ebook the cio guide to hiring staff

The CIO’s Guideto Hiring an IT Staff

an IT Management eBook

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contentsThis content was adapted from EarthWeb'sDatamation, IT Career Planet and CIO UpdateWeb sites. Contributors: Katherine Spencer Lee,Rob Enderle and Joe Santana.

The CIO’s Guide to Hiring an IT Staff, An Internet.com IT Management eBook.© 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.

4 Subtle Recruitment StrategiesThat Get ResultsKatherine Spencer Lee

6 Recruiting Entry-Level Talentin Today’s MarketKatherine Spencer Lee

8 Hiring IT Staff: Learningfrom Google’s MistakesRob Enderle

12 Fully Engaging YourTop TalentJoe Santana

The CIO’s Guide to Hiring an IT Staff[ ]

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If recent staffing surveys are correct, then IT hiring is a sell-ers market. In response, CIOs and their HR counterpartshave to get more creative in their search for new talent.

To help with this challenge, Samuel Bright, a researchanalyst at Forrester, released a report that details newways of finding and hiring soughtafter IT pros.

In his report Bright writes thatrecruiting in a tight talent marketrequires CIOs to shift their thinkingabout recruiting and broaden theplaces they look for talent. As partof this process, executives should:

Stop searching for a silver bulletsolution. As talent becomes hard-er to find, many executives search-ing for a recruiting panacea aremisjudging the level of effortrequired to attract and retain can-didates in today's environment.

IT leaders must quit treatingemployment in IT as a great honorthat others should instinctively understand.Competition for talent is scrappy and the most creative,tightly messaged, culturally aligned, people-focused ITorganization will win in terms both of attracting talentand of retaining it over the long term.

Take charge of IT's recruiting destiny. Just as manyexecutives who have recognized the complexity anduniqueness of technology purchasing have focused onvendor management, those who recognize this sametheme in recruiting should focus on talent managementas core to overall IT strategy.

Tech executives cannot afford toentrust their talent needs solelyto HR and staffing firms.Although these organizationsplay important roles in therecruiting process, CIOs mustbecome more directly involvedin reaching college students,networking with current IT pro-fessionals, and marketing ITcareers to business professionals.

Approach recruiting from aglobal perspective. Leaders ofmultinational enterprise IT organ-izations need to think globallyand act locally during workforceplanning. As part of this process,they need to assess proficien-

cies, training demand, forecasted need, and the strate-gic importance of the skills possessed by their employ-ee base in each region.

Based on the output of this skills assessment, they can

2 The CIO’s Guide to Hiring an IT Staff, An Internet.com IT Management eBook. © 2008, Jupitermedia Corp.


The CIO’s Guide toHiring an IT Staff

Tech executives cannot afford to entrust their talentneeds solely to HR and staffing firms.

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prioritize their skill needs by locale and survey specificgeographies to determine the availability of their high-priority skill sets. This process provides better inputs fordeciding where to open new offices with IT staff.

Identify enterprise IT's brand. Reaching the passivemajority of current IT and business professionalsrequires branding to communicate IT's cultural differen-tiators and spur interest in pursuing careers in enter-prise IT. Similarly, college students and their influencers

react to a strong enterprise IT brand that entices themto pursue education in IT and assures them of careerprospects in an enterprise IT organization after gradua-tion.

CIOs need to identify IT's cultural differentiators anddistill them into a brand and associated messaging thatcan be used to reach these audiences. �



Bill Gates' testimony before the Senate in the spring of2007 requesting support to allow IT staff from foreigncountries to work in the United States reinforced what

many technology executives have already recognized: It canbe very challenging to recruit skilled talent in the currentmarket.

A survey of CIOs by Robert Half Technology found thatit takes an average of 56 daysto fill a staff-level IT positionand 87 days to bring a newmanager on board.

As companies vie for themost qualified candidates,"How can our firm attracttechnology professionals?"has become the million-dollarquestion. Certainly, makingsure your compensation andbenefits package is competi-tive is a good start. But totruly enhance your recruit-ment tactics, you may need to broaden the scope ofyour efforts beyond money and perks.

