With technology changes hitting parking faster and harder at every turn, it’s more and more difficult to determine what software, apps, and other technologies you should adopt right now, what you should target in the next 1-3 years, and what long-range plans you need for an uncertain future.

I heard a speaker once describe the rapid pace of technological change this way: imagine the world of technology in your company as one big pie, and each employee in the company knows their little slice of this IT pie.  Some slices are bigger than others, for example Developers and Chief Information Officers will have different sizes than, say, folks who only touch technology as front-end users of software systems.

Now imagine that your technology pie grows twice as large each year, but the slice of knowledge for your individual IT worker only grows a small percentage relative to the whole pie’s annual expansion.

How do you keep up with this rapid pace of new knowledge your company needs to acquire?  

Well one solution of course is to continually add more employees until you have enough to cover the whole pie. Unfortunately, that’s unrealistic as I think it’s safe to say the scope and pace of technological change will always outstrip any increases in hiring budgets and salaries.

But on the recruiting front, there are other options to help you keep pace with changing technology in parking:

1) Hire employees who are willing to grow their individual slice of the pie through training and other learning tools.  If you want to attract top talent that has a constant drive to be more talented, then look for candidates who enjoy learning and are adaptable to change. 

2) Create a collaborative work environment so all those pieces of pie have a chance to mix together.  It’s an old adage, but yes you can create a whole that is greater than the sum of its individual parts.  You just have to build a team that is willing and able to use collaboration for both their own professional growth and the success of the company.

In a world of rapid technical changes that require frequent upgrades to your worker's skillset, these qualities of learning, adaptability, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing are constants which will always be valuable to a company.  

So, as you evaluate candidates for their parking technology expertise, keep in mind these essential soft skills that will help everyone in the organization enjoy a bigger piece of the pie!

Contact me to talk further about recruiting IT positions in parking.  If you would like to learn more about leading recruiting practices in parking, download our Hiring Guide here: