21 Nov Six creative ways to retain IT talent
It’s no longer enough to offer a great position and salary package to talented IT professionals. These days, organizations must do much more to keep talent in today’s IT job market. The Enterprisers Project asked six top IT executives what creative steps they’re taking to retain technology talent. Here’s what they said:
1. REVERSE MENTOR YOUNG TALENT
“I’ve had two Millennial mentors in the last four years or so, and I’ve found the relationships so valuable that I’ve arranged for my entire C-Suite to have their own “reverse mentors.” These mentors are a melting pot of young professionals from the IT function. And while my younger mentor helps keep me posted on technology trends, the other young mentors help C-Suite executives by solving any of their IT problems and teaching them shortcuts and tools that can help them do their jobs more efficiently. … But perhaps the biggest benefit is that it gives this younger generation more exposure to senior leadership, which they love. They enjoy walking into the offices of the CFO and CMO as if they’re buddies. Further, by empowering them, these young professionals truly feel part of the organization, which is one of the best tools for retaining them.” – Venki Rao, Chief Information Officer, GE Digital Energy
2. HELP BUILD THEIR LEADERSHIP SKILLS
“We train recruits to be better leaders. After we hire talented college grads, we help hone their technical and leadership skills through our Technology Leadership Program (TLP). Select new hires, as well as existing employees with demonstrated leadership skills, go through the 24-month training and rotational development program to receive ongoing technical and professional training. Participants are placed in three rotating positions, where they work with seasoned professionals across our IT division. The program gives recent grads on-the-job experience and helps define their goals for the future at Vanguard, which helps ensure we’re setting them up for success from day one.” – John Marcante, Chief Information Officer, Vanguard
3. ENCOURAGE INTERNAL COLLABORATION
“Once your new employee is on the job, you have to provide onboarding, initial training, and a clear sense of their job responsibilities. To make someone feel truly productive and connected, however, you’ve also got to integrate that person into your company’s business strategy. … We encourage our associates to engage and interact using our collaboration tools and to speak to the whole company. Often our newest hires have a unique perspective that others wouldn’t, so I encourage them to provide input, not just on IT issues but broadly across the company. We try to reinforce that in IT by having ongoing discussions via our internal collaboration tools about the nature of our business, how it’s changing, and what our challenges and opportunities are.” – Lee Congdon, CIO, Red Hat