Answering The Call

Difficulty Hiring Technical Support Staff

For several years companies that hire technical support staff such as engineering geological, land or regulatory technicians have found it difficult to find people with the requisite skills needed.  There are few technical training programs within community colleges to adequately train individuals for employment in these fields and few companies provide internal training programs. Companies have recruited each other's employees to fulfill some of these needs and have found this strategy significantly increased the price tag for wages and benefits to lure individuals with these skills.  This approach does not solve the need for additional people with these skills.

A successful approach may be to look at candidates who have transferable skills, but are found outside of your industry.  Instead of running a typical classified advertisement or Internet job posting looking for 5-10 years of industry-specific experience, ask "What skills are needed to do this job?"  In order to successfully perform these jobs, incumbents need to operate a computer efficiently, manipulate large databases, think analytically, verify accuracy of work and communicate effectively. 

Recently, companies have been successful by recruiting insurance actuaries and information technology professionals for engineering technician positions. People who work in the environmental services industry can transition to regulatory work.  Accountants and or people in the Title industry may have the skill sets for Land Administration. All companies need to provide is industry knowledge in order to apply the skills.  The training period is short with little repetitive training needed.  These workers are usually degreed and capable of learning quickly.  Using a recruiter to help find people outside of your industry with these skills will speed up the process.

Finally, if you decide recruit and interview people from outside the industry, remember to design your interview questions to ask for specific times when they applied a skills you need.  Make them demonstrate that they have manipulated databases with thousands of data points and have them explain to you how they drew conclusions from that data, etc.  How did they verify the accuracy of the data? Have them explain a complicated software program that they mastered and how they learned it. 

Reaching outside your industry is a risky venture.  If you identify appropriate skill sets and recruit highly competent people the result may be very pleasing.