Your Next Hire: Remote IT Support

If your company needs more IT help, you’re probably facing the all-important question: should you hire a new staffer or outsource your needs to a managed services provider?

At first glance, it might seem like hiring your own IT person makes the most sense. You’ll have control over what the person does. They’ll be immersed in your corporate culture and know how to operate within it. Plus, you’ll have someone on-site during your business hours who can provide face-to-face assistance and handle physical repairs.

But if you dig a little deeper, you’ll see there’s more to consider. Here are some questions to ask yourself as you decide the best strategy for your business.

Will You Be Able to Find a Person with All the Skills You Need?

Your organization needs a variety of different skillsets to adequately support your people and your network. A well-rounded IT department includes help desk technicians, network administrators, and cybersecurity experts at a minimum. Plus, there are the people overseeing everything and steering the ship – the IT manager and Chief Information Officer.

Trying to hire all these different people would be challenging and expensive. That’s why SMBs tend to look for candidates with multiple skillsets. But finding one person knowledgeable enough to provide end-user support, maintain servers, and manage the overall network is like finding a purple squirrel – it’s next to impossible.

With a managed services provider (MSP), on the other hand, you get a complete team of IT pros ready to jump in. You have access to a group with:

• A full complement of IT professionals with a broad scope of expertise
• Everything from high-level infrastructure strategy to everyday PC support skills
• Experience solving IT problems for other businesses that they can leverage for you
• A commitment to staying on top of technology changes and industry trends

A managed services team is fully equipped to serve as your sole IT support, but it can also seamlessly supplement your existing in-house IT staff. For example, if you already have someone who handles the day-to-day troubleshooting needs of your employees, the managed services team can support that person by handling patch management, backups, security, strategic planning, and the like.

Can You Actually Afford a New IT Hire?

The first cost that comes to mind when adding a new staff member is their salary. IT professionals are in high demand and can command large annual salaries. If you’re looking to hire someone with multiple skillsets or certifications, expect to pay even more.

To learn what a competitive salary looks like in your area for the position you’re looking to fill, check out a salary resource like SalaryExpert. Keep in mind that the more complex the position and the more specialized skills it requires, the higher the salary range will be.

Of course the cost of hiring a new IT person is more than just their salary. You also have to factor in other items such as:

• Benefits
• PC or laptop
• 401(k) match
• Vacation & sick time
• Company cell phone
• Mileage reimbursement
• Training & certifications
• Ticketing & management software

When you work with an MSP, you pay a monthly fee based on the number of computers and servers you have. This covers the cost of maintaining, backing up, and securing your devices.

These fixed prices keep your IT support costs predictable and low – and that makes it much easier to budget. It takes away the stress of not knowing how much your IT costs will be this month. Your agreement with the MSP means that for the agreed upon price, you can depend on the MSP team to take care of your users and network.

Do You Have Enough Time to Find, Hire, Train, and Acclimate a New IT Employee?

Time-to-hire measures how long it takes between your candidate entering your hiring pipeline and accepting your job offer. The average time-to-hire for IT roles in the U.S. is 51 days.

Note that this timeframe doesn’t include the additional time it takes to submit your job opening for approval, receive approval for your job opening from HR, and advertise your open position. That can add days or even weeks to your time-to-hire.

While your hiring process can take months, the top job candidates are off the market within 10 days. Trying to find the best people to fill your roles is challenging, highly competitive, and time-consuming.

Once you hire a qualified candidate, most people can’t hit the ground running right away. They need time to learn your processes, adjust to your environment, and possibly receive training on certain aspects of the job. Research shows that it takes 1-2 YEARS for a new hire to acclimate and become fully productive.

If you need IT help right away, you don’t have months or years to wait. An MSP delivers technical professionals who can start assisting you right away. They’re already hired, trained, acclimated, and ready to jump in and help. MSPs attract highly desirable candidates, meaning you’ll have some of the best IT people around supporting your business.

What About IT Department Turnover?

Despite all the work you put in to hire great people, turnover in IT departments is high. The tech sector has the highest turnover rate at 13.2%. In addition, the average job tenure of Millennials is 3 years.

Replacing IT employees is very costly. The cost of losing an employee ranges from tens of thousands of dollars to 1.5-2X their annual salary. Why so expensive? Because the total cost of losing an employee includes:

• Cost of hiring & onboarding a new person
• Lost productivity
• Training cost
• Lost engagement due to employees disengaging during turnover
•  Cultural impact as employees wonder why the person left

Hiring someone in-house doesn’t guarantee they’ll stay. With an MSP, you enjoy a dependable partnership with people who know your network and IT needs and can provide consistent support for years to come.

Could Managed Services Be the Answer?

Deciding between in-house hiring and an MSP is an important choice. You need to consider what’s best for your organization. If these questions have brought up some concerns about hiring in-house staff, maybe it’s time to learn more about partnering with an MSP.

Visit our Managed Services page

Additional Resource

Why Now’s the Right Time to Consider Managed IT