Applicants will begin making judgments about yourorganization before they even submit an application.The overall impression they have of your firm can meanthe difference between someone who is enthusiasticabout joining your team and someone who writes off

the opportunity altogether.

Here are some strategies that can help tip the scales inyour favor:

Build Industry BuzzDraw candidates to your company by making it a placepeople want to work. If your business isn't a household

name, do your part todevelop recognition in thecommunity.

IT professionals seek to be apart of organizations theyrespect, particularly thosedoing interesting work.Speak to a local user-groupmeeting about your experi-ence with a particular tech-nology or talk to an IT asso-ciation about a key projectyour department completedlast year. Writing articles for

technology publications, websites or professionalgroups also can build interest in your firm as a prospec-tive employer.

If your company has a public relations or marketingteam, tap into their expertise. Get the word outthrough the media about unique endeavors your



Subtle Recruitment StrategiesThat Get Results

By Katherine Spencer Lee

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A survey of CIOs by Robert Half Technology found that it takes an average of 56 days tofill a staff-level IT position and 87 days to bring a new manager on board.

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department may be engaged in. For instance, if yourcompany is the first in its industry to use a new technol-ogy, you could offer to be profiled during the imple-mentation process. You'll help to put your company inthe spotlight.

Consider the SurroundingsOnce you've drawn candidates to your firm, make sureyou're ready to conduct the resulting employmentinterviews. That means more thanpreparing interview questions aheadof time.

Take an honest look at your depart-ment: What are job applicants likelyto think of it on a first visit? If peoplehave to walk by cubicles filled withold furniture and cables, desktopunits and other tech gear spilling intothe aisles, you may get a "Wow" forthe wrong reasons. Prospectiveemployees may doubt your firm'sprofessionalism, organization or abilityto get simple things done, like disposing of old moni-tors. You don't have to spend a lot of money to createan inviting work environment.

Offer a Warm GreetingMake people feel welcome when they arrive at yourcompany. Inform the receptionist of the candidate'sname and appointment time. Then do your best toadhere to the interview schedule.

A late start can be particularly troublesome to applicantswho may be missing work for the appointment, and tar-diness suggests that the interview isn't a high priority toyou. Also, re-read the person's resume before the meet-ing, so you're familiar with his or her background.

Be careful about scheduling appointments with candi-dates too close together. You don't want applicants to

feel that they're part of an assembly line of interviews.

Highlight Technology InvestmentsDuring the screening process, it's easy to get so caughtup in evaluating candidates and their potential fit withthe company that you don't adequately promote thejob opportunity.

IT professionals will have a keen interest in the tech-nologies your firm uses and any futureplans for upgrades. Candidates wantto know if they'll be stuck workingwith outdated products or whetheryour company is keeping up withtrends. So, if your firm has made orexpects to make any interesting ITinvestments, be sure to tout them toprospective employees.

Promote Your HistoryMany IT professionals either experi-enced the dot-com crash firsthand orknew colleagues who did and want to

avoid similar job loss again. They'll be looking carefullyfor any warning signs of potential problems in yourbusiness.

Having financial success and a strong track record inyour industry can be critical selling points. Talk aboutyour organization's management team and hand outprinted materials such as annual reports that reinforceyour firm's stability.

Often it's the small actions you take that can set yourcompany apart from the competition when recruiting ITprofessionals. Think beyond dollars and cents to whatyou truly can offer candidates: Why would someonewant to work for you? Playing up some of the less obvi-ous bonuses of joining your team may give you just theedge you need to secure the best employees. �



Talk about yourorganization’s

management teamand hand out printedmaterials such asannual reports thatreinforce your firm's

stability.

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Ascompetition in the field makes it more difficult tofind, afford, and retain qualifiedmid-level staff, com-panies are turning to less-experienced employees

and training them to fill more senior roles. At the same time,entry-level (or junior) talent is still needed, as has traditionallybeen the case, to fulfill basic IT responsibilities, such as trou-bleshooting computer problems, installing upgrades andcreating new user accounts.

