Recruitment 101: How to build the best IT team

Startup businesses face an uphill struggle when trying to build an IT department. But as the credit crunch drives financial and technology professionals eastwards, the UAE may find it has more ready access to high-end IT skill-sets than ever before.

But assuming you are a new business looking to build a solid technology function, where do you start?

You should start with a decision-maker. This is your IT manager. They will ideally have 10 years' experience in the sector and have worked on a variety of business-centred IT projects in a mixture of roles, and understand the principles of tying IT expenditure to overall commercial goals.

They will build a department under a framework that follows your five- or 10-year plan. When they recruit staff their long-term goal will be to build a knowledge bank with your IT team. Knowledge about your network and telecommunications infrastructure will be spread across more than one person, as will knowledge about your servers and workstations, your applications suite and any bespoke software systems you might have.

Taking into account the relative importance of these areas, your IT decision maker may choose to outsource some to third-party suppliers. This is fine as long as it does not alter the course of your commercial journey.

Always bear in mind that such third-party suppliers are business partners and must be an entity you can trust. To this end, it is advisable to enter into a formal specification and selection process to ensure you get the right company for the job. For example, if you are building a software system your IT manager will run workshops with the proposed users of that system and detail their exact needs in a tender document. This document will be given to several reputable suppliers and they will respond in writing – in a format of your choosing – as to how they will implement the project. They will also submit testimonials from former clients. As for your internal IT department, they should be thought of as a football team. If your goalkeeper breaks his leg you need a substitute and so it goes for the other players on the pitch. "Three-deep in every position" is advisable. In other words: ensure that vital knowledge is not exclusively housed in the mind of one staff member. If this person were to leave, you certainly wouldn't be in the Champions League and may, in fact, face relegation.