One CIO's Strategy for Winning the IT Talent Wars

The IT talent wars are alive and well in Utah. About two years ago, our local CIO association did an analysis of the supply and demand of IT skills in the Salt Lake City area. Between the organic IT growth in our member companies and the hiring plans of the firms that were moving to the area, we figured we were between 3000 and 5000 IT people short over the next five years.

That is right. 3000 to 5000 short. This is not a shortage that is coming -- it is already here. I don’t want or need just any IT talent; I want the best. In order to keep myself and my team competitive in these talent wars, at WGU we do things like:

• Before we interview a job candidate, we have the approvals and paperwork done so that, if we like the candidate and he likes us, we can make an immediate job offer. Otherwise, the candidate might take one of the other offers he has received. If the candidate has a spark of interest about the work we are doing, I want that spark to become a fire by closing the interview with an offer. In practice, this means I have had to break some of our normal human resources / recruiting practices.

• We have built an effective internship program with local universities. We aggressively reach out to students in the year prior to their graduation and hire them as interns. If we like them and they like us, we keep them on as part-time employees through the school year (and give them incredibly flexible schedules). We then offer them jobs. This is a great way to try-before-we-buy and lock up the talent pipeline.

But one of the best ways to win the talent wars is to make sure that everyone in my department wants to stay here. We put a lot of effort into making sure that we are a fantastic place to work. This takes a very comprehensive approach that includes:

• Make sure the work is meaningful. Smart, talented people like to do interesting work. We link every project we do to one of the university’s goals so that everyone knows why we are doing what we are doing. We actively look for ways to shift to someone else the boring, mundane, uninteresting work. If anyone on my team is doing repetitive tasks like user or password administration, we automate the tasks away. If we have orphan systems that someone must support, we find ways to decommission the system. And, to give my team context for why our work matters, I regularly hold all-staff meetings and invite one of our internal customers to talk to the entire IT group about how our work helps their department succeed.

• Trust people to do their work. One of the most demoralizing and frustrating situations anyone can have is to work for a micromanager. How can we expect to attract and retain skilled staff if we then mandate how to do their work? At its core, micromanagement is about control – which is the opposite of trust. We take a strong “trust first” approach. We assume that everyone wants to do great work and our job is to stay out of their way. I learned a long time ago that no one should ever need permission to do the right thing. This trust shows up in numerous ways. We use what we call an Anytime / Anywhere work scheduling system. As long as you deliver the results, I don’t care when you work or where you work. If you need a day off, work it out with your team – you don’t need my permission to do the right thing for yourself either.

• Give ownership to individuals and teams. Part of trusting others is that they will take responsibility for and own the results. This combination of trust and ownership is powerful in driving energy, innovation, performance, and loyalty.

• Invest in personal development. I never stand in the way of anyone who wants to get trained. The cost of a quality training program is tiny compared to the value of a loyal, motivated, more skilled employee. I take the same approach with conference attendance. I know that I learn massive amounts when I participate in a CIO conference. Why would I think it will not be the same anyone on my team?

• Be good at the business of IT. We spend time developing and improving our IT practices. I want my team to be confident in their execution skills. Every couple of weeks, we hold informal training sessions – whoever is interested in the topic can attend. Our topics have included Agile methods, motivation, risk management, lean IT, and customer service. Someone volunteers both the topic and to lead the discussion. This builds both our skills and our connections with each other.

• Express sincere gratitude. A little recognition goes a long way. Especially when that recognition comes from the big boss. I want to express that gratitude to the lowest levels of the organization. Between managing my non-IT relationships and my involvement with my direct staff, I do not spend that much time with the people who really make IT work – the service desk agents, the project managers, the business analysts, the junior and mid-level developers. It does not take that much time or effort to send a note or walk to someone’s cube to thank them for their work.

• Know about the big events in people’s lives. The father of one of my software developers unexpectedly died. It took about two hours out of my life to attend the funeral. When the developer saw me at the service, he came to me and said, “I cannot believe you are here.” Where else would I be at this important point in his life? My simple expression of concern and support cemented a relationship that I expect will last a long time, independent of how much we actually ever work together. I suppose what I am really trying to say is – honestly care.

It seems to me that as leaders, our job should be to make work a place where people want to be, not where they have to be. We do that by trusting, making the work meaningful, giving ownership, and caring about the people and their development.

We have a long way to go but, with a conscious effort, I think we are starting to win enough of the battles that we might survive the talent wars.