4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Hiring New IT Staff

Business growth is a great thing, as I’m sure you’d agree. However, with enough operational growth comes the question of growing your staff—particularly when it comes to your information technology department. While we don’t want to discourage you from hiring new employees, we wanted to make sure you knew what kind of benefits you might see by working with us as your managed service provider.

To do so, let’s start by going over a few questions you need to consider as you ponder hiring additional IT staff.

What Will Hiring a New Staff Member for Your IT Team Cost?

According to Indeed, the average salary of an IT support specialist in Victoria is $54,374. But wait—that’s just the start of it.

After all, hiring someone incurs more costs than just the salary you pay them. You also have to factor in an assortment of other costs, including the added benefits that come along with such a position. Then there’s the cost of training them to be a part of your team and workflow, plus the hardware and software that your new employee will need. You also can’t forget the costs associated with actually finding a candidate, advertising the position and interviewing your prospective hires.

Once you’ve calculated a ballpark figure, only then will you know if a new hire is financially feasible for you.

How Long Will the Position Be Necessary?

This is another important question—both to find an answer for in terms of your operations, as well as to consider when you deliberate over the costs of finding and onboarding a new team member. The size of your investment in terms of finding someone and onboarding them could be perceived very differently based on how long you anticipate needing the help. On average, the cost per hire hovers just shy of $4500, requiring just over a month to find and about three months before they reach their actual level of productivity.

In short, $4500 may not seem so bad if a hire is anticipated to give you years of good work and profit generation. However, if the position isn’t going to be around long, $4500 starts to seem awfully steep.

How Do You See This Employee’s Time at Your Company Playing Out?

Let’s say you anticipate your prospective hire to stay with your company for many years—you can hardly expect them to stay in the same entry-level position for that entire time. You should have a rough trajectory of their progression as a team member in mind when you consider hiring them. 

The hiring process needs to be undertaken with an eye on the long game. What value do you foresee the role having in the future? This should also inform your choice of candidate to fill it.

Are You Seeking Out a Hire Strictly Because You Need a Certain Skill, or Someone With Specialized Experience?

Finally, you need to consider your motivation for seeking out an additional team member. Are you looking for another body to assist with the tasks that your team members currently perform, or do you hope to find someone with a more specific skill set that you have some use for? The answer could easily dictate how easily you’ll be able to find an appropriate candidate.

Working With Digital Sky Solutions Gives You Easy Answers to These Questions

In our role as a managed service provider, we have a unique way of answering these inquiries. For instance, consider the question of how much onboarding a new employee costs. For a fixed, monthly cost, you could have access to an entire team of IT professionals for a variety of needs. This allows you to make your investment go further. Instead of investing in a single individual with their singular skill set, working with us gives you access to an entire team with a diverse and growing assortment of competencies and certifications. In short, a single hire will probably have some gaps in their knowledge that our team doesn’t have, simply due to the fact that our team 1) has more than one person working towards a shared goal, and 2) actively seeks to improve their capabilities.

Your needs will dictate how often you call on our services, and what it is you rely on us to do—whether you need support for the rest of your team members, or you want an expert hand shaping how you will use technology moving forward. Furthermore, our team holds a variety of certifications and specializations, ensuring they have the expertise you’re looking for.

Interested in learning more about the benefits of working with us? Give us a call at (250) 483-5623 today!