The biggest obstacle to suc-cessfully recruiting and hiringrecent grads and other entry-level professionals is thatyou're assessing candidateswith little or no real-world(that is, non-academic) workhistory. While you may beable to look at a seasonedworker's resume and identifyrelevant skills and experiencefor your job opening, thesame isn't always true withsomeone just entering the IT field. Here are some waysyou can determine whether an entry-level applicant isright for your organization:

Look at the Track RecordEven individuals with limited or no work histories willhave some indicators that they possess the dedication

and aptitude to succeed. For instance, a high gradepoint average demonstrates a candidate has the abilityto focus, set goals, and exceed expectations.

In addition to performance at school, consider othernotable achievements. Someone who's received formalrecognition at previous employers or assumed leader-

ship roles in student groups,for example, is likely to bejust as motivated to excel inhis or her first IT job.

Give High Marksfor EnthusiasmAsk applicants what inter-ests them most about theirchosen path in technology.Why did they pursue train-ing in this field? What dothey look forward to most inthis type of work? Look for anatural excitement about

starting a career in IT.

Also take note of how well candidates have researchedyour firm and industry. You want to hire people who arenot only enthusiastic about technology, but who alsohave the same enthusiasm about joining your company.

Evaluate Prior Work Experience



Recruiting Entry-Level Talentin Today’s Market

By Katherine Spencer Lee

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Even individuals with limited or no work histories will have some indicatorsthat they possess the dedication and aptitude to succeed.

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Give extra points to candidates who made the effort topursue on-the-job work experience in IT before com-pleting their education or seeking entry-level positions.People who worked part-time jobs in school, participat-ed in internships, volunteered their IT expertise to non-profit enterprises or worked on short-term assignments,for instance, have taken proactive steps to gain practi-cal job knowledge and enhance their marketability.Membership in professional associations and worktoward certifications are other positive signs.

Even if someone has no formal work history in IT, youstill can gain useful insights by considering the individ-ual's background. Candidates should be able to explainhow skills gained in previous positions relate to yourjob opening. For example, an applicant who was awaiter in college may have learned valuable multitask-ing, problem-solving, customer-service and time-man-agement abilities, all of which are useful in any IT spe-cialty.

Ask About InitiativeIn a typical, busy IT department, you need self-starterswho, when they see something needs to get done, doit. So, be sure to ask entry-level professionals todescribe situations in which they demonstrated initia-tive. Examples could be as advanced as starting atutoring business to help fellow students strugglingwith their computer science courses or as simple asstraightening up messy shelves at a retail job. Whatmatters most is that candidates have some history of

self-motivation.

It's a Two-Way StreetFinally, don't forget that recruiting isn't just about appli-cants impressing you; you also need to impress them.Entry-level IT professionals may be evaluating multiplejob opportunities, so you need to make sure yourorganization stands out. Those just entering the IT fieldwill likely be looking for learning and advancementpossibilities, so be sure to highlight any mentoring ortraining programs as well as career paths within thecompany. Access to cutting-edge technologies also canbe a major selling point. Additionally, note attractivebenefits such as flexible work schedules, time-off poli-cies that exceed the industry average, concierge servic-es or gym memberships. Keep interest high by lettingapplicants know the timeline of your hiring process andwhen you'll be in touch next.

While you don't want to delay your ultimate decisionand risk losing top applicants, do make sure you're dili-gent when assessing entry-level candidates. Talking toreferences such as former professors or managers cangive you a better idea of whether the person's workstyle, character, and personality suit your organization.You'll make additions that not only fill critical needs inyour department today but that also help prepare yourgroup for the future. �



Google, like most companies since the 1970s, hasfocused on grades as one of the key requirementsfor hiring. As a result, it probably not only lost out on

good people, but also ended up with a lot of folks who werenot the best the company could get for a given job. Googlerecently announced they are devaluing grades in order tofocus more on personality and experience.

