Q&A: Atrion's Tim Hebert On Closing The IT Skills Gap

What do you do in training that kind of sets you apart from others?

It starts with how we look at hiring. We've gotten away from [the] resume-interviewing processes where we select candidates based on [what's on] their resume. We try to look holistically at a person and try to bring people in, try to look at character, softer skills, then of course the resume stuff is the third part. As we do our selection process, we drill down. We probably spend 70 to 80 percent of our time looking at character and quality of the individual. We spend probably 10 to 15 percent of our time looking at professional skills like problem solving, communication, critical thought, and then we spend probably 5 to 10 percent of our time on the actual technical acumen.

That's a fundamental shift we made about 15 years ago. What we did is that we realized we have great quality people with character and then … we can train them to be super-technical people.