Seven steps to IT staffing: Check IT List

Fortunately, there is no shortage of good advice. SearchSMB.com asked some career experts for suggestions on the best approach to IT staffing on an SMB budget. Here's what our experts had to offer:

1. Cover the core infrastructure. IT's first job is to "keep the lights on." Your network, e-mail, Web access and PCs are typically the core infrastructure that no SMB can operate without. So the bulk of IT expenditures should be allotted to areas that are critical to daily business. David Foote, head of Foote Partners LLC, an IT compensation and management consulting firm in New Canaan, Conn., says a typical IT staff for an SMB would include one or two help desk employees to troubleshoot end-user problems; a network administrator and a senior network engineer to maintain the network; a database administrator to handle all database issues, an "applications specialist" to manage the business applications; and a chief technology officer (CTO), to oversee staff and plan IT strategy.

2. Do a workload forecast. Evaluate your current IT activities and workloads to see what areas need full-time positions, and which can be part-time or combined into a single full-time position. That will give you a clearer idea of what skills you need. It will also prevent over- or underhiring.

3. Distinguish temporary from long-term needs. One mistake SMB employers often make is hiring a full-time employee based on short-term needs, and then trying to make the employee fit in with a long-term strategy when the person really lacks the required skills. A better plan is to hold off hiring a permanent IT person and using a temporary employee or consultant to solve the short-term problems of the business. Then concentrate on finding just the right person for the long haul.

4. Be ready to outsource. Just about every SMB outsources some IT activity, be it e-mail, Web hosting, e-commerce or whole applications. When it's too difficult or too expensive to manage an activity in-house, it's smart to look outside for a solution. Outsourcers can take over activities that are simply too complex for a small business to handle -- like an e-commerce site or a CRM application -- while lending the small customer a more professional, big-company presence image.

5. Create mix-and-match jobs. These days companies are feeling free to ask for specific combinations of skill sets in a single candidate, says Melissa Maffettone, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., branch manager at Robert Half International Inc. Therefore, if the perfect candidate for your business would have Oracle experience, some background in marketing and knowledge of Microsoft Exchange -- go ahead and ask for it. Odds are there is someone out there who will fit that description, or close to it.

6. Look for business or industry knowledge. In a small company, IT activities need to be tightly aligned with business needs. So an IT manager with an understanding of business and/or the industry in which you operate is a great asset. For instance, David Nour, managing partner of The Nour Group Inc., a sales and marketing consulting firm based in Atlanta, says his CTO has an MBA, which enables him to proactively identify business problems that could benefit from a technology solution.

7. Hire flexible people. There are few openings for pure specialists in SMB IT departments. Most IT professionals find themselves wearing multiple hats, and donning new ones as needed. So flexibility is a key attribute of small business IT folks. Maffettone suggests gauging the flexibility of candidates by asking about the different projects they've juggled simultaneously or the multiple people they've reported to while in one position.

Read Sue Hildreth's second installment on IT career success: Seven steps to SMB IT career success: Check IT List.

Sue Hildreth is a freelance technology writer based in Waltham, Mass. She can be reached at Sue.Hildreth@Comcast.net.