Google continues a heavyfocus on interviewing but hasalso cut down on the numberof interviews and forced afaster turnaround on decisionsas they attempt to grow thecompany quickly. It isn't hardto remember an earlier fast-rising company, Netscape,which went down a similarpath. And the decline of thatcompany was, at least partial-ly, attributable to the largenumbers of unqualified peo-ple that resulted.

Google is to be admired for what it is attempting. But,unlike the company's other interesting ideas (most ofwhich have worked out) they are now entering an areathat has been deeply researched, and one they tooshould spend a little time on before they catastrophi-cally break what may not be that badly broken.

Given that interviewing is known to be a very unreliableway to select employees, you would think the techindustry would apply some type of technical test toapplicants that, in a short period of time, could assessby reviewing background, education, and personality

whether they come close enough to the ideal to beworth taking a risk on.

Previous DecadesBack in the 1950s, '60s, and '70s there was a lot of workdone to do exactly that. Massive studies were used todevelop and refine tests that applicants could be giventhat would assess their capabilities and best match them

to jobs. For many of us thesetests started in high school aspart of a process to help uspick careers we would findrewarding. While relativelyunreliable at first, over timeand with experience theyincreasingly were able to helpparents work with their chil-dren to mold education plansto best match natural skills.

But the problem with testingwas that it tended to pre-serve the status quo and putsimilar people together. This

probably reduced tension and increased productivitybut it also tended to lock out ethnic diversity, whichclearly was a major problem. As a result testing wastossed out and as companies grew up they focusedlargely on big-name schools and grade point averagefor selection. This didn't solve diversity problems either,so programs to ensure diversity were implemented,which often allowed lower standards for new hires.While some of these new employees should have hadbeen offered more on-the-job training requirements,this was seldom done, and as the workforce becamemore diverse, social problems related to uneven skills



Hiring IT Staff: Learning fromGoogle’s Mistakes

by Rob Enderle

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and metrics sometimes resulted.

Grades as a MetricGrades are often a poor metric of future on the jobperformance. "A" students often get their grades bygaming the system or by working very hard largely ontheir own as opposed to collaboratively. Courses aredesigned to provide an educational framework but sel-dom focus on the very real day-to-day tasks needed bya company. In short, the scores often have little ornothing to do with the employees' actual capability andthey may not, depending on how the system wasgamed, not even have anything to do with how hardthe student actually worked.

This isn't to say grades have no value, only that they

should be taken as just one metric and that -- withoutsome due diligence -- may not even be reliable as thatone metric. If you aren't careful, if you focus on "A"students you may simply end up with a lot of employ-ees who are gaming the company and not doing muchin terms of actual productive work. You see this in firmswhere it seems that accountability is lacking, meetingsproliferate, and projects don't meet expectations ortimelines. The employees are simply reflecting the skillset they were hired with and probably are beingrewarded for.

Interviewing is UnreliableThe biggest problem with interviewing is that few aretrained to do it well and there are a lot of ways tobecome expert at being interviewed. The second isthat it is often used abusively and can either drive awaya candidate and turn them against the company orresult in resentments the candidate can carry into thejob. If interviewing is to be used reliably it needs to bemonitored, it needs to take place over a very short


The CIO’s Guide to Hiring an IT Staff[ ]Hiring theRight CIOBy Steve O'Connor

While there is pressure for today's CIOto master and stay current on com-puter technology, the more critical

skills are related to more traditional aspects ofbusiness management. As head of perhaps themost complex operation in any enterprise, theCIO is responsible for what amounts to a size-able and complete business on its own.

And so, this executive's success depends heavi-ly on skills in finance, leadership, communica-tion, strategic thinking and planning, and, per-haps most important, in understanding whatcustomers want and how best to get it to them.Technical savvy is, of course, indispensable.The CIO must understand technology and itscapabilities well enough to grasp how all of thecomputing services and products on which anenterprise depends fit and work together.Similarly, the CIO has to know enough to prop-erly evaluate the stream of new products beingpromoted by outside suppliers, and filter their(sometimes exaggerated) claims.

