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by:Deborah Perelman
To bring fresh talent into the field, IT needs updated approaches to
recruiting.
If the IT industry is going to attract the talented people it needs in
the future, it needs to change the way it recruits, according to
analysts.
Right now, the industry
is in a squeeze. There is a looming talent gap brought on by
declining computer science enrollments and imminently retiring Baby
Boomers in the coming years, and the people the field needs the most are
the least interested in joining.
The answer, analysts say, is for IT to take positive steps to make it an
attractive career option again to all of the talented people who end up
detouring into fields that they believe will yield more satisfying and
stable careers.
"Otherwise, the chasm between IT and the rest of the enterprise is going
to grow even wider in the future," said Bruce Skaistis, founder of
eGlobal CIO, an IT consulting firm.
Reach out to parents
The people who often hold the most sway over potential IT candidate's
career choices have been shown to be the ones most likely to discourage
it.
Gartner analyst Lily Mok told eWEEK that she'd seen a recent informal
poll asking IT professionals if they'd recommend the career path to
their children.
The
majority said "no."
She pointed to the layoffs after the dot-com bust. The memory of that
time colored the opinion of many IT professionals who went through it,
and it has them doubting whether they'd want their children to go into
the field, Mok said.
Reposition the message
One of IT's biggest hurdles to overcome is its reputation as a workplace
stuck in the industrial age metaphor of the assembly line, where people
are cogs in the wheel performing repetitive tasks like screwing a door
on a car or writing a line of code, Matt Simons, chief people officer at
ThoughtWorks, a Chicago-based software consultancy, told eWEEK.
"If you placed an ad in the appropriate media: 'Seeking intelligent and
motivated individuals interested in a career enhancing business
execution and transforming business models and markets,' they would
apply," said Alex Cullen, an analyst with Forrester Research.
"The finance major would want to work in an organization whose mission
was to change how their company used financial information to accelerate
decision making and real-time analysis. If you told these people that
the career ladder was open to Bachelor's degrees, started with training
and development in the tools and techniques of this career, and paid
$45k to start with rapid advancement, who at a college campus would be
interested in that?"
Address education gaps
Many firms and analysts express displeasure with what many computer
science programs at universities are teaching students, which is largely
highly technical content.
"In reality, in the corporate world, IT is changing at such a rapid pace
that it now requires a different generation of skilled workers, both
technical and business-savvy. Without changing some of the basic
structure of the academic programs, such as bringing in some business
content into the traditional computer science, it will not be able to
attract and deliver the right type of students/graduates the
corporations need, thus the gap will only become bigger," Mok said.
She added that these changes need to be supported and endorsed by the
corporate community by providing a variety of internship and mentoring
opportunities.
Allot work-life balance
The fact is, analysts said, a field that requires constant overtime,
weekend work and
frequently requires workers to show up on holidays is going to have
constant recruiting issues.
"Just like everyone else, the enterprise IT team has a life outside
work. Balancing work requirements with personal and family requirements
is increasingly important to ITers, so helping them maintain a better
work/life balance is a critical step in making enterprise IT a better
place to work," said Skaistis.
What this means is that CIOs and IT managers should give their teams
comp time and time off whenever they have been working long hours.
Analysts said that managers might also consider incentives that team
members can share with their families and friends, such as tickets with
special privileges at sporting events, shows, museums and amusement
parks, showing that they understand the importance of a life outside
work.
Encourage creativity
If a field wants to attract creative people, it will have to allow their
creativity to flourish once they get in-house.
"After countless reviews and audits, enterprise IT has become very
risk-averse and procedures-oriented. As a result, many IT activities
have become very regimented—and very boring," Skaistis said.
He warned against putting unnecessary restrictions on IT staff and to
encourage
new approaches, whenever possible.
"If nothing else, give your people opportunities to rethink or
re-evaluate existing processes or the technology being used. This type
of creative thinking can produce positive benefits in terms of results
and employee morale," Skaistis said.
Check out eWEEK.com's Careers
Center for the latest news, analysis and commentary on careers for
IT professionals.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2227935,00.asp
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