Tactics to Save IT Jobs in Tough Times

Contributed by timsamoff

In a recent CIO.com article entitled “Why IT Leaders Shouldn’t Cut Staff” the Denise Dubie discussed the impact of loosing embedded knowledge and skill.

While I agree with Denise that this is a significant risk I also believe that CIO and other IT executives need to be creative in trying times express the value of their staff in different ways. The argument of embedded knowledge only goes so far when cuts may be deep. Interestingly in the same article a Gartner survey of 1,527 CIOs indicated that 72% believe they have the wrong people or not enough of the right people.

While there are number of strategies a CIO could take the environment is likely to change radically in difficult economic times because of new cost and pricing pressures. A couple approaches for CIOs looking to save jobs should consider the following:

• Be willing to make cuts were there isn’t a fit. If you believe you have the wrong people be willing to make some cuts to save the right people. Other departments will be offering up headcount reductions and a wise CIO will need to make certain that they identify any long term gaps in skill and need.
• Review your service offering based on the operational changes that will likely occur in the business. For example, if the company currently operating three shifts and requires 24 hour support but as times get lean make cuts to one or two shifts address the need for 24 hours support and service.
• Redirect resources from long term projects to short term cost savings and automation projects. Since cash flow will likely become tight focus on fast return items and high impact automation that will enable others to make appropriate cuts.
• Become more communicative about the work your department is doing and make sure you can express the value. Since you will likely find that new work may arise as a result of customers or suppliers trying to cut costs (i.e. new pricing and invoicing models as well as more frequent data requests) make sure you can explain the changes that will occur in the demands to your staff.
• Be prepared to express the cost impact of business decision that are going to be made since many executives may not understand the true cost of some technologies. During tough financial times IT executives need to be a partner to the business who can enable the cost reductions others need to make and ensure the business isn’t making invalid assumptions (i.e. thinking that fixed and contracted cost like cell service or software license fees go away when an employee goes away).

The reality is most organizations going thought difficult financial times are looking to cut cost, not people. If IT executives can demonstrate their ability to reduce cost with the staff they have the likelihood of saving jobs is much greater than an executive who doesn’t waiver in the changing environment.

Technorati Tags: CIO, cost reduction, Management, Managment, recession

Related posts:

1. Choosing the Right Lighting Options to Save Money   [caption id=”" align=”alignright” width=”333″ caption=”Contributed under creative commons license…
2. Follow-up Ensures Customer Satisfaction Even If You’re Not a Salesman   [caption id=”" align=”alignright” width=”350″ caption=”Contributed under Creative Commons by…