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Best Value: In-House IT Training vs. Hiring New Staff

By: SmallBizClub

 

In House IT Training

The time has come—a significant software update is in the works or you’re taking the first steps toward a truly cloud-based environment. Great planning lets you identify key areas of concern; perhaps extra bandwidth is needed or an upgrade to physical storage devices. However, there’s also a critical decision yet to come: Hire new staff to handle new technology and software rollouts, or train in-house professionals to meet the challenge? Here’s a quick look at how the pros and cons stack up, and how your company can maximize value while managing spend.

Time is Everything

As noted by CIO, one critical consideration in the train/hire debate is time. How much time do you have before deployment, and how long will implementation take?

If time isn’t on your side, consider going outside the company and looking for additional help. The right job ad lets you find exactly what you’re looking for to get past “crunch time” and back to business as usual. Best bet? If possible, look for contractors rather than full-time equivalents (FTEs)—better to pay an expert in the short term than break the IT budget for a long-term hire.

On the flipside, if you can stay afloat while training is completed, you’re often better served by empowering existing IT pros and giving them the tools they need to improve their job performance. Here, you’re looking for the help of a reputable third-party training service, one accredited to deliver certifications and training courses applicable to your specific need.

Knowledge vs. Skill

Consider big data. Companies are quickly embracing the value of this “new oil” as a critical decision-making resource. Though making best use of big data analysis tools and results is complex and time-consuming, and in some cases, beyond the skill of current admins.

Finding the best fit means first answering an important question: Is your problem lack of knowledge or missing skills? For example, if your company struggles to define effective big data questions and uncover critical relationships between seemingly unrelated information, you may need the expertise of a data scientist; here, it’s worth going outside your organization to find a professional with the specific skill set you require. If you’ve deployed effective analytics tools and your in-house experts have a solid grasp on what’s required, but lack a few critical skills to maximize ROI, training is your better option. Here, the in-depth knowledge of your network and infrastructure makes in-house education the ideal choice.

Security Selection

Another key area of concern for organizations is security. With both PC-driven and mobile malware on the rise coupled with increasingly sophisticated data breach attempts, any company—of any size—is at risk. Are you better off hiring to meet this need or increasing in-house knowledge to compensate?

Training is the best way to go here if your security platform is something built in-house and, to some extent, on legacy technology. Trying to use outside help in this case will only make matters worse since they’ll need to rely almost exclusively on existing IT to manage the security environment. Improving specific skills, meanwhile, gives your IT pros the ability to identify malicious code, keep track of tech fraud and better manage technology investigations.

If you’re revamping the security system as a whole, however, hiring may be the value-added choice. The InfoSec Institute offers some good advice for choosing new professionals such as Penetration Testers and Web App Security consultants: Do they have all their certifications up to date? Know Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) forward and backward? Have they participated in a large-scale bug bounty program and seen some success? Most importantly, are they passionate about IT security in general and your company specifically?

Beware Burnout

As noted by CSO Online, firms are also facing the problem of IT employee burnout as they’re tasked to do more with less and cost-justify their existence on a daily basis. Bottom line? When opting for in-house training, make sure IT professionals get enough time and space to complete their coursework and apply their new knowledge to existing systems. If you’re going outside of corporate walls for new hires, ensure they won’t be a drain on existing employees—if they can’t act independently in a reasonably short period of time, they (or the position) may not be a best fit.

Train or hire? Depends on your need. Hiring works when you don’t have time, are revamping old systems or need a subject-area expert. You’re better off training, meanwhile, when time is on your side, in-depth knowledge is your watchword or legacy technologies still rule the roost.

Author: Brian Thoman is the Publications Manager at Column Technologies, a global technology solutions provider that specializes in business service and process management. Brian is an ITIL certified procurement specialist with over 6 years of proposal writing and management experience. 

Published: February 23, 2016
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SmallBizClub

SmallBizClub.com is dedicated to providing small businesses and entrepreneurs the information and resources they need to start, run, and grow their businesses. The publication was founded by successful entrepreneur and NFL Hall of Fame QB Fran Tarkenton. We bring you the most insightful thinking from industry leaders, veteran business owners, and fellow entrepreneurs. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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