Hiring a System Administrator

Is it time for you to hire a system administrator? TechSoup's article When To Use Consultants Volunteer, Consultant or Staff? describes some of the factors to think about when deciding how to meet your computer maintenance needs.

The trick to hiring a systems administrator is to find someone who has excellent technical skills but who is willing to compromise financially in order to follow their values and work for a nonprofit. Don't despair! Such people exist, although it may take some digging to find them.

Before you hire someone, though, check if you have someone on staff who has both the aptitude and interest to do this work. Consider re-allocating his or her time and providing the additional training necessary to do the job. See theTraining Section for ideas on where to find classes appropriate for a system administrator.

Step 1 Write a job description:

The article gives an overview of a typical system administrator's responsibilities. It can be adapted to a job description specific to your organization's systems. Before you write the job description, though, you will want to give some thought to the way your organization uses computers now and what your plans for the future are. Because technology changes so quickly, it's especially important to use each hiring process as an opportunity to review your technology staffing needs. If you are going to switch from a stand-alone environment to a networked environment in the next few months, you may want to look for someone with networking experience. What about staff assistance, helpdesk duties, and staff training? Should those be included in the systems administrator's job? Do you want this person to be a part of your management group? If not, how will you insure appropriate IT input into management planning efforts? Do you expect this person to be responsible for the administration of your Web site or internal database? For general hints on writing a job description, a good resource is Preparing the Job Advertisement , from a Human Resource Manual put out by the Canadian government.

Step 2 Post your job description:

Places to post a job description include:

• Colleges, Universities and Trade Schools: Many nonprofits have been able to hire computer-literate college students at relatively low rates to become their system administrators. Contact the school's career center and see how they post job listings. They may have an online job posting service as well as job binders or bulletin boards.
• Online Nonprofit Job Boards
  • Opportunity NOCs
  • Nonprofit Career Network
  • Idealist.org's Job Search Page

Step 3 Interview candidates:

Before you start interviewing, it is a good idea to think through how you will structure this position to attract the right person and minimize turnover, since IT folks are so hard to replace. For many IT people, continued training and chances to keep their technical knowledge up to date are of vital importance. They may be willing to accept nonprofit salaries, but they will leave if they feel their technical skills are stagnating. So it's vital to budget for regular training opportunities (and to provide the time to take the training). It's also vital to keep IT folks in the mainstream of the organization. It's easy sometimes to isolate the IT staff and not interact unless you have a computer problem. But appreciating the contribution they make to the organization's mission -- and sharing that appreciation with them on a regular basis -- will help you to keep your systems staff loyal and involved.

The ideas about the interview process in theChoosing the Right Consultantarticle also apply to interviewing a systems administrator. A good resource for general tips on the interview process is Links on Interviewing Job Candidates , from the Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits.