Forum - June 2008

Keeping Your

IT

Best

Professionals

On Board

By June Keszeg

Information technology is the hub of business • today, an engine for communication and business transformation driven by collaboration and operational efficiencies. Standing at the center of this vortex are IT professionals, the people responsible for bringing ideas, technology and standards together to create solutions that will be functional, reliable, adaptive and scalable. Good IT pros don’t come cheap: They typically cost more than their administrative counterparts to hire and they are an expensive bunch to maintain.

What then can small to mid-size organizations (fewer than 1,500 employees) do to recruit and attract IT staff? How do you keep them engaged? What are all the aspects of their development that should be considered?

Understanding IT Workers, Workforce Trends, Job Roles

Finding and maintaining IT pros with the right skills isn’t easy, and you’ve got plenty of competition. According to a recent study by Robert Half Technology, nearly 1 in 4 chief information officers polled said finding skilled information technology professionals is their greatest staffing challenge. Providing employees with adequate skills training ranked a close second.ⁱSome factors behind this challenge include:

• Increased competition for workers due to population changes as baby boomers begin to retireⁱⁱ

• Skills gaps resulting from technology changes and the demand for IT pros to evolve from a pure technology to a business-centric mindsetⁱⁱⁱ

Technology-related occupations continue to be some of the fastest growing employment sectors.^iv

In additional to market pressures, employers also face challenges in hiring and retaining IT professionals because they do not understand IT job roles or functions. This gap in understanding creates a significant disconnect between the employer and employee in developing job descriptions, performance measures and development plans. In fact, many IT professionals don’t think their employer has an advancement plan for them.

Employers often make the mistake that all IT professionals are cut from the same cloth; they are all “geeks.” It’s not uncommon, especially in smaller IT shops, for individuals to have to be a jack-of-all-trades. Employers need to understand that job roles are typically split between hardware and software and fall into three main categories:

• Administration — Responsible for maintaining IT devices and systems infrastructure.

• Development — Responsible for designing software or systems to meet functionality, reliability, security and/or scala-bility standards.

• Integration or Architecture — Responsible for project management, needs analysis, requirements development and strategic planning across systems or organizations.

According to a study from The Computing Technology Industry Association, 86 percent of IT professionals choose the training they need based on their own career plan. Five percent choose training based on their employers’ requirements or recommendations, while 2 percent are told by their employers what they need to take. ITprofessionals spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours every year to upgrade their skills and to remain current and relevant, and the majority of employers do not provide support.