrating. This metric calculates, percentage-wise, how many issues are dealt with during that first call.

Turn-Around Time – from when you lodge an issue, what is the average time it takes for it to be completely resolved and considered ‘closed’?

Mean Time To Recover – if there is an outage—whether it is a network, software or hardware failure—how long does it take on average to recover? This could include finding a temporary workaround while the major issue is resolved.

Conclusion

I’ll admit it—there was some measure of pain in learning these things first-hand. But getting it wrong and understanding the best way to do things is always worth it. I hope that sharing them with you brings some value to your business.
 

Looking for a technology partner for your business? Mike Smith is the Director of Greenlight ITC, a Managed Services Provider specialising in delivering IT Support and technology solutions to small businesses in Sydney and Melbourne since 2006.

 

 

Hit me with your best shot!

Are you giving your business the best shot? Maybe, but maybe not - I had a client the other day 'interview' a candidate and it went a bit like this:

Candidate arrived - Owner seemed flustered and distracted - the interview was on the couch in front of the rest of the team...

Question one (and pretty much the only one) - 'what do you know about my business?'

Next thing said - with a point of the finger - 'that's where you would be sitting'

Rapport was good but no questions were asked about background or skills and the interview lasted just 20 minutes.

Now you might be thinking that the candidate must have been horrendous - well I can categorically say that she wasn't and that this was a missed opportunity. The candidate is hard working, has a great personality, can turn her hand to a wide variety of roles, has small business experience, can pick up new skills and struggles with having nothing to do.

So what did the candidate think of the interview process?

Nice guy - but wasn't focused on the interview. I didn't get to sell myself. I wasn't told anything about the role. I'm not sure I would take the role, even if it was offered.

The problem was that the owner did not sell the role, his business or vision and the first impression created was not a good one. I believe that one of the major success factors for any business is to not just get employees and fill a gap, but to attract and retain the best ones possible.

So was this a missed opportunity? I think so. As SME owners, it is critical to surround yourself with people that are flexible, willing to roll up their sleeves and get stuff done. Typically, people are not taught how to attract talent to their business and select the best people. I believe that this is a key skill for business owners to acquire, to survive and thrive.

Do you have any interview horror stories - either as an employer or as a candidate?

Download and read our free eBook on our Employee Matters Facebook page today to see how it can be done.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Are you sick of sick employees?

By: Natasha Hawker

As an SME, when you get the dreaded call that one of your team is sick - what do you do? Did they actually call or was it received by text? Most small businesses run a very lean team, so having a team member off for a day - or worse still a week - can make for a challenging time. If employees see or perceive a relaxed approach to the management of leave, you are likely to have everyone taking their full entitlements and then some. This is an extremely expensive outcome for the business.

Just to remind you sick leave is now called Personal Leave and this can be used for the individual or for them to care for members of their family such as a child or parent, amongst others.

Here are nine things SMEs need to do to actively manage absenteeism:

1. Keep a record of all Personal Leave accrued and taken - this is one of the greatest financial leakages to a business, where leave records are not accurate and you think an employee has taken eight days when they have actually taken twelve days 

2. Analyse leave trends - if it is increasing there is likely to be a reason for this - is morale low? Alternatively, if personal leave is reducing that's good and will have a very positive impact on your bottom line

3. Implement and adhere to a Personal Leave policy - stating leave entitlements, the process for a leave request and the potential requirement to produce a medical certificate

4. Be supportive of genuine leave requests - where employees require personal leave be supportive. It is a reality that people will be ill - some more so than others and some years will be worse than this one

5. Discourage a 'presenteeism culture' - the last thing you want is for sick people to come to work to spread their germs, it will increase the recovery time for the individual put others at risk and potentially reduce the quality of work produced over this period

6. Consider instigating an Annual Leave Purchase Program - this enables people to purchase additional leave - say they want 6 weeks away in Europe. Rather than risk a resignation make this cost effective and a 'win win' for both parties

