CIO’s Need To Know How To Attract The Best IT Talent

CIOs need to know how to attract (and keep) the best IT talent
CIOs need to know how to attract (and keep) the best IT talent
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Who is responsible for making sure that your IT department has enough IT workers do everything that is expected of it? Lots of CIOs would like to think that given the importance of information technology, this task is something that the Human Resources (HR) department needs to take care of. However, the truth is that at the end of the day the CIO plays a big role in making sure that you don’t have too many open positions at any given point in time…

How To Get The IT Talent That You Need

I’ll agree that your HR department will always be the ones who extend the actual job offer to a candidate and worry about what it takes to get them on board. However, as the person with the CIO job, it’s going to be your responsibility to create an IT department that the best candidates will want to join.

So what’s it going to take in order to create an IT bug light that will attract the best and the brightest in the world of IT? The good news is that the answer to this question is already known. CIOs need to spend their time creating an IT department that has a great culture and offers IT employees the benefits that they are looking for.

The benefits that will attract great IT workers include a good base pay (of course!), flexible work arrangements, and access to the types of IT technologies that appeal IT professionals. Things like vacation time and recognition for the work that they’ve done are there, but they are further down the list of things that IT workers want.

How To Become The Place That IT People Want To Work

Just what do today’s best IT workers really want from an IT department? One thing that the younger IT workers especially want is to work someplace where they feel that their work will have a positive, tangible impact on the business.

As CIO one thing that you can do is to create programs that ensure that once IT workers decide to join your IT department, they feel as though you value them. One way to go about doing this is to implement an 18-month development program that rotate them through different roles within the IT department. This is a unique opportunity that will let them experience all that an IT department has to offer them.

CIOs need to keep in mind that it’s the little things that really add up when an IT professional is evaluating where they want to work Things like offering a flexible workplace and a collaborative work environment can make your IT department look more attractive than other options.

What All Of This Means For You

A CIO is only as effective as his or her IT department will allow him to be. What this means for you is that you can’t leave who gets hired to your HR department. As the person in the CIO position, you are going to have to make sure that you’ve built the IT department that the best and the brightest IT workers all want to join.

In order to make this happen, you are going to have to take the time to build an IT culture that will be inviting for job candidates. You’ll also have to implement programs that allows all of your new hires to understand how the IT department works and how their contributions will impact the overall business.

Staffing an IT department is very much like trying to sell a house. You want the “curb appeal” of your IT department to be good enough to attract the very best talent. This can be done, but it’s going to take a commitment from you. Now go sell your IT department CIO…!

– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Department Leadership Skills™

Question For You: If you set up an IT department new-hire rotation program, what should you do with new hires when they are done with the program?

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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Nobody ever promised you that the CIO job was going to be fun, right? I can’t make what is a hard job any easier, but I just might be able to help out with that fun thing. CIOs everywhere are discovering that there is a new movement sweeping through IT that is going to change how we do everything. This change has a name: it’s called gameification.