Establishing a high-quality tech pool is essential, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. From scouting to vetting, it is hard for even experienced managed service providers to navigate the hiring process. Building off our experience with global IT deployments and field service management (FSM) platforms, we put together six tips to help you find qualified, skilled technicians for your next project.
How to Establish & Maintain Your Tech Pool
1. Understand the Project(s)
Before hiring any technicians, it’s important you assess the landscape and evaluate your unique needs. What kind of projects are you overseeing? What kind of skills does your team need to effectively complete those tasks? Taking the time to understand the scope of your work will help you pick the most qualified candidates as well as prevent headaches later on. Whether you invest in a project management tool or create your own method of organization, this is the best place to start.
2. Look Within and Outside for Talent
Once you know which skills are needed to complete a project, you’ll be able to identify gaps in your workforce. You’ll certainly want to begin with the project that has the most immediate need and fill those positions first. Make sure you look within your organization for people who could fill that need but don’t forget to look externally as well. You might have a project that needs a specific skill set that none of your current technicians possess.
3. Consider a Contingent Workforce
If you come across a scenario like we just mentioned — where a specialized skill set is needed — you can look for contingent workers to fill the position instead. Hiring freelancers and contract workers is a great way to quickly grow your tech pool and find the talent to fill your needs for your installation and global IT deployment projects.
4. Find Managers with Experience in IT
If one of your personnel gaps is that of a manager, it’s important that you find someone with the right credentials. When you’re hiring someone to oversee global IT deployments, for example, you need to find someone with both IT and managerial experience. Technicians are more likely to respond to these skilled individuals because they know they have the industry experience needed to help them stay organized and overcome obstacles.
5. Use a Third Party to Help Hire
Finding the right personnel for your tech pool, especially contingent workers or managers with the right experience, can be a difficult and time-consuming task. If it’s not something you or your team have the bandwidth to support right now, consider bringing in a third-party agency to help balance out some of the workload. Not only are they skilled in finding and vetting candidates, but it also saves you valuable time.
6. Use a Field Service Management Platform
Field service management platforms help streamline your projects from start to finish. From talent curation to account management and resource optimization, FSM platforms are invaluable tools. These platforms even help with scouting, vetting, and interviewing to ensure you are putting the best technicians on the job.
So there you have it: six tips for maintaining your tech pool to ensure you’ve got top-tier talent within your reach for your next global IT deployment. If you haven’t implemented an FSM platform yet, now is the time. Here at Kinettix, we help clients leverage these platforms. Contact us today to ensure you’re getting the most out of your technology, and ask us about how we can help you locate, source, and vet appropriately skilled technicians for retail IT projects, break/fix issues, and more.