7. Actively manage long term personal leave cases - keep in touch with the employee, keep them in the loop of what is happening in the office and actively work with their medical team to return the employee to the office in a way that compliments the medical advice. Remember you are liable from a 'duty of care' perspective, if you don't manage this carefully

8. Look to develop contingency plans - cross train employees so that leave can be easily covered. When completing resourcing planning allow for 8 weeks per employee to cover off annual leave (4wks), personal leave (2wks) and Public Holidays (11 days for NSW). Consider developing a temp pool of people that know the business and are cost effective and readily available

9. Illegitimate leave - if you have an individual that you suspect is taking illegitimate personal leave - take action, your other employees will thank you for it. No-one likes to be carrying an individual unfairly

Remember personal leave is there for a reason - however if it is not managed carefully it can be very detrimental to your business. How do you manage personal leave? Do you recognise any of the issues above?

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

Watch out if you get caught - you are going to be in a whole world of trouble!

By: Natasha Hawker

You may remember that a couple of weeks ago we released a blog on the required increase to superannuation contributions, due from 1st July 2013. Well, in the interim, I have heard more and more stories of employers reducing their employees' base salaries to compensate for the increase in contributions. Can employers do this? No, no, no!

For starters it is a breach of contract to reduce employees' salaries and if you are paying close to the minimum Award salary anyway, you may risk a breach here as well. The other potential internal risk you might face is resignations which, should you want to replace people, would cost you far more than the super, not to mention the adverse impact on morale and productivity.

Employers need to consider, as hard as it is sometimes, that this is a cost to doing business in Australia. There is a reason why it is a phased increase and also why we have had a long lead time to introduction. It was to enable businesses to factor it in to their budget forecasting and to make a decision to either absorb the cost or increase prices.

An alternative option is to consider, as part of your employee value proposition, paying above the minimum super - say 13%, as there are tax benefits for you and your employees.

So what is your business doing? Have you heard of any instances of salary reductions happening in your industry?

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands!

By: Natasha Hawker

We are supposedly the happiest industrialised nation in the world but how are your employees fairing?

Australia has been rated the happiest OECD country, with a Better Life Index of 84% of Australians being satisfied with their lives. Interestingly though, whilst we often say we are a nation of bludgers, we work some of the longest hours in the world with over 14% working very long hours. What are the average hours that your employees work? Is it the 38 hour maximum as directed by National Employment Standards (NES)?

Obviously, for the most part in Australia, we have high employment rates, good access to health care, security and have largely been missed by the GFC - so compared to some other industrialised countries it's a very rosy life. 

• What about in your work place - are your employees happy with their work environment? 
• Would you know? 
• Does it matter? 
• Why should it matter?

It is now a proven fact that high happiness or engagement levels absolutely matter in the workplace. Those organisations that have happier employees have greater productively levels, less absenteeism, a better safety record and also higher profits. Some businesses - typically the larger ones - also assess enablement - as in how easy is it for me to do my job or am I continually thwarted by systems, people, management or culture.

The reality for most SMEs is that they largely have only anecdotal evidence at best of how their employees are feeling about their place of work. If you can increase engagement or morale levels the positive benefits to the business can be huge. The best way to do this is to complete an annual survey - and it doesn’t have to be overly complicated - the other way is to talk to your people but be aware that this may limit the ‘honesty’ of the feedback. When was the last time you asked your employees to assess your own performance as their boss? 

A question for you all and please answer – do you believe engagement or morale matters in your workplace? We can help you with assessing engagement and enablement – call us to discuss.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

More changes to Superannuation– are you ready?

A couple of years back, the Federal Government announced that it was making changes to Guaranteed Superannuation Contributions - these changes will finally come into effect on 1 July 2013. 

What does this mean for me and my business?

Compulsory superannuation contributions are made by employers of behalf of their employees. At the moment, the SG rate is 9% - this will rise to 9.25% on 1 July, followed by incremental rises each year until 2019, at which time the rate will be 12%. This is an obvious extra expense for SME’s to fork out to their employees and so far it looks as if we have to just cop it on the chin. According to the Cameron Research Group, SME’s are understandably worried about the increased cost of doing business in an environment where there is already pressure to increase wages in the face of a nationwide skills shortage.

