Q. The IT manager I’ve employed since day one of my three-year-old business has just announced he’s leaving. He says he’ll help me recruit a suitable replacement but I’m very concerned about losing someone who has set up our entire system. What can I do to ensure the change goes smoothly?
 
John Coulthard of Microsoft writes:

It’s a heavy blow to lose a valued IT manager who has in-depth knowledge of the company network, its set-up and role in the business, but staff churn is inevitable as a business grows.

Ideally, in this particular instance you would have a handover period with the incoming IT manager working alongside the outgoing employee in order to familiarise themselves with the infrastructure of the business.

Duties and responsibilities should be recorded by yourself and the outgoing manager to remove all doubt about the scope of the new employee’s role. It is also important to collate all information relating to the running of the network: passwords, licence agreements, suppliers, etc.

You should also be rigorous about checking that the new recruit has the expertise needed for the job. This may sound obvious but last year Microsoft research found that while 85% of business managers thought that IT staff should be appropriately qualified, only 40% actually knew whether this was the case in their business.

Relying, however, on one person for the management of such a key function risks exposing you to the exact problem you’re trying to avoid: a gap in the management of your IT network. If your new IT manager is on holiday or falls ill, how does the business cope with technical difficulties?

An alternative approach would be to augment the work of your IT manager with an IT support service contract. The good news is that this is cheaper than you might think. An IT service contract can cost as little as £200 per month.

As well as maintaining the network – a task that can often be done remotely – a local IT company would be on hand to help with the everyday problems, such as forgotten passwords and PC troubles. One advantage is that the contract could be extended to cover new staff and grow in line with your business. This would ensure a constant level of support across the business, and avoid over-burdening a single IT employee. The business further benefits from automated backup and restore of files held on the network.

Taking on an IT service contract would not only insure the business against the IT manager’s absence, it would also free his/her time to make a greater strategic contribution. For example, instead of dealing with the more mundane tasks, the IT manager could get on with improving business performance through more effective use of technology