On top of that, business skills greatly amplifythe effectiveness and value of these technicalskills. Ideally, the CIO will have previous expe-rience in managing a large business unit andthereby developed an on-the-job understand-ing of various line-of-business functions, andthe administrative aspects of running them.

Of particular importance is financial acumen.As much as the CEO and CFO, the CIO musttruly understand the other business units inthe enterprise, each with its own goals, met-rics and end-customers. These are, after all,the CIO's direct customers. By understandingthe financial drivers of those businesses, theCIO will have a much better chance of gettingthe right mix of services acquired, developedand delivered at the right price and with maxi-mum value. Financial acumen is, in short, an

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If interviewing is to be used reliably itneeds to be monitored, it needs to takeplace over a very short period of timeand it needs to be largely done bypeople who are actually trained to

do it right.

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period of time (one or two days) and it needs to belargely done by people who are actually trained to do itright. Otherwise there is little overall value to theprocess other than allowing the candidate and inter-viewer to meet and, for that a more informal settingmight actually be more valuable.

Strong background checks are vastly more capable ofhelping determine whether an employee is a good hirebut often, in the rush, background checks are either notdone or done superficially shifting the weight of thereview to interviewing, which won't take that weight.Timing is important as well. With good backgroundinformation the trained interviewer can ask questionstailored to the candidate and, in a relatively short peri-od of time, reach a decision that is backed up by bothbackground facts and impression. Done the other wayaround, even a trained interviewer has nothing but aresume to work from and a generic question set whichwill reduce dramatically the effectiveness of theirprocess.

Google vs. MicrosoftBoth companies have had a heavy reliance on educa-tion as a foundation for their selection process, andemployees and managers in both companies are com-plaining about the predictable result: reduced produc-tivity and increased frustration.

Google is trying to fix their process by lowering thevalue of education as a metric, however there is noindication that they are providing the training neededto make interviewing more effective. Eric Schmidt'scomments that he wants to increase the standards fornew people so they are qualified for jobs two or threelevels above where they are hired may actually createmore problems than it solves. People who areoverqualified for jobs are seldom happy in them andmay focus more on getting out of the job than ondoing it right. More important: can you imagine howhard it would be to lead a group of folks that thoughtthey were better qualified for the boss's job than theactual boss is?

The underlying problem is that too few people haveactually studied HR from a behavioral standpoint. Thatgoes back to the loss of testing, because it was testingthat drove this line of thinking. And once it died, HRlargely became a compliance organization with little


The CIO’s Guide to Hiring an IT Staff[ ]Hiring the Right CIOcontinued

absolute must for getting IT truly "aligned"with the business as a whole.

Unfortunately, many CIOs have come upthrough the ranks of computing and MIS with-out learning how to manage a full operatingbusiness. While fellow executives may beexposed to a range of other business functionsover the course of their professional develop-ment, the typical IT executive may be confinedto the somewhat narrow, albeit difficult andcomplex, world of IT. And, in the CIO post, theresulting skills deficit may suddenly becomeglaring.

IT's increasing importance is bound to makethis mismatch even more glaring. Take thegrowing emphasis on customer experience, forinstance the drive to make every interactionwith customers as frictionless, distinctive, andcompelling as possible. These days, with theWeb, mobile devices, and automated call cen-ters, and all such critical touch-points IT prettymuch is the front office.

IT is critical to finance, product development,and manufacturing. Through technologies likeCRM, IT is reshaping the sales process as well.Clearly, the CIO who doesn't understand theseaspects of the business is the CIO who's likelyto have trouble keeping IT "aligned" with thatbusiness.

Solving this problem is not as easy as just hir-ing a seasoned businessperson instead of acareer technologist as CIO. Should such a per-son fail to learn and stay abreast of IT's fast-changing landscape, he or she will likely beunable to gain the respect and loyalty of ITmanagers, thereby limiting IT's effectivenessin delivering value to other business units.

The first step in hiring the right CIO is to focuson identifying the precise set of skills that willbe required to be successful in this role. Then,all executives in the organization must agreeon this set so that as each one interviews a

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ability or authority to focus on actual hiring quality.