To make matters worse, the Federal Government had initially promised a reduction in company tax on small businesses which would have negated the impact of the SG rise, but has since controversially backed out of this commitment leaving company tax at 30% instead of a staggered reduction to 28% as per the initial plan. They argue that the three years since the new super changes were proposed and the staggered rollout should give you enough time to make the necessary financial preparations in time to commence in July.

Hmmmmm... do you feel ready ? I'm sure that not everyone is!

Other changes due to come into effect on 1 July are:

• The age limit of 70 for SG contributions will no longer apply from 1 July 2013. Employers will be required to contribute to complying super funds of eligible mature age employees aged 70 years and older. The Government hopes that doing away with this age limit will encourage mature workers to stay in the workforce.
• Low income earners have an additional benefit – for those on less than $37,000 a year, the government will provide a low income superannuation contribution of up to $500 each

In another interesting move, while giving with one hand the Government has taken away with the other and halved the contributions cap for concessional (before tax) contributions to $25,000 for over-50s (previously $50,000 and had been set to increase to $55,000 before the Federal Government rethought this issue). The concessional contributions cap is now $25,000 for people of all age groups and here we were thinking that older workers were getting a break?!

Employers need to get ready now to implement these changes – so make sure you:

• Update your payroll and accounting systems to reflect the increase to the super guarantee rate.
• Continue to increase the rate you use to work out the super guarantee payments you make for your employees each year until 1 July 2019
• Ensure that you make super guarantee payments for eligible employees aged 70 years or over.

This week's blog was written by Caroline Ross, one of our capable team members.

Natasha Hawker owns Employee Matters Pty Ltd; an HR Consultancy that assists small to medium businesses with their HR functions to make them more efficient and profitable. Their offering includes HR Management, Recruitment, Training, Coaching, and Exit Management – find them at www.employeematters.com.au

The Five Most Common HR Myths

Employment Relations can be a complex area and, let's face it - it can be hard to keep up with all the legislation changes on top of everything else you need to stay on top of as a business owner.

Here are five of the myths that I hear from business owners:

I pay above the Award, so I don't have to pay overtime

As at 1/1/2010 with the introduction of Fair Work, there are now 122 industry Modern Awards. If you pay above the minimum wage, that is very nice of you, but I am sorry to say that it does not preclude you from all the other Award obligations contained within. For example many of the Awards now contain an obligation to consult when there is a major workplace change pending - this might include a restructure, change of office location or redundancy program.

Returning from parental leave - I need her full-time or I'll get her to resign

Prior to the introduction of Fair Work a woman could return to work on a part-time basis but was required to return to full-time when her 12 months maternity leave was up. This is no longer the case - the main carer can take 12 months unpaid leave with an option to request an additional 12 months. The main carer can also request Flexible Working on their return. This might take the form of part-time, reduced hours or job share to name a few options.

I don't need to pay redundancy

Previously unless you had a contractual right to a redundancy payment you were not entitled to redundancy. This also changed with the introduction of FWA. Now everyone across Australia is entitled to redundancy unless your business is classed as a small business - i.e. under 15 employees including casuals and part-time employees. However, the length of service is only calculated from 1/1/10.

I don't need policies or employment contracts, everyone knows the deal here

Employment contracts help protect your business, your clients and your intellectual property.  Employees feel more protected and secure with a contract. Policies enable you to ensure that your employees understand their legal obligations and the boundaries. It can make it easier to terminate an employee should you have cause. Policies and processes can improve productivity with consistent processes applied across the business

It's impossible to fire anyone for non performance

No, it is not, but you do need to follow a process to ensure that the termination is not ‘unfair, unjust or unreasonable. As an SME, you cannot afford to carry a non performing employee. The rest of your team will thank you for it.

Debunk these myths and you are in a much stronger position to maximise your productivity and profitability.