Information Technology Consulting

When it comes to Information Technology Consulting, there are two things to consider: time and money. If you're looking to find, train, or hire IT help, you've come to the right place.

So, should you train or hire talent? Your decision can depend on a variety of factors. How fast will you need your employee to develop the right expertise? Does your business have a development and training program in place? How much would your business have to invest in a new employee to get them up to speed?

Benefits of Hiring Talent

In theory, hiring a new employee who already has exactly the experience your business is looking for is the ideal solution to filling an open position. A new but experienced employee should be ready to move quickly through the ramp-up period each new employee goes through when learning a new job. Ideally, the right candidate brings instant equity with them when it comes to their expertise in the field. Remember, an experienced employee should have an equally extensive history of navigating the nuances of the professional world. By now, they have likely developed their own methods for resolving problems that often arise in the workplace.

Drawbacks of Hiring

However, as many hiring managers will tell you, bringing on a new team member isn't often a seamless process.

Experienced employees may have had time to fall into set habits and behaviors. Keep in mind that not all of these habits will be compatible with your team or the image your brand and company want to convey. Remember, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." In a nutshell: experience alone is not a reliable gauge for determining if your candidate will fit into your company's culture.

As mentioned above, the biggest hurdle when it comes to hiring talent is often budget. The cost of hiring a new employee will generally range from 30 to 150 percent of an employee's salary. What's more, experienced employees often require greater compensation or more benefits to make the switch to a different company. Businesses that can't afford to pay these premiums might find themselves priced out of the market for the experienced employees they need unless they can find other ways to stand out from the competition.

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Training New Talent

If the cost of hiring an experienced IT candidate is prohibitive, you might consider training existing employees before considering Information Technology Consulting. Training your existing employees in IT can be a good short-term solution if your IT needs are minor.

One obvious benefit is that existing employees have likely already embraced your company's culture. This means you've had time to learn their work ethic, abilities and – most importantly – their capacity for learning new things.

Training an existing employee could means that your business can forego bringing them up to speed on your workplace's tempo. As such, you can focus your training exclusively on the subject matter you want your employee to learn. This is why many choose to train existing talent before considering Information Technology Consulting.

Training Talent Versus Choosing Information Technology Consulting

One of the most significant drawbacks to training existing talent is the resources your business may need to dedicate to doing so.

If you don't already have a teammate in-house who can provide the necessary IT training, you may wind up paying for them to take training courses outside your organization. Remember, this will include any tuition, transportation or other associated costs they may need to do the job right. If you have an expert who can provide the training they need, you're sacrificing the work said trainer could otherwise be doing while they're training the other employee. This means that their productivity will take a hit until the training employee can be brought up to speed.

Of course, the ideal talent management strategy often incorporates both hiring and training talent, in addition to outsourcing when needed. That's where Information Technology Consulting comes in.

By opting for Information Technology Consulting, you can help your company build a bench of up-and coming talent and bring in expert new players. This will help your business level-up, while also increasing the amount of skill your company has access to.

The key to balancing these strategies is to know which positions call for which approach. It's also worth considering how much time you have to acquire the IT talent you need.

For instance, if your business can wait for a promising employee or consultant to develop the required experience to fill an IT role, it may make sense to do that instead of expending effort and resources to recruit a new employee who may not be a good fit for your company's culture.

If you need to make an impact or fill a need quickly, it may make more sense to look outside your organization at Information Technology Consulting.

Which Information Technology strategy works best for your goals? Let us know in the comments below!