Staff Retention: More than Free Lunches and Mufti Days


More than Free Lunches and Mufti Days

September-October 2007

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The skills shortage has been driven, in part, by a drop in university enrolments. Fewer people are attracted to study IT. Why? IT has traditionally delivered limited career paths and a narrow approach to skills development.

Research shows that from 2001, university enrolments in ICT crashed, leading to closure and amalgamation of university departments and faculties and retrenchment of staff. Moreover from 2002-2005, while university enrolments generally grew by about seven percent, ICT enrolments fell by about 19 percent.

The result has been a shortage of skilled IT workers in the market despite increased demand from business.

To tackle this shortage and stay ahead of the competition, businesses need to become smarter about how they recruit and retain staff. One solution is to provide staff with a challenging, yet rewarding, career path that provides opportunities for advancement and diversity.

Beyond Technical Skills

Traditionally, IT jobs have been kept in silos within businesses and limited to a technical focus. However increasingly, companies recognise that they need to build long-term career paths through broadening workers’ skills and opportunities. This provides staff with the challenging work environment they need, and address some of the demands for work life balance.

Skills such as project management and communication are increasingly important to all levels of IT workers, from the systems administrator to the CIO. The industry has recognised that successful IT projects rely on staff that can effectively manage projects and communicate with management – as well as deliver technical solutions. Also, businesses recognise that the development of broader skills in IT departments delivers benefits across the business.

DDLS has seen this trend reflected in the increased demand for its non-technical courses. At DDLS, there has been a 25 percent increase in enrolments in courses such as business analysis and project management in 2007 compared to the previous year. Similarly, the demand for people skills continues to grow with an increase in enrolments of 68 percent for the same period.

According to DDLS General Manager Steve Ross, the needs of IT workers have changed over the last five years.

“IT workers are no longer seen as the quiet, technical stereotypes they once were,” said Ross.

“They now make critical business decisions and are under an exorbitant amount of pressure. It’s time their career development and training opportunities matched this shift.”

He cites courses such as Project Management, Communication Skills, Business Analysis and ITIL Fundamentals as being training priorities to safeguard businesses against skills shortages.

Beat the Skills Shortage Before it Beats You

To retain employees and attract talented workers, companies need to monitor where skills shortfalls are. Only then can valuable training and career development plans be developed for workers.

Through regular reviews of your business’ skills environment, you will identify the skills gaps and be in a better position to build training objectives into employee career plans. Jobs will then have a higher career value proposition to attract and retain the talent you need..

DDLS can analyse your current staff training strategy and identify the areas in your business that need further skills development. For more information on this service, contact your Account Manager or the DDLS Customer Care Centre on 13 12 01.