IT Manager's Handbook: Getting Your New Job Done (17 page)

Note that when we say “experienced” and “relative newbie” workers, we mean “individuals who have more and less than (respectively) approximately 10 years of corporate experience.” Of course the number varies from industry to industry, and organization to organization, but in general, we are referring to the amount of time an individual has spent in a formal organizational setting.

Your job as a manager—regardless of whether you are young or old yourself—is to make sure that every member of your team understands the importance of communication: not only communicating with people in other time zones and cubicle farms across the company, but listening and speaking to people right in front of you. This can be startling news to some workers. The importance of communications has been discussed throughout this chapter—and for good reason. In addition to communications, being flexible, avoiding stereotypes, and encouraging collaboration can help to minimize the generation gaps. The best teams, of course, have the energy of youth and the wisdom of age.

2.5 Further References

Websites

www.accenture.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/PDF/global_millennial_generation_research.pdf
. [generational issues at work].

www.amanet.org
. [American Management Association].

www.changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/articles/manager_leader.htm
. [leadership vs. management].

www.humanresources.about.com/od/360feedback/360_Degree_Feedback_Process.htm
. [360 reviews].

www.managementhelp.org
. [Free management library].

www.microsoft.com/presspass/download/features/2011/05-18Remote.pptx
. [report on U.S. telework trends].

www.roberthalf.us/workplaceredefined
. [generational issues at work].

www.teleworkresearchnetwork.com/costs-benefits
. [telework programs].

www.trwib.org/agingtoolkit/documents/Multigenerational%20Diversity%20in%20U.S.%20Workplaces%20Eliminating%20I.pdf
..

www.worldatwork.org/waw/adimComment?id=48318
. [telework programs].

Books and Articles

Bacal R, (2008).
How to Manage Performance: 24 Lessons to Improving Performance
. McGraw-Hill.

Casselberry R, (2008).
30 Skills Every IT Person Needs
. [InfoWorld August 13].

Eisner S, (2005).
Managing Generation Y
. Society for Advancement Management, International Conference.

Greengard S, (2011).
Managing a Multigenerational Workforce
. CIO Insight Magazine May/June.

2011.
Harvard Business Review’s 10 Must Reads on Managing People
. Harvard Business Press.

Jaffe BD, (1998).
Following a Few Simple Rules Can Ease the Pain of Employee Reviews
. [InfoWorld January 26].

Jenkins T, (2010).
A Commonsense Approach to Dealing with People: Managing People Made Easier
. [iUniverse].

Kluger J, (2009). Why Bosses Tend to Be Blowhards.
Time Magazine March 2
..

Kotter JP, (1990).
A Force for Change: How Leadership Differs from Management
. Free Press.

Kouzes JM, Posner BZ, (2008).
The Leadership Challenge
. Jossey-Bass.

Lancaster LC, Stillman D, (2002).
When Generations Collide: Who They Are, Why They Clash, How to Solve the Generational Puzzle at Work
. HarperCollins.

Nazarian A, (2010).
Technical Minds: Leading and Getting the Best Work from Your Technically-Minded Team
. CreateSpace.

Orrell L, (2008).
Millennials Incorporated
. Wyatt-MacKenzie.

Richards T, (2010).
Self-Confidence…for Managing People at Work
. Outskirts Press.

Society for Human Resource Management , (2005).
Generational Differences Survey Report
. .

Tulgan B, (2009).
Not Everyone Gets a Trophy: How to Manage Generation Y
. Jossey-Bass.

Violino B, (2011).
Workers without Borders
. Baseline Magazine [July/August].

Waxer C, (2009). Clash of the Generations.
Computerworld
. [February 16].

Zemnke R, Raines C, Filipzcak B, (2000).
Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, X-ers, and Nexers
. American Management Association.

Chapter 3

Staffing Your IT Team

The key for us, number one, has always been hiring very smart people.

Bill Gates

Chapter table of contents

3.1
Why IT Managers Need to Deal with Hiring People

3.2
Write a Position Description

3.3
Recruiters

3.4
Selecting Candidates

3.5
Further References

Your success or failure as an IT Manager is based almost entirely on the people that work for you. Every time you hire a new employee, you have an opportunity to add value to your team, to your company as a whole, and to adjust the balance of skill sets and personality of the team. Therefore, each hire should have your full attention and not be dismissed as another administrative chore. This chapter discusses the important details associated with the various elements involved in hiring for your team.

Hiring a few years ago was difficult because there weren't enough well-qualified candidates available for the open positions. More recently, hiring has been difficult because there are now too many well-qualified candidates. The reasons will change, but the difficulty—and importance—of hiring the right people for the right jobs will never change.

