Running an IT department has its challenges. Here are the biggest problems (and solutions) chief information officers face.
Few other departments face as much pressure as the IT team. After all, the entire company’s business operations and infrastructure isn’t reliant on marketing. It’s up to the IT department to be proactive and stop technological difficulties before they happen, with contingency plans in place just in case disaster strikes. From the unexpected, like cyberattacks, to chronic talent retention issues, here are the top eight CIO challenges in IT.
1. Talent Retention and Recruitment
A majority of CIOs face steep competition for tech talent and fear being able to hold on to the workers they have. Even with an influx of IT professionals from three million today to an expected six million by 2032, companies can’t afford high turnover and the cost of training new employees.
Job dissatisfaction, poor work-life balance, few opportunities for advancement, and compensation are why IT professionals may leave a role. These factors, plus burnout from a demanding job, place a financial strain on organizations.
The Solution: Staff Augmentation for the Short (or Long) Term
While it may be impossible to prevent turnover, as proven by younger workers in the Big Quit of 2023, one way to help minimize it is to augment internal IT teams with external support. Additional support can be a proactive measure to prevent turnover or used to mitigate its impact on remaining team members when it does happen. Supplemental IT support tech companies allow employees to offload tasks that create dissatisfaction with their role and lower morale.
Companies must spend a little money augmenting their current IT teams or stand to lose a lot more due to turnover.
⚠️ According to LinkedIn, replacing an employee costs as much as nine months of their salary.
2. Employee Workload
IT teams are faced with supporting many more remote employees following the COVID-19 pandemic. CIOs learned to navigate sudden, unprecedented challenges and adapt to a new way of working. COVID-19 fast-tracked the remote workplace movement and intensified tech industry workloads already coping with an uptick in cybercrime and ongoing evolutions in the technology industry, including artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things.
IT workers reported unsustainable stress levels due to the demands of supporting an increasingly distributed workforce.
The Solution: Scalable Supplemental IT Support
Supplemental support on an ongoing basis allows companies to respond promptly to demand.
- Internet of Things. Employees utilize multiple devices and applications daily, ranging from personal machines to company-owned assets. Supplemental IT support can streamline device setup.
- Location. Relocating IT during an office move is no easy feat. On-demand supplemental IT support can assist with setting up and managing temporary or permanent locations.
- Unexpected events. Natural disasters, data breaches, and outages can all disrupt a location’s productivity. When teams are temporarily displaced or unavailable, supplemental IT support allows for a fast response and solutions that return results.
Investing in scalable supplemental IT support can help fill in the gaps for IT teams regardless of how IT needs ebb and flow for an organization.
3. Lack of Growth and Skills Gaps
In an industry that changes as quickly as information technology, it’s easy for established IT workers to fall behind in skill development, restricting their ability to advance in their careers. A lack of advancement opportunities can lead to a higher turnover rate as employees go to a company that promises career advancement and all of the perks that come with it.
The result?
Companies lose valuable employees, creating even more skill gaps within IT teams. Given the rapid development of digital technologies, plan for those inevitable skill gaps and provide employees with opportunities to fill them. You’ll avoid more problems and expenses down the road.
The Solution: IT Support During Employee Upskilling
It’s essential to fill skill gaps within your department. The best way to do that is to provide upskilling opportunities to those interested in advancement and new skills. While that is underway, supplemental IT services maintain day-to-day operations. While they can certainly be a long-term solution to the issue (and often are), utilizing these external IT professionals in the short term while employees grow into a new role can minimize the risks of widening those gaps due to employees leaving for organizations that can offer what yours isn’t.
4. Constraints on Resources and Budget
Pre-COVID, a robust IT budget was an unnecessary luxury in a strong economy and companies could get by on legacy systems. Today, it is a strategic necessity for the outlook of the organization. Companies are increasing their IT budgets by an average of 5%, according to consulting firm Avasant. When organizations fail to keep up with technological advancements, the result is a dangerous and costly decrease in revenue, a drop in morale, and a rise in turnover.
