Soft Skills Your New Tech Hire Needs
When you decide to start hunting for new employees or contractors to hire, your priority is to find people who are qualified enough to get particular work done. In IT, this can mean anything from familiarity in network protocols to a high level of proficiency in cyber security.
The IT recruiting process is all about matching technological tasks and responsibilities to people with the knowledge and skills to execute them.
However, these types of “traditional” IT recruiting skills are what might be defined as “hard skills.” There’s another skill set that can prove to be critically important, and are known as “soft skills.”
Soft skills are the personal characteristics of an applicant that affect how a person deals with corporate culture, workplace environment, and co-workers. Where being able to program in Java or Python would definitely be considered a hard skill, being empathetic and listening to others is a soft skill, and incredibly valuable.
So what kind of soft skills should you be looking out for during your IT recruiting process? Keep an eye out for these traits.
Adaptability
Programming and many different aspects of IT often require a certain rigidity, since technology systems tend to be exact. You have to know what works, and how to do it, and you must be able to repeat that technique or methodology over and over again for maximum results.
However, the information technology industry is in a near constant state of evolution. If you have someone who is “set in their ways” and does great work but is resistant to doing it any other way except the one he or she is already comfortable with, this is going to be a significant roadblock. An employee who can adapt to new situations and technologies, is always going to be relevant.
Clinging to a particular technology or methodology is the quickest path to obsolescence, and that is not the course you want to set for your company when it comes to new IT hires.
Problem Solving
Nothing is ever going to work out as planned, every single time. While it’s impossible to be prepared for every emergency or crisis that may arise, staff must be able to rise to the occasion, deal with a problem, and work toward a resolution.
People who are helpless to solve issues, and just wait for a resolution to arrive, are not helpful. In some cases, this type of behaviour may be actively impeding the chance for speedy resolution. You don’t want a company full of people waiting for answers, rather you want a team working hard to create solutions.
While not every problem that occurs is going to be a stressful crisis, the ability to encounter a problem, analyze it, and eventually arrive at a feasible solution, is an important skill to possess. Problem-solving skills are among the best to possess because this capability is easily transferable, whether it is solving a tricky networking issue or mediating a dispute between co-workers.
Collaboration
There’s the old saying, “no man is an island,” and when it comes to the IT industry, this isn’t just a proverb, it’s a warning against failure. It is nearly impossible at the commercial or industrial level to create a large-scale technology project single-handedly. Success requires the work of many talented people working together.
One of the most important soft skills for any IT job is the ability to be a team player, to mesh well with others, share the load, encourage, support, and pull together to meet a deadline. When some technology projects have so many moving parts that you need close-knit coordination to get to the end, having a lone wolf that prefers to work in isolation can be detrimental.
One of the critical IT recruiting skills you should be looking for from your recruiting partner, is the capability to really screen for performance in a team situation.
Finding the Traits Your Company Needs from New IT Hires
Hiring IT professionals with the right set of hard and soft skills can be a delicate, time-consuming process, so why not leave it to the experts? IT recruiting companies like Poly Tech Talent have the resources and know-how to source the personnel you need, with the qualifications and qualities you want.
If you want to get ahead of your competitors and hire the best IT staff for your company, then contact us and let’s get the process started! Put our IT recruiting skills to work for you today.
Learn more about finding the right IT talent in our Ultimate Guide to Hiring Executive Talent in Technology.