WORKFORCE

Lily Mok, Vice President, Analyst with Gartner: ‘Now is the time to get a future- ready workforce’

OVER THE PAST 21 YEARS OF HER CAREER AT GARTNER, LILY MOK HAS SEEN THE OPPORTUNITIES OF A FUTURE-READY WORKFORCE ASS BY SE ERAL TIMES SUCH A WORKFORCE IS NEEDED TO RES OND UICKLY TO CHANGING MARKET CONDITIONS THE ANALYST BELIE ES THAT THE ONGOING DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATED BY THE IM ACT OF CO ID- IS THE RIME O ORTUNITY TO SUCCEED

By: Martijn regting

Companies and IT departments have been on a rollercoaster for the last eighteen months. reviously, IT was mostly focused on transactional and operational support. Now, IT decision-makers and their people suddenly had to massive scale up the ability to hold virtual meetings and work from home securely. And that was quite the challenge. ‘For IT departments, it was also an opportunity, because they have since proven just how important IT is,’ says Mok. ‘The IT department made sure that organizations could allow their employees to work at home as a result of COVID-19, handle logistical challenges, and change communication with customers and business models quickly as needed.’

SCALING UP & FLEXIBILITY

This has led to scaling up and making IT capacity more flexible, which is increasingly cloud-based. As for homeworkers, they needed connectivity and security. ‘Many CIOs I’ve spoken to during the pandemic said that their department was already quite flexible, especially compared with other departments. Some have become a sort of role model in that respect. If it’s possible to make IT flexible and scalable, it’s also possible to do that with the business processes that rely on this IT.’ According to Mok, many leadership practices had to be adapted to motivate people in a virtual or hybrid working environment. ‘Managers were afraid that people working at home would be less productive. Now that this has been shown not to be the case, managers at every level, including C-level, will need to be more flexible in managing their people. So, disruptions like COVID seem to have a huge influence in steering the mindset and behaviour of managers and employees in a new direction, with technology to support it.’

ANOTHER MINDSET

That changing mindset must now be adopted by CIOs to ensure the importance of IT doesn’t fall on deaf ears in the boardroom. They have proven that they can make a huge impact in the way companies work quickly, flexibly, and with scalability. Mok continues, ‘They must now use draw on those clear results at C-level to better address the challenges and opportunities of an increasingly digital society and world. That’s a new, higher level than the transactional and operational support of the past.’ Another important change to continue now is the ‘democratization’ of IT. This means that IT no longer has to serve as just the technological decision-maker and department, Mok maintains. IT, business, and back o ce departments such as HR and administration must work together in fusion teams to determine what IT needs to support the departments and the organization as a whole. And not just here and there, but continuously, for a futureproof organization and workforce. That won’t be easy, Mok admits. Many CIOs are still busy consolidating what they have put into IT infrastructure, systems,

‘One problem is that companies often restrict themselves in finding IT talent’

and applications since the COVID-19 pandemic began. At the same time, they need to be operating at that higher level of IT, so their organization can address future opportunities, challenges, and disruption. That is a rather complicated balancing act. ‘Those who can do this will help their organization reap the benefits of the pandemic and secure their organization’s future for the long term. Those who can’t do this themselves will need to seek help internally or externally if they want their organization to do more than just survive.’

FUTURE-READY WORKFORCE

A future-proof IT environment needs a future-ready workforce – something that Mok has long been campaigning for. Employees and the flexible workplace that they need to get used to are crucial components of this. Only with a futureready workforce can organizations face opportunities, challenges, and disruption with confidence. ‘Some things you can’t see coming, so you need to be able to change your processes and your employees quickly. But organizations are often already poorly equipped to deal with the changes that we do see coming, because employees aren’t given the right skills, profiles, knowledge, and competencies to adapt to changing market conditions swiftly.’

DYNAMIC SKILLS MANAGEMENT

Mok focuses on helping CIOs and HR leaders develop strategies and programmes to build a future-ready workforce. To do this, the analyst believes that companies must consciously manage employees’ dynamic skills. Otherwise, any approach to change through employees remains ad-hoc, tactical, and reactive. ‘That also means cooperation between all stakeholders, systematically determining what is needed in skills, knowledge, and an IT environment that facilitates dynamic change. Because you can’t take it for granted that you’ll just get those skills. Your competitors are doing the same. If you and your existing employees aren’t able to respond quickly, you have a big problem.’

LAY YOUR CARDS OUT

It is so important for an organization to know which people have which talents, skills, and capacity to change. Otherwise, how else could you determine where you need more time, money, and energy to work on your weaknesses and exploit your strengths, at a strategic and tactical level? ‘But also know your limitations as an organization,’ Mok emphasizes, ‘in IT, people – including your managers – and financing. This will allow you to set the right priorities. What can you do yourself? What should you rely on external knowledge or skills for? Are there things you can automate, so you can free up employees for more value-added tasks? By having all these cards laid out in front of you, you as an organization can not only become more agile, but also be able to grow and accelerate in relation to your competition.’

SHORTAGE OF IT TALENT

We are hearing more and more that a lack of IT talent is holding back organizations in shaping the digital transformation they need. Mok says that this gap has always been there, but now it’s more obvious. Outsourcing, robotization, and automation are often referred to as a solution, but Mok sees another option. ‘One problem is that companies often restrict themselves to finding IT talent by rigidly sticking to a strict list of skills that people like developers, architects, data science and AI experts, and so on have to meet. ‘Not only do they miss out on a lot of IT talent that way, but also people who can quickly develop them into the IT experts they need.’

LOOKING BEYOND

Mok recommends that CIOs and HR managers look beyond the ideal profile of IT staff, especially as competition for scarce talent in areas such as security and AI is growing. ‘You need to widen the pond that you’re fishing in. Determine what the musthave skills are; all the other skills that you can teach them can then be treated as potential skills.’ Make sure you also make it clear what you have to offer this scarce talent – why your IT department is unique – so you’re more attractive as an organization, Mok stresses. ‘This calls for a different approach to recruitment. Now is the time to decide how to set up that recruitment to pull in the right people for the future. For IT, but also for other departments.’ What’s more, sharing talent is an option that is becoming increasingly straightforward thanks to digitalization. ‘I’m seeing this happen more and more often during the pandemic: companies that share IT and other talent between themselves, or allow them to work for both, to make the most of the talent available.’

A COMBINATION

Ultimately, it’s about combining things like understanding the talent available, continually training employees on the skills required, opening up your options to finding talent, and collaborating to get the most out the future-ready workforce that you need to create, Mok concludes. ‘Both in the IT department and throughout the organization. And that takes a team effort. IT cannot do it alone, nor can HR. To achieve a holistic approach at the organization level, you need to work together. It doesn’t necessarily have to be at strategic level, but you do need to collaborate in some form. That’s what I’d like to get across at the Gartner symposium in November: now is the right time more than ever to reach beyond and grow to that future-ready workforce.’

LILY MOK

Business Transformation Services