One of the lessons here, and one Netscape learnedrather dramatically, is that learning on the job -- particu-larly when it comes to something as critical as staffingquality -- can be an incredibly costly practice. While weadmire Google for trying to do something about aproblem that is clearly endemic to the technologyindustry, given that they are a search organization wewould suggest they actually research the problem firstbefore making decisions that could turn their high fly-ing company into the next Netscape.

In this end, this is what you should take away from this:People truly are your most important asset. If you don'tselect them properly, train them adequately, and assurea good match between their skills and the job they areactually being asked to do, the end result won't begood for your company. And while you may be able tododge the problem yourself for a while, in many casesit probably will come back to haunt you as well.

One rule I've generally found to be true is that if youtake care of your people they will take care of you. Ifyou don't, the same words apply but "take care"takes on a completely different, and very negative,meaning. �


The CIO’s Guide to Hiring an IT Staff[ ]Hiring the Right CIOcontinued

candidate he or she can evaluate them againsta common set of criteria.

One possible source of candidates might besenior management at a technical servicescompany, or perhaps a chief operating officeror general manager of a large business unit.The CIO's job has come to resemble that of asupply-chain manager in such a firm as theyboth struggle to match multiple, shiftingsources of supply against complex and ever-changing customer demand.

Both call for a solid grasp of product develop-ment, customer delivery, and other operationalissues. Both require some understanding ofthe financial drivers affecting suppliers andcustomers. Executives from technical servicescompanies are familiar with this way of think-ing and they're used to putting together effec-tive portfolios of services. What's more, they'reused to talking to customers.

It may not be possible to find people matchingexactly this set of criteria. But it's important tobe clear with whoever is hired that this set ofskills is what's expected of him or her. And it'sagainst these expectations that they will bejudged. As a result, when any missing skills orcompetencies are identified a developmentplan must be quickly put in place. This mighttake the form of professional developmentcourses, or perhaps mentoring from fellowline-of-business executives. Any variable com-pensation should be tied to this personal devel-opment. �

Engagement is defined as a state of full-strength,enthusiastic dedication to work in which an employeeis passionately connected to her or his job. Another

way of saying this is that engaged employees are theiremployers’ raving fans.

Engaged employees, according to studies, are not onlyhighly productive in their workplace, they are also verylikely to stay with your organization. Given the recentpress that talks about lowmorale in IT, I decided to run asurvey of my own. Through mynetwork of global and U.S.-based IT professionals, I askedparticipants, among otherthings, to rate their levels ofsatisfaction with their jobs. Notsurprising, only 9 percent indi-cated the high-level of satisfac-tion associated with fullengagement.

For IT leaders, these results area cause for concern.Specifically, because poor lev-els of engagement result in:

• Low team productivity• Less then top quality output• Less than optimal care for customer needs

• Higher likelihood that your best people will leave• On the job retirement for many of the employeesthat do stay

• In our Internet connected world, bad press that canspread very quickly at the grassroots level andmake it difficult for you to recruit top talent

Considering the pressure on today's IT leaders to pro-duce more in terms of quantity and quality of services,

anything short of the ability torecruit and retain an"engaged team" of top talentpresents a big problem.The challenge for leaders is todetermine how to make theirteams and organizations moreengaging, which in turn leadsto being considered whatsome refer to as an employerof choice in their market.

AddressingEngagementSo what is the path toward

becoming an employer of choice? Many organizationsrun annual employee satisfaction surveys designed todetermine what people dislike and like about theorganization. Next, they zero in any reasons foremployee dissatisfaction and develop action plans for



Fully Engaging Your Top TalentBy Joe Santana

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Engaged employees, according to studies, are not only highly productive in theirworkplace, they are also very likely to stay with your organization.

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addressing these dissatisfying factors.

The logic is that by removing the reasons for employeedissatisfaction, employees will be satisfied and theorganization will become an employer of choice. Thefact of the matter is that studies show that employeesatisfaction does not spontaneously come into exis-tence as a result of the systematic removal of causes ofdissatisfaction.

