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Today’s IT departments need well-rounded business professionals, so don’t let soft skills training wane during the recession. Robert Half Technology Executive Director Dave Willmer says not only will you develop better leaders, your company will gain a competitive edge.
Question: “I’d like to delegate more work to my staff, including some tasks that require more direct and frequent interaction with other departments and managers, but I’m hesitant. I feel that many members of the team need to improve their communication skills first. What can I do to address this issue? I need cost-effective solutions, since the budget for training is very tight.”
Dave Willmer responds: Because IT plays such a central role in business today, and technology professionals are much more visible in the organization, soft skills, such as communication, are becoming increasingly critical for your employees to possess.
As an IT manager, you should encourage your employees to work on refining a broad set of interpersonal abilities not only because it will make them more well-rounded professionals but also because it creates value for your organization. For instance, staff who can apply critical thinking and problem-solving abilities to business challenges can help your company increase its competitive edge.
Employees who understand how to tactfully resolve a conflict can prevent a minor squabble from escalating and interfering with morale and productivity. In addition, because effective leaders need strong interpersonal skills, it is critical to your succession planning that IT professionals in line for management roles focus on honing these abilities.
Tight budgets don’t have to be roadblocks
Budget constraints may be affecting your IT department, but they do not have to prevent your team from pursuing opportunities that can strengthen their interpersonal skills.
Engage in “comparison shopping” of business skills classes or workshops that local universities, colleges and professional organizations provide to find out which are most affordable. Online courses or seminars can also be cost-effective options.
If your budget does not permit you to completely cover these costs even for a handful of employees, do try to provide at least partial reimbursement to staff who enroll in and complete business skills classes. This gesture can play an important role in retention: Training and professional development is the most effective way to keep employees on board, according to 21% of CIOs surveyed by our company.
There are other options, as well. Have your team compete for the chance to attend a business skills class, with the “most productive employee of the month,” for instance, winning the prize. Or consider bringing in an outside resource to host an on-site workshop at your organization, so all IT staff can participate in and benefit from the learning opportunity together. The expert who leads the training could even be a recently retired employee or a respected leader from another department.
Make it a team effort
Another cost-effective option for your IT department: Pay for one or more staff members to participate in off-site or online business skills courses and then share what they have learned with other employees, whether in a formal classroom-type setting or through mentoring arrangements.
If your company has an intranet, offer senior staff members the opportunity to create business skills training videos or podcasts that can be posted and accessed by workers companywide. These types of activities put an employee’s new knowledge into action while increasing his or her visibility in the organization.
In addition, there are many things you can do as a manager to help your IT staff improve their soft skills. For instance, you can emphasize analytical and critical thinking abilities by requiring employees to explain to you, as well as other team members, why and how they achieved certain results or came to conclusions on specific projects. This exercise can be particularly beneficial for less seasoned employees, who may need to build their confidence and learn how to articulate their needs and requests to colleagues, clients and supervisors.
You also may want to make an “interpersonality” assessment a key part of employee performance reviews. Let your IT staff know what you expect from them in this area, what they are doing well and how, specifically, you would like them to improve. This will emphasize to your employees that you, and the organization, consider interpersonal skills to be critical and will motivate your workers to continually improve upon these abilities.
Dave Willmer is executive director of Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis. Robert Half Technology has more than 100 locations worldwide and offers online job search services at www.rht.com.
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