July 17, 2016
Information technology has become an essential part of business strategy, so the demand for technical talent and expertise is all-time high which in turn has put tremendous pressure on the organizations to be creative when competing for talented IT professionals.
In the present scenario, IT is casting a major impact on all types of industries in several significant ways. With the advent of new products, services and applications, the demand for strong IT talent is growing bigger. CIOs are constantly working towards hiring professionals with diverse skills to work in the new IT environment. The companies which are expanding are facing human resource challenges like limited IT staff and lower budgets for hiring talented professionals.
The five of the most commonly faced staffing challenges by CIOs today can be summarized as follows:
Under Staffing: According to the recent survey conducted by Robert Half Technology, 64 percent of the CIOs stated understaffing as one of the major challenges hindering their ability to implement emerging technologies in their firm.
Moving into Growth Mode: With the newer technologies coming in, shifting into growth mode can be difficult for the CIOs as the present employees are required to change their mindset from one of caution to one of optimism. Therefore, it becomes highly essential for the CIOs to explain the benefits that would come along for the organization as well as for the employees whenever new initiatives are to be launched. The top management must keep the employees aware about everything starting from the planning process and also update them regularly on key business developments. This, in turn, will help to build up excitement for the employees and instill the feeling of responsibility towards making it a success.
Managing Workloads: The increasing workloads with the advent of new technologies make the employees more hesitant towards new projects. It becomes a major challenge for the CIOs to help their employees meet objectives and the performance expectations. The managers must ensure to make the workloads manageable by reassigning tasks and implementing the division of labor in the organization.
Updating Staff Skills: In order to drive business innovation, the organizations need high-performing as well as talented staff. As digitalization tightens its hold, the CIOs will find it more challenging to find the talent required to compete in the new technical environment.
According to the 2016 Gartner CIO Agenda Survey, 66 percent of the CIOs stated scarcity of talented professionals as the number one barrier to achieving their business objectives.
CIOs must try to seek talent by tapping relationships with educational institutes for more internees focusing on digital era capabilities. Leaders need to make ‘building talent’ their priority so as to achieve competitive advantage in the new technological era.
Retention: According to the latest survey, 67 percent of CIO’s and HR executives believe that retaining the existing staff is a major challenge. Employee turnover is a costly affair for the CIOs as a lot of time and money is spent on searching, hiring and training new employees. With the growth in the economy, it is very likely that the employees leave the organization to look for better growth opportunities.
It is important to build a great culture so as to retain the current employees and attract new talented professionals into the organization and at the same time the CIOs must take efforts to enhance the skills and expertise of the present employees to drive their business innovation. An effective training program can become a pillar for effective talent management. More focus must be laid on the recruitment strategies and managing the organizational culture.