Furthermore, becoming an employer of choice takes alot more than just having satisfied employees. The truekey is having engaged employees that are completely,passionately and enthusiastically dedicated to yourorganization as a result of your having an engagingenvironment.

Please don't misunderstand. Not addressing causes ofdissatisfaction such as lack of training and low compen-sation will indeed keep you from becoming an employ-er of choice. The point is that addressing only thesebasic "hygiene" factors won't get you to the requiredlevel of engagement you need.

So, what do leaders and companies need to focus onin addition to removing causes of dissatisfaction inorder to achieve the required state of employeeengagement that we are talking about here?

Leigh Branham, founder and CEO of Keeping thePeople, Inc., a company based out of Kansas City thathelps companies create and implement employer ofchoice strategies as well as the author of The 7 HiddenReasons Employees Leave, uncovered seven key areasthat need to be effectively addressed in order for lead-ers to attain the level of dedication and loyalty associat-ed with engagement.

Specifically, these are:• A job or workplace that is exactly what theemployee expected when she or he was hired

• A job that makes the best use of the employee'snatural talents

• An environment where leaders and managersprovide an adequate amount of coaching andfeedback

• A workplace that offers growth and advancementopportunities

• Leaders and managers that make employees feelhighly valued and recognized.

• A workload that is balanced and enablesemployees to enjoy both their job and personal life

• Senior leadership this is trustworthy and inspiresconfidence

Before developing a strategy to increase your team ororganizations level of engagement, however, you needto ask yourself a few basic questions: Are you gettinghigh-marks on the general satisfaction surveys? If notwhat actions are you taking to address your basic"hygiene" items? If your company has annual employ-ee satisfaction surveys, you can easily get a copy of thelast report to tell you where improvement might beneeded in order to remove causes of dissatisfaction.Once this is done, the next question is where doesyour team stand relative to the key factors that gobeyond satisfaction and drive engagement?

Where Do You Stand?I invite you to use the survey questions shown below toassess your present situation relative to engagement.Accompanied by a short note explaining your apprecia-tion for their feedback, ask your team to rate the sevenstatements below as follows: 1= Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3= Slightly Disagree, 4=Slightly Agree, 5=Agree or 6=Strongly Agree.

• My job/workplace is exactly what I expected it tobe when I was hired

• My job is well matched to my talents and enablesme to excel and enjoy my work

• I get an adequate amount of coaching and feedback

• My workplace offers me growth and advancementopportunities

• I feel valued and recognized in my workplace• My workload is balanced and enables me to enjoyboth my job and my personal life

• I have trust and confidence in my senior leadership

Combine the results of this exercise with the feedbackcollected in your corporate employee satisfaction sur-vey to gain a better picture of where you currentlystand. I also invite you to compare your results with theresponses given by the participants in my survey.

Since the war for talent is heating up, it is prudent forIT leaders to take steps now to retain their top teammembers and to become the kind of environment that



attracts and holds on to more of the best people.

How did you do in the engagement survey? Would yousay that based on those results your IT team is currentlyan "employer of choice for top talent?"

The good news is that, regardless of your results, if youare a manager of individual contributors or other man-agers, you will find the following tips of value to you inyour quest to fully engage your top talent.

While this is by no means an exhaustive list, here are afew specific things you can do to set the foundation forincreasing your positive score in each of the keyengagement areas:

Strive to paint a true picture of your workplace to can-didates and never stop recruiting. Did you know that40 percent of turnover happens in the first six months,and that the primary cause is that the job was not whatthe employee expected when they were hired?

After that, some of the top reasons for talented peopleleaving an organization after a few years include asense that they are being taken for granted or that theorganization no longer cares.

Let's start by focusing on ways to improve the matchbetween what your workplace offers and what newhires expect.

One way to do this is by being very honest in yourrecruiting process. It is good to sell your company, butmake sure that the sell is based on value propositionsthat you can and plan to deliver.

