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CIOs and Bench Strength
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Question: How would you rate your IT organization in terms of bench strength? With money extremely tight and many companies having drastically reduced headcounts, do you have the back-up capabilities in terms of personnel to keep to IT engines running on all cylinders in case key people are out for a prolonged illness, go off on maternity leave, change careers, retire, etc.?
Granted “lean and mean” is the catch phrase of our trouble times, but there’s a point at which human resources can be stretched too thin, and when that happens, companies can lose their competitive edge, may not be able to expand quickly into new markets and implode. And if IT is at the heart of this implosion, guess who is going to get the blame. Be assured, my friend, the CFO or CEO who told you to slash your payroll by 25 percent will not take the fall for this.
Ironically, as important as IT talent is to the success of the enterprise, many companies haven’t really paid much attention to developing and furthering their talents and management skills. So says Peter Capelli in his book TALENT ON DEMAND (Harvard Business Press, 2008) “The rise of IT jobs played a significant role in the economic expansion of the 1990s, and IT skills are now critical to the success of most companies,” Capelli says. “Given that, what is remarkable about most IT jobs is how little most employers do to manage their talent.”
So how do you deal with what is at best a difficult situation – that is a sudden unexpected shortfall in technology talent, be it the result of something as cataclysmic as a swine flue outbreak or simply the fact that your ace database manager quits to fulfill his lifelong dream of becoming a hip hop artist.
Well, here are a few suggestions:
If you don’t already have one in place, draw up a clear plan for developing talent within you department.
Train and prepare ancillary workers (contractors, retirees) to take over IT positions, or at least serve as back-ups. Recent retirees, in particular, can be effective because they know how your IT shop functions and would likely be good at training new people or existing staff. Moreover, given likely short falls in their 401-K plans, they may well be eager for the work.
There’s always the temp route. This is mostly lower level and often these people are here today and gone tomorrow, or next week at least.
You can also outsource jobs. As an example, PNI IT staffing agency provides everything from a wide range of programmers to IT personnel with deep experience in multiple technology areas and will typically be able to supervise and coordinate medium to large-sized IT teams composed of both Senior and Junior Level I.T. staff. They have a minimum of 5 years cumulative work experience in their respective fields and the majority will possess I.T. related university degrees. PNI IT is a division of Philippines-based PIN International. There are also numerous IT job outsourcers in Indian, Canada and Eastern Europe.
In order to get the money and time to augment and train part-time or ancillary workers, you’ll probably have to develop a mini-business plan breaking down costs, benefits,ROI, etc. This may be a hard sell, but the swine flu outbreak vividly underscores the need for this kind of contingency planning.
One positive note: Given the number of people out of work today, you can probably fill any vacant slot quickly. Just remember, though, that when the economy picks up, some of your staff members may well be on the look out for new jobs.
Ultimately, management uber-guru Tom Peters (http://www.tompeters.com) reminds us of the short sightedness of not developing talent internally. “The war for talent is still ongoing," Peters says. "There is and will be for some time, a shortage of leadership talent as a result of the baby boomers leaving the workforce. There will be plenty of “bodies” available, but that doesn’t equate to talent. Cutting back on development efforts to grow your own leaders will leave you at the mercy of the market when the economy picks back up. You will end up paying more for outside talent instead of developing your bench strength now.”
Comments (1)
1. 05-07-2009 09:05
This article kind of speaks to the notion that even in lean times: "Good help is hard to find." Developing talent internally, especially for IT should be a priority for any growing company. Outsourcing for IT talent can end up being more expensive in the long run. Having backup talent, guys who can come off the bench and fill in, is always a sound idea.
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