It's been a long year. You've worked hard, you've jumped through hoops to achieve your Goals, even thrown in overtime to deliver your targets and projects, and now it's time to reap the rewards of your work with your end of year review! 💪
.....Only to be told you didn't get that promotion you wanted.
How many of us have been in this situation before? Or more, how many of us have come out of that situation thinking "This really helps me feel recognised in my Job!"??
Of course, if the only Career Path that your Organisation offers follows the traditional "Corporate Ladder" model, where we assume that somebody's ability to do their job somehow means they must also be capable of people management, there can only be a finite number of roles available to offer.
But in a world that has a shortage of IT Skills on the Market, and fierce competition to poach Top Talent, why aren't Businesses offering more to recognise the Talent they have?
Why not acknowledge Talent with Individual Contributor recognitions?
The modern IT Applications that Businesses invest in require constant vigilance. With system updates and new features added more and more frequently, Cloud Applications demand that their gatekeepers are constantly upskilling, regularly checking for the next big component that needs to be addressed in your Architecture, or the next big thing that could be introduced to bring efficiency gains to existing Business Processes.
IT Talent are the Gatekeepers of a Businesses' IT Applications. They invest hours and hours to keep up to date with the latest System Features, and to understand Development Best-Practices, all to become a Subject Matter Expert of the IT Applications that they have been trusted with. Combine that with their knowledge of relevant Business Processes, and they'll soon elevate to MVP Status in the Business. This is surely worth recognising, right?
Not everybody wants to be a people leader, and Businesses should offer more Opportunities to enable their Talent to build a career as an Individual contributor in order to acknowledge that.
Individual Contributor paths don't need to be linear. In fact, the more fluid a Business can be with the roles they have to offer, the more options their Talent has to grow and develop their own path.
There are many different types of career progression in modern IT;
Technical Progression
Which involves progressing through a series of increasingly technical roles, such as junior developer, intermediate developer, senior developer, and then lead developer or architect.
To progress up the technical ladder, resources typically need to develop their technical skills and knowledge. This is generally done through formal training, self-study, and on-the-job experience.
Cross-Functional Roles
Specialisations
Traditional IT Organisation Structure and Design has to change to adapt to modern IT requirements, and the introduction of Individual Contributor roles is a good start.
What are the benefits of having these roles in an Organisation?
It should go without saying that having recognition pathways for good Talent helps to keep them happy and engaged. But there are other benefits as well.
Enabling Talent to develop expertise and skills in a particular area provides a Business with invaluable insights to their modern IT Applications. Give them the space needed to keep up to date with the latest news and features, and you'll soon find your systems are being maintained proactively, with less of that stressful reaction to last minute requests, observations and deprecations. It also provides in-house access to insights on new and upcoming tools and features that could potentially bring efficiency gains to your Business Processes.
Introducing cross-functional roles in an Organisation is the key to improving collaboration across teams, and pivotal in breaking down the traditional barriers and silos that have existed between Business and IT teams. Furthermore, these roles assist in promoting knowledge sharing across teams by involving individuals from various company levels, reducing the divide between management and team members. These roles are proving very successful in modern Organisations, and have been shown to improve overall employee engagement, increase overall customer experience, and drive internal innovation.
How to properly adopt these roles in the Organisation?
In order to get the most impact from introducing Individual Contributor roles to an Organisation requires planning. As a start, Organisations should plan for sufficient capacity to allow for individual Learning & Development. It might seem counter-intuitive to reduce the capacity for project work within your teams, but that type of short-term thinking can lead to issues downstream in your IT Application lifecycle. Ensuring that your IT gatekeepers are up to date with the latest best-practices and product roadmaps better protects and futureproofs your Applications.
The knowledge within these individuals should be utilized, not only to maintain and progress existing IT Strategies and Initiatives, but they should also be used during the development of future IT Roadmaps and IT Strategy Planning. These MVP's know your IT and your Business, and they should be at the table when planning for future work in their areas of expertise.
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At CB Navigate, we believe winning the battle to retain IT Talent is about adhering to the basics; build your teams and processes around the human element of your Organisation. Do it right, and you'll find that not only are your team more loyal and productive, but that more and more talent will want to join your teams too.
If you'd like to hear more about how the IT Organisation Review & Design offering will bring value to you and your Organisation, please get in touch!
What are your thoughts? We'd love to hear your feedback, or if you'd like to discuss this topic and others with us in more detail, please reach out to us info@cbnavigate.com
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