Hay Group CIO Survey

IT Poised for a Recovery in 2010

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Staffing levels in IT will remain the same in 2010 as they are now according to a recent survey conducted by Hay Group, the global management consulting firm. Sixty-nine percent of CIOs said their staffing levels will be unchanged in 2010, indicating a ‘bottoming out’ of staff reductions in IT. “Combined with the fact that IT operating budgets are stabilizing means we appear to be coming to the end of a very rough period for IT leadership” said Vincent Milich, Hay Group’s Director of IT Effectiveness.

“This requires a different type of IT professional – with different competencies and a different self image”

The web-based survey was conducted in October 2009 with 41 CIOs and IT Executives which addressed business and human resource planning issues for 2010.

When asked what their greatest skills/knowledge gaps are in their organization, fully half of the CIOs cited ‘knowledge of the business’ followed by a third citing ‘technical skill.’ This is quite a turnaround from recent Hay Group surveys that cited project management and people management skills as the top two skill gaps.

“This signifies an ongoing and significant shift in the profession,” according to Milich. “As IT continues to get closer to the business, and packages and vendor solutions require less in-house support, the unique contribution that the IT professional needs to make will be based on their understanding of their industry and organization, and how IT can add value to their business.”

“This requires a different type of IT professional – with different competencies and a different self image,” says Milich. “In the future, the career options that will have a real impact will be increasingly tied to your industry and business accomplishments as opposed to your area of technical skill.”

A key human resource challenge for CIOs is the attraction and retention of top talent. Even in the current economy, finding and keeping the best is still a challenge. Fifty-four percent of the CIOs felt that providing interesting and challenging work to do is the key to attracting top talent; while twenty-three percent felt that providing good work/life balance was where they needed to focus. Interestingly, having an ‘effective reward system’ ranked very low as an attraction/retention strategy with only eight percent of the respondents selecting it as their first choice.

“Paying competitively is critical, obviously,” says Milich. “But the much less costly things you can do to attract and retain the best people is focusing on their development, assigning key projects and visible opportunities strategically, providing robust individual contributor career paths, and tailoring your non-monetary rewards to the unique needs and interests of your employee population.”

About Hay Group

Hay Group is a global management consulting firm that works with leaders to transform strategy into reality. We develop talent, organize people to be more effective and motivate them to perform at their best. Our focus is on making change happen and helping people and organizations realize their potential. Visit www.haygroup.com. To arrange for an interview with Vincent Milich, please contact Mitch Kent at [e-mail]; 215 861 2315.