IT Workforce Strategy
Define an IT workforce strategy, outlining long-term needs regarding, for example, the quantity, skill level, and geographic location of employees. Communicate strategic decisions to the workforce.
Improvement Planning
Practices-Outcomes-Metrics (POM)
Representative POMs are described for IT Workforce Strategy at each level of maturity.
- 1Initial
- Practice
- Rely on the best endeavours of available personnel.
- Practice
- Communicate strategic information regarding the workforce as and when required by management.
- Outcome
- Employees may be aware of some high-priority strategic workforce decisions.
- 2Basic
- Practice
- Define and document a basic IT people strategy within the IT function.
- Outcome
- HR can plan according to the basic IT people strategy.
- Practice
- Hold meetings to update employees within the IT function about the most significant strategic decisions affecting the organization's workforce.
- Outcome
- The most important decisions affecting the workforce are known to IT employees.
- Metrics
- Frequency of communication events regarding workforce strategy.
- # of items that need to be communicated.
- 3Intermediate
- Practices
- Include long-term, medium-term and short-term needs regarding quantity, skill level, and geographic location of employees in the IT people strategy, and reflect how to address these needs.
- Reflect input from IT and some other business units in the development of this IT people strategy.
- Outcomes
- HR can plan according to the IT people strategy.
- There is increased likelihood that the correct number of employees with the required skills are at the required location.
- Metric
- Yes/No indicators re inclusion of LT, MT and ST needs regarding quantity, skill levels, and geographic location of employees in the IT people strategy.
- Practice
- Communicate all strategic decisions regarding the IT people strategy to employees in IT and some other business units using regular meetings and written communication.
- Outcome
- Employees have transparency regarding all strategic decisions and the impact of those decisions on the workforce.
- Metrics
- Frequency of communication events regarding workforce strategy.
- # of items that need to be communicated.
- 4Advanced
- Practice
- Establish a formal organization-wide process to align the IT people strategy with the global HR and IT strategies.
- Outcomes
- The IT people strategy is aligned with the global HR and IT strategies.
- The required number of employees with the required skills are available.
- Metric
- Frequency of formal alignment reviews.
- Practice
- Establish an organization-wide online portal with Q&A interfaces for bi-directional employee and organization-related communication.
- Outcomes
- The Q&A interface enables questions to be answered related to strategic decisions.
- Employees are well informed on all strategic workforce-related decisions.
- Metric
- # of questions answered via the Q&A interface.
- 5Optimized
- Practice
- Document the requirements of the annual IT people strategy (e.g. long-term needs regarding quantity, skill level, geographic location, demographic risk management), and agree the requirements with business ecosystem partners and global HR.
- Outcome
- Transparency regarding the requirements of the annual IT people strategy is achieved.
- Metric
- Frequency of formal meetings with other business units.
- Practice
- Reflect thought leadership and industry-wide influence in the IT people strategy.
- Outcome
- Best practice HR processes are ensured.
- Metric
- # of publications and rankings per year in which the organization is mentioned as a thought leader or as having industry-wide influence (comparative to industry norms).
- Practice
- Regularly review and improve the workforce strategy communication process (e.g. with employee surveys, Q&A feedback, input from the business ecosystem).
- Outcome
- There is transparency on the effectiveness of communication.
- Metric
- Frequency of reviews.