In my experience it's rare to come across a "HR professional" who knows <i>anything</i> about tech. Now that's not to say they're necessarily dumb; said "professional" could know, I dunno, gender discrimination legislation like the backs of their hands. But expecting HR to take any active role in selection of technical people is unlikely to improve the quality of the candidates you interview. The most they can do is the same as they'd do for all employees (e.g. checking references).<p>Also here's my tip: someone who describes themselves as a programmer or a sysadmin is likely to be a can-do type. Someone who calls themselves an "IT professional" is likely to be the sort who spends half his day drawing UML diagrams and the other half in meetings. Wonder if that's true for "HR professionals" too.