Lily Mok, Vice President, Analyst with Gartner:
‘Now is the time to get a futureready 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 IDIS THE RIME O ORTUNITY TO SUCCEED By: Martijn regting
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ompanies 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
‘One problem is that companies often restrict themselves in finding IT talent’
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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,
Executive-People - 31 - Gartner Special
06-10-21 08:02
