Operations Management: What You Need to Know
Operations management refers to the process of overseeing an organisation’s daily work flows. Operations management maintains efficiency and ensures productivity. A business needs operations management, whether they are an IT company or a web development firm.
Operations manager is a professional who is responsible for managing teams, designing strategies for businesses or operations. An operations manager also oversees delivery of projects smoothly.
How to Hire Operations Manager
If you are looking to hire operations manager for your business, assess their work experience and skill sets. Also, conduct a test to assess skills and follow it up with an interview. An operations manager would need to have a good educational background along with soft skills. Post a job description and vacancy on a hiring platform to find a good match.
Factors to Consider Before You Hire Operations Manager
Before you hire operations manager, assess why you need one and what roles you expect them to perform. If it’s an IT operations manager, the person would need to know about maintaining the company’s servers and networks. The person may also have to handle upgrades or installations of software/hardware. The individual would need to develop IT policies of the organisation, and handle budgeting of the IT systems If it’s a web development operations manager, the role would require handling and determining technical frameworks needed to deliver web apps and services.
Also, do you need one for a short-term or long-term project? This would also help you pick the right person for the role.
Further, hire operations manager whose goals and values aligns with that of the company. The same applies to company culture. Hire operations manager who understands your company culture and is comfortable with it.
Skills to Look For When You Hire Top Operations Manager
Hire top operations manager familiar with networks, servers and cloud computing concepts, if you are looking at IT operations managers.
Familiarity with framing and implementing data protection policies helps. For instance, you could hire top operations manager who implements rules for encryption or passwords within the company.
Knowledge of system configurations and installation is good to have if it’s an IT operations manager role.
Knowledge of budgeting software and tools like Scoro, Prophix or Centage helps. Such software offers budget planning and forecasting tools, apart from dashboards and analytics.
Risk management is the process wherein any risk that creates a loss or negative impact is identified, monitored and handled beforehand. Use of risk management tools and techniques helps operations manager to gather, analyse and monitor risk data.
Quality assurance is a process which determines if a product or service meets the client’s standards. Knowledge of quality assurance processes and tools is useful.
Skills like ability to communicate well with teams and collaborate with clients help.
Operations managers should have other soft skills like problem-solving ability, aptitude to think differently and making decisions on the go
Steps to Hire Operations Manager
The first step is to draft a clear job description and post on a tech hiring platform.
Screen candidate resumes on the basis of work experience, skill sets and educational background.
Conduct a skill assessment test to judge an operations manager’s knowledge of technical skills. The test could also assess qualities like decision making and clarity of thought
The next step is to interview the candidates. Assess the presentation and communication skills of the operations manager.
If you find that the candidate matches your business requirements, send out an offer for employment, with terms of contract and salary structure.
How to Hire Reliable and Experienced Operations Manager
Ask for samples of projects that the operations manager has handled in the past. This will help you evaluate the quality of work and experience levels of the candidate.
Ask for references from previous employers. Talk to the ex colleagues or employers about the candidate's ability to manage time, lead teams and communicate well.
Also, find out more about the candidate’s career path and what their goals for the future are. This helps you assess the reliability of the operations manager and whether they are likely to stay in the job.
