IT: cultural impact, not technical knowledge

First, let me be clear - your IT folks need to understand how to use and fix computers. This article is not about promoting a team with customer service skills but lacking the ability to troubleshoot or handle technical questions. The key thing is to understand that your IT team are force multipliers and risk mitigators when used effectively, and that applies to your company's culture.

Starting from the beginning - hiring an IT person should focus on technical understanding and problem solving capability, but as a hiring manager you should have a clear idea of what those specifically mean to you. In my opinion, knowledge can go stale in tech, but a sense of curiosity and an understanding of the fundamentals make for valuable assets (and mean your IT hire can pivot to new technologies when needed). As an example - I had barely used a Mac before my job at Pivotal but I was able to give solid answers on how to troubleshoot crashes and poor performance on a machine during interview. That kind of flexibility also enabled me to adapt to an agile XP (Extreme Programming) company which was a major change of scene. If you're providing your recruitment team with questions that are about technical answers rather than figuring out your candidate's methods and motives then you're probably doing this wrong (if you can Google the right answer, it's a bad interview question).

Once you have this IT person (either as a first in your company or part of an established team) they begin to have an impact on those around them. As part of the support side of your organisation they will be interacting across multiple functions and a huge percentage of your workforce compared to many other hires. They will impact the experience of your new hires, your veteran employees, and every third-party contractor you bring on-board. Along with your front-desk, hospitality, and admin staff they will reveal the realities of your company culture. If you're preaching flattened hierarchy but have VIP tech support for execs, or inclusivity, but your IT staff don't get the same benefits as other tech staff, then your workforce is going to see it happening.

On the more positive side, the right kind of IT team in the right kind of place can be a huge boon to your culture. If you're an inclusive company who hires IT folks who internalise those values and you give them free rein then you'll see those small touches that make a huge difference. For example, when they buy laptops for new hires they'll take the time to ask about keyboard language, or come up with a process for getting ergonomic accessories to people. If your IT team see their job as empowerment rather than service you also open the door to a lot more internal transfers and promotions which in turn increases the diversity of your workforce at different levels.

Any technical decision made in a company is made for a set of reasons. If you're a MacOS shop it's probably because you're building software and want a stable Unix-based OS with well supported hardware. Maybe you invested in those fancy roller scanners because you deal with vast stacks of paper invoices. Why would you hire the people making those decisions based on the tech they know rather than the needs and nature of your business?

To conclude - if you want the ability to adapt and change with the continued progression of your industry, but want the important things to remain steady then remember that those folks asking you to "turn it off and on again" are some of your biggest cultural amplifiers.