Remember that your new-hire orientation is an exten-sion of your recruiting effort. While giving your new hireinformation about your company, make sure that youare also building relationships and reinforcing theirdecision to join your team. As their manager, youshould be personally involved in a large part of the ori-entation process.

Make sure you circle back to your new hires after 90days and 180 days to find out if their experience todate matches what they expected. Listen carefully andeither adjust the environment or change what you aretelling people when you hire them.

Don't fit people into jobs; instead wrap jobs around tal-ented people. Unfortunately, what some managers dois akin to hiring a chicken, telling them that the goal isto get to the top branch of a tree, pointing to a squirrelas the exemplar employee and asking the chicken toclimb to the top like the "star" squirrel.

A better way is to tell the chicken the goal is to get tothe top branch and let the chicken get there through away that is more aligned with its abilities, (namely flyingand hopping).

The bottom line is that as a manager, you do best byfocusing on the results you need and providing theemployee the freedom to choose how to achieve theresults using their natural talents.

Become a more flexible manager. Some managers willboast about how they always manage everyone thesame way. This is usually stated so as to convey the fair-ness and even-handedness of the manager. The fact is,however, that managers are most effective and engag-ing when they manage employees "situationally."

For example, under a variety of circumstances, anyemployee will require the manager to play any one orcombination of teacher - someone who providesinstruction and/or directions on how to get somethingdone and/or coach - someone to provide feedback,support and/or encouragement toward higher levels ofself-confidence and performance.

Depending on the tasks they are working on and theemployee's level of mastery, a manager needs to adjusther or his "management mix" and style in order to pro-vide each employee with what they need to succeed.

Managers therefore need to master more than onemanagement style and develop the perceptiveness toknow when to use which approach.

Find out where your team members want to go withtheir careers and help them get there. In almost everyemployee survey conducted, growth and advancementtop the list of what employees most want.

The key to responding to this challenge is to expandthe career discussion and plan beyond the confines ofyour organization. In other words, if the next most prac-



tical move for a person is outside your organization,don't shy away from that fact. Recognize it and providethem with the opportunity to contribute to your organi-zation while building the skills they need to realize theirnext role - even if it is outside your company.

Not only will your people continue to be engagedwhile working for you with a clear view to their future,some of them may return with an even broader portfo-lio of skills.

Do not let the smallest good deeds go unrecognizedor without reward. We humans respond favorably topraise and recognition. Unfortunately, IT managersseem to be a bit stingy with feedback. In a survey Iconducted only 40 percent of the respondents felt theyreceived any form of feedback at all. Of these, only twopercent felt strongly positive about the quality of feed-back.

Giving reinforcing praise and feedback is a low-cost,high-return practice. With a little effort, we can quicklyproduce big results.

Focus work activities to produce top results and reducethe fruitless consumption of time. Everyone today feelsthe crunch of the ever-accelerating business pace. Onething that often adds insult to injury is when talent andtime are squandered by managers who do not priori-tize and thus end up throwing mountains of unpriori-tized work at employees.

The advices, therefore, is identifying profitable actionsand create sustainable balanced workloads that enableemployees to enjoy both their jobs and personal lives.Communicate honestly. Not long ago, I entered a post-ing on my blog that referenced an article by an authorwho claimed that ethics had no place in the IT organi-zation. In fact, the author advocated lying to subordi-nates if needed in order to produce results.

The outrage in the notes that poured in as responseswas clear as a bell. Nothing will disengage peoplemore than the loss of trust and respect that result fromthe realization (or suspicion) that their managers arelying and/or deceiving them.

The common thread in all of these suggestions is thateffective management practice involves managers car-ing and showing they care about their direct reports,which in turn results in their direct reports caring aboutthe manager and the business.

So, the bottom line is that if you want to get beyondmere retention and get to loyalty, you must first be atruly caring manager. Such simple wisdom provides themost powerful tool for helping us reach success aseffective managers. �

This content was adapted from EarthWeb'sDatamation, IT Career Planet and CIO Update Websites. Contributors: Katherine Spencer Lee, Rob Enderleand Joe Santana .



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