We write a lot about top talent. That’s because everyone wants top talent. Who wants to hire average talent, right?  It’s not that top talent is elusive – it’s always out there. You just have to know where to find it – and with our extensive network of IT professionals – Agile does. The need to hire and retain top talent is nothing new; it’s not a result of the Great Recession.  But changes within IT organizations – due in part to the weakened economy – have intensified the need for top IT talent – especially top talent with high-demand skills.

Top talent possessing specific IT skills like Java, .NET, business analysis, SQL, Oracle DBMS, and project management is scarce. All indications suggest that these workers will become even harder to find as the economy improves and IT departments continue to fill vacant and newly-formed positions. So what can technology leaders do today to build and sustain an “A” team?

We recently published a white paper “Four Winning Talent Strategies for the New IT” that includes a section advising companies to use newly allocated funds for training purposes. What follows is an excerpt from the paper that provides several training approaches organizations should consider to ensure employees have the high-demand skills necessary to stay competitive.   

One legacy of the Great Recession is that many companies have scaled back if not eliminated training and professional development activities.  Training can actually represent a lower expense than recruiting a new employee, which human resources experts calculate can cost as much as 1.5 times the departing employee’s salary.

You may even want to adopt a “pipeline” approach to staffing similar to the one employed by Zappos, one of the world’s most successful online retailers. The Zappos philosophy, which is detailed in CEO Tony Hsieh’s “Delivering Happiness,” is to build a pipeline of people with varying levels of skills and experience to meet the needs of each of its departments. By keeping the pipeline full and continuously offering training to all employees, they are able to constantly transition highly qualified individuals to more senior and demanding roles.

This strategy means the company is never exposed if a key individual moves on. At its core, the pipeline philosophy emphasizes recruiting individuals who are a good fit for the company’s culture and its ongoing commitment to employee training and development.

With the current scarcity of “ideal” candidates, we advise our clients to consider a more long-term approach to nurturing the employee through training. Priority should go to valued employees, of course. Individuals who are challenged by their work (while also seeing their professional marketability improved through ongoing training) are more likely to maintain loyalty to an organization even as other firms are trying to recruit them away.

We also recommend providing advanced technical and business analytics training for new employees on a case-by-case basis.  As organizations compete for talent, we think it will become much more difficult to identify “ideal” candidates for an increasing number of job titles. In some cases, it may make sense to hire the most promising individual and then use intensive training to bridge shortfall in skills or knowledge.

You can download the entire white paper by clicking here.

“I’m supposed to design and deliver the IT solution, not get people to use it.”  Sound familiar?  Unfortunately, IT gravitates toward the process and technology aspects of a solution, neglecting the third major aspect – people!

It’s an undeniable truth that “a successful project doesn’t equal a successful change.”  CIO’s must be mindful that a project delivered on time and on budget is just two-thirds the equation. If organizational behaviors don’t shift to absorb the IT solution, what’s the point of the project?  In other words, if you neglect the people side of the project, you’ll only deliver a partial solution.

An often overlooked aspect of an IT project is solution adoption.  No one within the enterprise seems to want this daunting responsibility, yet we all tout ROI and project success.  We tend to resist the people aspects of projects.  Awareness?  Socialization?  Institutionalization?  Not things IT spends a lot of time thinking about.  However, to deliver a successful, sustainable solution, IT must consider and plan how the technology  will be accepted, integrated and utilized by organization.

Instead of forcing the change technology creates, affect the resistance.  Here are six key strategic moves every CIO and project team needs to drive organizational change.  Your project success depends on it.

1. Solidify top management support, both from IT and business segments.  They must buy into the short and long term vision, and they must support short term pain for long term gain.  It is management who must raise the cost of status quo and make value visible, clearly communicating why change is necessary and why change must take place now.
2. Meet one-on-one with each key stakeholder from the business to socialize the change.  What are their concerns?  How could this initiative help them?  The idea is to get each person talking about any potential resistance and to build genuine trust.  This step may take some time, but it is vital.
3. Create a committee consisting of key stakeholders.  The committee needs to be closely involved with the change and have a voice through the process.  Engagement helps ensure short and long-term buy in (not just initial, superficial support).  Key stakeholders need to be allies or moderate supporters, at the very least.
4. Make the change incremental to demonstrate wins.  Which areas are most supportive and change-ready?  Start with a focused scope and iron out any issues with the process, technology, learning curve, etc.  Success stories help other areas of the business get on board, recognizing benefits over pains of the process.  Have a story to tell and have others to tell the story for you.  Evolution is easier than revolution.
5. Leverage awareness campaigns to socialize the change.  Let people know what’s on the way, how it affects them, when it’s coming their way, benefits they can expect, and what you ask of them.  Stay ahead of rumors by providing enough information early and often.
6. Identify and use change agents to act as your “feet on the street” and the eyes and ears of the project.  Change agents are close to the people affected by the change.  They leverage formal and informal communication channels (hallway, break room, over the cube) to dispel myths, address concerns, propagate a unified change message, and communicate back any issues or concerns.

Projects are about impact.  IT must stretch beyond the design and delivery role to inspire the organization: align, engage, mobilize, anchor, and sustain the change.

About Agile Solutions: Agile’s CIO Advisory services can help you consider all the complexities of a project or initiative – the big picture and the tactical execution.  Agile Solutions serves as a trusted advisor to the CIO, allowing them to support the business goals, reduce costs, introduce smarter processes, juggle conflicting interests, and navigate human capital.