For many small businesses, there is no one in the organization who has more access to sensitive and confidential information than your IT staff. They are in possession of passwords for the company’s financial software, can access sensitive documents and have the ability to read anyone’s email – including yours. Hiring a whiz kid or someone with multiple obscure-sounding certifications just because they seem to know a lot may seem like a good decision at the time, but consider whether they know what they shouldn’t know –that they are someone you trust. Once you’ve found the right person, give them the opportunity to get additional education and certifications – it’s easy to add knowledge, but impossible to train character.
Qualities such as loyalty, honesty, humility and friendliness may be harder to find, but the search will be worth it. After all, you will be depending on them for the health and stability of your entire operations, so take the time to ensure that these more intangible but more valuable “credentials” are in place first.
So how do you find the right IT person? How do you determine whether they have these valuable credentials? I'll talk more about that in my next article.