Peter High
3-14-2011
Excerpt from the Article:
If you believe what many economists are now saying, we have emerged from a prolonged economic malaise and the United States is poised for growth. Good news surely, but IT leaders have suffered right along with other executives in the corporate suite during these bad old days. The recent downturn cost a lot of talented IT leaders their jobs.It seems, then, to be an appropriate time to ask: “What can IT leaders do today to prepare for the next downturn?”
Having worked with a great number of CIOs on the principles of World Class IT (introduced in my book, World Class IT: Why Businesses Succeed When IT Triumphs), I have learned that the most successful executives focus their organization’s efforts to ensure that they plan for the proverbial “rainy day,” while simultaneously encouraging innovation. There are four main areas on which these leading executives typically focus:
It is critically important to develop and maintain a skills inventory of the people in your department. First and foremost, this requires defining taxonomy relative to those skills. Then, it’s essential to have all employees document the skills they currently possess. This skills inventory should be refreshed whenever there is a new hire, and through each evaluation cycle, providing an “as is” picture of the skills of your staff.
Develop a workforce plan reflecting the skills the IT department will need in the future based on where the company is headed, business and IT strategy, and so forth. This is the “to be” state of the staff’s skills. The gulf between the “as is” picture and the “to be” state should then be evaluated; this will drive your training, recruiting and vendor-engagement strategies.
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