The biggest challenge that Justin Huffaker sees his IT team facing in 2023? Staffing. Sound familiar? 

Huffaker says that in order to hit our growth targets we need people on the sales team (currently 2 spots open) and we need operations team members to support our clients (three spots open). But, as we all know, hiring and onboarding ain’t what it was two years ago.

The workplace has gone through a tectonic shift, which we’re all privy to at this point. The battle for top talent is fierce, and simply Googling “Staffing Challenges 2023” offers one a plethora of ideas on how to conquer a challenge that is faced by most any professional organization today. The answers are not surprisingly, mixed.

Even beyond hiring, Justin points to the onboarding and training necessary to appropriately sell and support our IT Solutions. So, essentially, finding people, training them, and retaining them is the biggest challenge his team faces.

So what are the factors that have led to this staffing fiasco?

“I’ve got to admit, I have been scratching my head over this one,” Huffaker says. “It seems as if a significant portion of our talent pool has simply disappeared.”

Even so, he looks to tackle these challenges head on in 2023.

Finding the Right Person.

It’s well documented that Justin doesn’t go for “Geek Speak.” Inundating clients with technical jargon that makes no sense to real business people is a considerable pet peeve of his.

As he sees it, some IT people have a reputation – don’t like to work with end users, don’t like to talk to people (you know - actually make verbal sounds that form spoken words, as opposed to communicating exclusively through email, text, chat…). Some aren’t courteous and respectful, and some only want to work on servers and scoff at desktop support.

“We see a lot of candidates and we screen them for those very characteristics. After all, we are here to make Raving Fans of our clients and that starts with supporting employees of all different skill sets and abilities,” Justin said.

Justin estimates that in his hiring process, he sees three times as many candidates for our positions as someone looking to hire the typical IT person because “we need friendly, people to people who are also technically gifted.” Candidates who make it through that preliminary filter are asked to complete an extensive online skills testing to ensure baseline technical competency, as well as personality assessment testing.

“Lots of interviews and lots of time reviewing capabilities as revealed by standardized testing,” Justin said.

Finding the employee… and then retaining him or her.

Justin’s thoughts on this?

"Challenge people to step outside of comfort zones, get people involved in creating solutions to the problems they/we face, apologize to people when you are wrong, tell people they are appreciated, be respectful of personal values even if they differ from yours, provide opportunities to advance in their career and earn more money. In short, treat people the way that you want to be treated,” Justin said.

Finding the right solution long-term. 

Justin says that we need to do a better job of posting open positions internally and hiring internally. Most employees, he reasons, are excited to learn that companies hire from within.

Speaking of hiring from within… we can always recruit from within, and we can, from within, create our own recruiting system. Consider Centers of Influence.

Our Centers of Influence are a natural, organic, powerful way to maintain an active list of quality candidates for any position at Datamax. What are Centers of Influence? It essentially means surrounding yourself with influential people, people who know your business, your expectations, and your culture, and then seeking their help in finding quality people.