Last week my report “Field Research Summary: The Changing IT Career” was published on Gartner.com. This report summarizes the findings from our field research project focused on how goals, expectations and trends are affecting IT careers from the practitioner’s point of view. This field research incorporated both a Gartner Research Circle survey and in-depth interviews with Gartner clients and nonclients in 4Q12. It represents the perspective of middle management and practitioners from 29 countries.
This report sheds light on these important questions:
- What are the new realities for IT?
- Why is it necessary to create a participative workforce and a new form of effectiveness?
- How should the way we manage, hire and engage staff change?
The data illustrates that the new reality for IT is a very different way in which organizations approach, discuss and cocreate business solutions where technology is just a component of the discussion about business change. IT practitioners and managers know that this requires a participative workforce, but they also know it cannot emerge without attention to nontechnical skills, new hiring and management practices, as well as renewed efforts to eliminate dysfunctional and undermining behaviors, some of which include:
- Broken job titles, descriptions, postings and hiring
- Ignoring the emotional connection with employees
- Lacking collaboration and silo effectiveness
- Talking a good game but not helping people change
- Not freeing people from day-to-day demands so that they can change
The report highlights that many organizations are failing to adapt to the new IT realities, but it also discusses how some are making progress reshaping their IT workforces. These organizations are implementing practices for individuals and managers that engage workers in a new game. And possibly the best news of all, almost all the things organizations can do to address the new realities are zero cost — they just take the resolve to do things differently.
If you are a Gartner client, this new report is available on Gartner.com. If not, this webinar provides an overview of the findings.
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