The Solution: IT Support that Spans Multiple Sites
While it may seem counterintuitive to spend money on supplemental IT support to save money, consider this example:
A company only has a few computer desktop support professionals, systems, and network engineers. These employees are on-call to respond to emergencies or security breaches. Shuttling personnel from site to site has the upfront costs of travel, hotel fare, and other related expenses, in addition to the time it takes to deploy that specialist. These specialists may require a higher rate to compensate for on-call services and pose a higher risk of turnover due to stress.
Local, on-demand and on-site IT support can resolve emergencies and provide data protection in the event of a breach. Ultimately, on-site support is a cost-efficient solution that has benefits beyond mitigating network instability and data loss.
5. Vague Job Roles and Responsibilities
On the surface, opaque job roles may seem advantageous. With small organizations, this may even be standard due to the startup “everyone does a little of everything” mindset.
For larger organizations, this shouldn’t apply. Employees expect clear boundaries and expectations with their role, a title that reflects their responsibilities, and competitive compensation. Failure to provide job clarity again risks finding and keeping talent.
The Solution: Define Team Objectives and Responsibilities
CIOs should take the time to define the responsibilities of every role in their IT team. IT leaders should follow a multi-step process:
- Understand strengths. Have a good grasp of the strengths each team member brings to the table.
- Define immediate goals. Identify and prioritize tasks to get the team and organization closer to objectives.
- Have ongoing discussions. Regularly meet to prioritize and identify minor issues before they become bigger problems.
- Give ownership. This serves two essential functions: it helps team members prioritize and boosts morale, demonstrating confidence.
- Align goals and roles. Knowing the professional goals of team members helps managers align responsibilities with growth opportunities and developing skills.
6. Ineffective Leadership and Communication
Effective leaders understand that they must remain agile and adaptable to the needs of their teams. In switching to a servant leadership model, “The days of command and control and leading from a position of authority were over,” writes author Chris Cebollero.
Embracing change and clear and concise communication helps organizations achieve their desired results.
The Solution: Adaptive, Agile Leadership and Effective Communication
Just as leaders should help their team upskill to fill in skill gaps, managers should also identify gaps in their own leadership skills. From the C suite to site managers, each has responsibilities to the organization’s IT infrastructure, software, applications, and resources.
7. Burnout and Low Employee Morale
Burnout is a phrase that is instantly recognizable across all industries and at every level. The World Health Organization defines burnout as an occupational phenomenon that results from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
As IT departments continue to deal with the aftermath of the pandemic, CIO challenges include employee burnout and low morale. Exhausted, unhappy, and unmotivated workers can quickly equal a loss in revenue.
The Solution: Invest in and Leverage Resources
Some factors impact employee burnout and morale outside of an IT manager’s control. However, one solution within a manager’s power is utilizing supplemental IT services. Techmate is an example of a provider that can provide supplemental help to overstressed, understaffed IT teams on a short- or long-term basis.
8. Online Security and Threats
Lastly, cybersecurity is an ever-present and looming concern for IT leaders and a constantly advancing challenge for IT teams. Sensitive information can be shared over numerous devices and networks, providing employees and customers alike unprecedented access to information and services. It also offers ample opportunity for those with malicious intent.
With different legislation on a regional, national, and global level, it can be difficult for companies to remain compliant at all times, in all places. Companies with operations in Europe, for example, must adhere to the privacy rules of the GDPR or risk fines of up to 20 million euros.
The Solution: Partner with IT Services that Provide Specialized Care
Because there is numerous legislation on a global, national, and even regional level, having IT support tailored to specific regions is essential to safeguarding organizations against costly violations.
Contact Techmate today to learn more about our on-site IT solutions that provide local support from highly-vetted technicians.
Solve Your IT Team’s Challenges
Developing a partnership with an on-demand service provider that can adapt to your unique needs and stay up to date with evolving technologies and legislation isn’t only the answer to looming challenges plaguing CIOs today, but it’s the foundation of a long-term relationship that can give companies a competitive edge.
Table of Contents
- 1. Talent Retention and Recruitment
- 2. Employee Workload
- 3. Lack of Growth and Skills Gaps
- 4. Constraints on Resources and Budget
- 5. Vague Job Roles and Responsibilities
- 6. Ineffective Leadership and Communication
- 7. Burnout and Low Employee Morale
- 8. Online Security and Threats
- Solve Your IT Team’s Challenges
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