3.1 Why IT Managers Need to Deal with Hiring People

You need to deal with hiring carefully because the people on your staff are the single biggest factor in determining whether you're going to be successful at your job.

Hiring means dealing with recruiting agencies and your Human Resources (HR) department, reviewing résumés, conducting interviews, and negotiating offers. If you secretly wish that the first candidate you meet is
the one
and you're glad your job isn't in personnel, don't worry: you're not alone. That means you feel the same way as every other IT Manager.

It's precisely this urge to “hire first, ask questions later,” however, that can easily lead to a decision that you and your company will come to regret. This chapter details some of the issues to watch out for, the questions to ask (both of yourself and interviewees), and other issues you should be concerned about when considering bringing someone new onto your team.

Human Resources Department's Role

Because recruiting for an IT position usually involves dealing with a lot of technical terms, skills, and résumés with acronyms and buzzwords, many HR departments that normally lead recruiting efforts for all other departments will take a back seat and let you drive when it comes to IT recruiting. But just because you are driving does not mean they can't help with the logistics of the process. Talk to HR and discuss the following:

•
Is there an approved list of recruiters to use? What is the company's policy on their fees?

•
Can you find and use your own recruiters?

•
Who is responsible for placing ads on websites? Who pays for the ads?

•
Is there a careers section on the company website or a mechanism for alerting employees at subsidiaries and sister companies?

•
Will HR perform the initial screening of applicants’ résumés?

•
Will someone (either you or HR) use social networking tools like LinkedIn to proactively go out and find possible candidates?

•
Who evaluates the salary range for this position and what is the evaluation process?

•
Who should be the internal point of contact for agencies and applicants?

•
Who does background and reference checks?

•
What is the time frame for the process?

•
Who is in charge of the process?

As stated earlier, many HR departments recognize that IT recruiting is a special skill and one that they might not be particularly good at. Accordingly, they may ask you to take as large a role as possible. If this is the case in your company (and don't assume it is), HR may only want to get involved during the initial screening process, help you with scheduling interviews, and then help at the end with background checks and offer letters.

How to Get Help with Your Hiring

If you're working for a small company, you'll probably have to assume some HR duties, just like you have to assume some administrative, accounting, or travel duties. But once the company reaches a certain size, it should get someone to help with the hiring duties. They don't have to take care of all the hiring, but they certainly can help.

In particular, you can get the HR department to help you with the screening and recruiting processes:

•
Once you have written the
position description
(see the section
“Write a Position Description”
later in this chapter on
page 74
), they can post it for you. They can work with you to figure out where the position should be posted—general job sites, industry-specific sites, etc.

•
Have them identify someone in their department as a contact point. Let them field the initial calls and e-mails. Have them narrow the initial responses (which can be in the hundreds, even for specifically worded technical jobs) down to a manageable size. Give them strict guidelines (“The candidate must have 5 years of programming experience and must know at least Perl, C++, and Java”) to use to perform the initial screening. Give them a number: you want to
look at
15 résumés max and
talk to
five candidates max.

•
If the job requires writing skills, HR can ask for writing samples.

•
If interpersonal skills are important, HR can save you valuable time by eliminating those candidates who are simply poor communicators, or don't take pride in their appearance, etc. The buzz word is “client-facing,” as in: “This position is client-facing; its primarily role is to interact with executives and support their use of technology.” For this position, the company (and the department) needs to be represented by a professional-looking individual. Some companies will also refer to this as an individual's “presentation.”

•
Once you have done the interviewing and chosen the candidate you like, hand the ball back to HR. They can call the candidate's references and draw up the offer letter. Finally, you or HR can make sure there is a place for the candidate when he first arrives, that he has work to do, is introduced to his coworkers, and also that the associated new-hire materials (such as the benefits package and company policies) are covered.

•
Your HR representative can also be an effective liaison between you and the candidate when the offer is extended and/or negotiated. They have the experience to know how to handle these situations, how to respond, etc. They will check with you before committing to anything and offer you guidance.

Justifying a Hire

Before you hire someone, though, you may need to get approvals to do so. Whether it is simply replacing someone who recently left or adding to staff, you may need to convince others that this hire is necessary. If it's a new position, you'll have to explain why this role is needed and what benefit it will deliver. Sometimes the position description (discussed later in this chapter) has enough information; other times you may need to go into more detail. Some examples of justification include:

•
The department's workload has grown by X percent in the past year, and additional staff is needed to keep up. Sometimes you can justify the workload with metrics such as the number of calls to the Help Desk, number of new projects, and the company's growth. Also, consider losses due to previous downsizing (the “falling further behind” syndrome).