Are the days of the enterprise IT department numbered?

A few days ago I attended the NowForum in Sydney where Lalitha Biddulph gave a fantastic presentation in which she declared that in the not too distant future, IT departments as we know them will cease to exist.  My initial thoughts were that we will always have users wondering where the ‘Any’ key is, however if we take a deeper look, Lalitha may not be too far from the truth.  In fact there are a number of people out there who believe that the days of the IT department are numbered.  If that is indeed what the future holds, should I be retraining for a different career rather than pursuing my goal of becoming a CIO?

We have been seeing a shift around managing and maintaining IT infrastructure for a while now with both outsourced IT infrastructure and applications (aka cloud) and also outsourced IT services for operation (i.e. managed services) and maintenance tasks (break/fix support contracts).  This shift is occurring through both IT led initiatives and through unofficial business led ‘shadow IT’.   Although the traditional roles of helpdesk, network support and systems administrator will be around for a while still, they will be seen less and less within the enterprise.

In the interim, the focus of the IT department will become one of digitization and automation.  The people who are currently entering the workforce, were born into a world where there has always been a PC and we are not too far away from a time when the people entering the workforce will have grown up with smart phones.  When these people require an application for their smart phone, they don’t call up the vendor support number and ask them to install the application for them, they simply visit the respective vendor portal and request the app to be downloaded and installed.  This is the same experience that the IT department needs to deliver to its users through the digitization and automation of the IT function.

The next logical step is to provide the same digitization and automation for functions within the rest of the business, such as automating the HR on-boarding process – user account creation, assigning a desk, ordering a computer, phone and business cards, security and ID cards can all be digitized and automated.  It’s at this point where Lalitha believed that the enterprise will no longer require an IT department, instead there will be a requirement for business people with IT knowledge and acumen.  The focus will be on enterprise service management rather than simply IT service management.

So if the goal is to deliver value to the business by innovating and providing services that enable a competitive advantage, it remains pretty much the same as the goal of a current day CIO.  Whether the role is part of a more traditional IT department or a position with a different title remains to be seen, however I’m confident that the path I’m currently pursuing will still be relevant in 10 years’ time.

If the IT department within the enterprise was to be abolished sometime in the next 10 years or so, I believe the most likely place for the CIO role would be within the finance department, which would not be a bad thing.  In my working career, most decisions to offshore workers seems to come from the finance department, yet I have never known a finance department to authorize offshoring of themselves!

Do you believe that the days of the enterprise IT department are numbered?  Will the CIO role still exist in 10 or 20 years?  Let me know your opinion in the comments below or contact me on twitter @theroadtocio

Why do people still persist with annual performance reviews?

I am yet to meet someone who actually likes performing annual performance reviews.  There is a whole heap of literature out there explaining why the traditional annual performance review with your direct manager is a poor way to handle staff performance and yet it still seems to be a standard at so many organizations.

What’s wrong with annual performance reviews?

First of all let’s start with the frequency.  Would you only talk to your children once a year about their behavior?  No, I didn’t think so.  So why do it with employees?  Is an annual review really going to encompass everything that you did over the entire 12 months, or is the focus really only going to be on the last two or three months?  Discussing performance with employees should happen weekly, fortnightly or at the very least monthly.

Performance reviews are generally conducted by your direct manager, who more often than not, are not trained in human resources management and how to conduct objective appraisals and perhaps resent having to give up time out of their busy schedule to firstly monitor and record the performance of each of their employees and sit through the review process.  Since the appraisal process is generally a subjective measure, it is usually subject to bias, whether it be gender, race or even office politics.  A manager may wish to avoid conflict so perhaps may add a leniency bias or may insert a centrality bias where employees are generally clustered in the middle of the rating scale.  While performance appraisal can be adapted to look at purely objective goals, these goals generally only take into account a small subset of the employee’s tasks.  If these goals and appraisal are directly linked to a financial reward, the employee may simply focus on achieving those goals to the detriment of the rest of their tasks.

Often performance management and appraisal is directly linked to financial reward such as bonuses or pay rises, however there is often no budget for bonuses to be paid to all employees, leading to the necessary ranking of employees.  This can then lead to a competitive, individualistic culture within the organization that can hamper cooperation and teamwork.  If an employee receives a negative appraisal and they don’t believe that the process was fair, it can lead to mistrust between the employee and their manager thereby reducing their motivation, leading to the appraisal becoming self-fulfilling.

Is there a better way to manage performance?

Managers still need a way to manage the performance of employees and setting objectives and training goals with employees can increase motivation and job satisfaction.  As with all relationships, the best way to manage it is to have regular, open and honest discussion.  While filling out forms once a year may still be a requirement, performance management must be a continuous process.

360-degree reviews where feedback is gathered from multiple sources: managers, peers, subordinates and customers, while perhaps still subject to individual biases, should be combined to give a more objective assessment.  Employees often have more faith in the process and believe they are treated more fairly if they are given the opportunity to contribute and discuss their performance, rather than simply being lectured to.

Performance management should be a positive experience for both managers and employees.  By working on it as a mutual relationship, it can be beneficial to both the organization and its employees.  The organization will benefit when employee goals are aligned with that of the business and employees will remain motivated and engaged.

Does your organization still do a traditional annual performance review?  As a CIO or IT manager do you even have a say in performance management or is it mandated by HR policies?  Please leave a comment below or contact me on twitter @theroadtocio

 

August 2014 – Update on the road to CIO

I started this blog a few months ago with the purpose of recording my journey as I transition from a technical network engineer to the CIO role, along with advice for others that want to eventually become a CIO and looking at a number of issues that CIOs face from the point of view of someone on the outside looking in (or up).  I’ve since come to realize that this journey that I’ve set out on will take time and weekly updates regarding that week’s topic in my Human Resource Management subject is not necessarily of interest.

I’m currently part of the way through the third subject of my master’s degree and once complete I will have reached the halfway point of my degree.  I’m trying to concentrate solely on completing the course, rather than also taking on any other learning activities, such as further ITIL certification.  So far my subjects have included management, IT management issues and now human resources management.  The remaining subjects will cover organizational change, finance and strategy.

We are currently undergoing a fair amount of change at work with our CIO resigning and moving on.  I will not be applying for the role as not only am I grossly unqualified at this stage, there are many people internally who would be more suited, plus they are hoping to hire externally in order to get a fresh set of eyes looking at IT.  What I am hoping to do is to position myself and prepare to take advantage of any possible restructure or shakeup that occurs once a new CIO comes on board.  To that extent I’m currently preparing a report that follows on from the IT strategy developed last year and outlines how we can improve our IT by moving to a service delivery based model – made possible now since our previous CIO was very averse to implementing ITIL or any other service delivery frameworks.  Although this report was not necessarily a task of mine that came from the strategy, by displaying leadership in this area I will hopefully be in a position to take any opportunities that may arrive in the coming months.

Feel free to let me know what you’re doing to move forward on your own journey to become a CIO, especially if you are just starting out like I am.  Please leave a comment below or contact me on twitter @theroadtocio