This is the second installment of a two-part series. Read Part 1 here.
The IT landscape is evolving fast and one of the best strategies for organizations to keep culture on track is to continuously reinforce the IT/business connection by encouraging teams to partner and focus on business goals. In part one of this series, we shared three keys to unlock world-class culture: articulating your message, encouraging participation, and investing in your people.
These focus areas set the stage to build effective teams and provide challenging career opportunities. How can you ensure your culture is working for you and getting the right results?
Emphasize team building. Acquire and grow talent through interdepartmental teams.
- Commit to professional development so you have time to recruit from within and train employees from other areas when an initiative provides opportunity.
- Leverage internships to tap into bright game-changers with new perspectives around usability, innovation for applications and technology – disruption is good!
- Bump up the bonus structure for employees who successfully recruit new talent.
- Capitalize on Agile techniques to broaden job responsibilities. Dev Ops can be an open recruiting and training area for employees who want to broaden their base even if they stay in their existing department.
Support career growth: Retain high-potential talent by providing maximum growth opportunities.
- Ensure that new employees are on-boarded, have clear role definition, are trained and have a mentor. Identify and manage poor fits quickly and fairly.
- Allow rotations into and out of IT to reinforce the value of business experience.
- Give feedback and career coaching regularly to ensure employees are developing, have a plan and know their value.
- Insist on regular training, development and new experiences, and provide the time and space for it. Set up a training sabbatical structure every few years if budget allows.
A world-class culture is one of the most effective recruiting tools you can have because the best ambassadors are your employees. Be sure to reward behavior that aligns with company values and recognize results that support the business strategies and culture. Gartner reports that as digitalization expands beyond IT into more areas of business, demand for people with specialized technology skills will continue to increase. Competing for talent is expected to get more intense. As the battle for talent escalates, companies must focus on culture and opportunities to recruit great candidates and retain top performers.
To assist with your talent quest, be sure to check out Merritt College Cybersecurity Career Day on Nov. 2. The event will offer CISOand Instructor panels, as well as a keynote address from Cisco’s Chief Privacy Officer Michelle Dennedy.
StrataFusion clients span just about every industry, and we hear from them frequently asking for assessments and benchmarks so they can compare their performance, cost, or compliance information with similar companies. While business overall is relying on data and insights more than ever, benchmarking information can be scarce for mid-sized companies.
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