Some HR managers just run a cursory check on qualifications and pass along candidates to the company IT boss or the exec who oversees technology. That’s usually a mistake.
Tech people tend to ask candidates tech questions — the candidate’s qualifications and competencies in appropriate hardware and software. Of course that’s important. HR, however, can provide a valuable service to IT and the company by first filtering candidates.
Business consultant Mike Gorsage, writing in Inc. com, recommends these two questions to help you select the right people:
1. Tell me about the times you were involved in IT problems with business functions — such as on-time processing of orders. How did you solve it? What did you recommend? If you had been in a position of authority, what would you have recommended?
Here’s the answer you don’t want: “We needed to spend more money or hire more people.” Too many ITers think upgrades or more people will solve every problem.
Of course, sometimes parting with some cash is necessary, but it shouldn’t always be the answer.
What you’re looking for: ideas on how the candidate shifted — or would have shifted — people and resources to fix the problem. IT consultants say, more often than not, IT business functions fail because resources aren’t allocated correctly, not because of too few resources.
You want a candidate who knows that.
2. If you were picking a new system for us, what would be your top priorities for selecting that system?
There are plenty of good answers for this one — it must meet the needs, be within company budget, allow for easy transition from old to new, be backed up by training and service, and so on.
If one of those answers pops us, so far, so good.
The answer (or some variation of it) that would be the icing on the cake: “I’d make sure the system was expandable to accommodate growth, so that we wouldn’t have to go out and buy another new system every time the company grows.”
That shows good business sense. The candidate who provides that answer is aware of what makes a company successful — growth — and IT’s role in that success.
