Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Talent Management
Framework to
Future-Proof the IT
Workforce
Using a Digital Talent Management Framework to
Future-Proof the IT Workforce
Published 6 May 2021 - 22 min read
By Analyst: Lily Mok
Initiatives: CIO Leadership, Culture and People
Overview
Key Findings
■ Increased business disruption requires IT organizations and their workforce to
develop more and newer skills to cope with the resulting changes in the ways of
working.
■ CIOs focused on digital acceleration are more likely to plan to expand the number of
IT full-time equivalents, yet the lack of talent and skills is a top constraint.
Recommendations
CIOs seeking to build a future-ready workforce in support of digital initiatives should:
By 2024, 80% of large-enterprise CIOs will have a neurodiversity talent strategy that will
comprise 3% to 5% of their IT workforces.
By 2023, 75% of companies will have an employment value proposition (EVP) tailored for
attracting and retaining technology talent across borders.
Introduction
The Gartner surveys of CIOs and CEOs repeatedly indicate that the lack of talent and skills
is a top constraint to digital business growth. The frequency of business disruptions —
mergers and acquisitions, executive leadership turnover, and international expansions — is
increasing year over year. The COVID-19 pandemic has further amplified the projected
disruptions. 1 Gartner TalentNeuron data also shows that the total number of skills
required for a single job has been increasing by 10% year over year since 2017, and over
half of the total skills needed in the average job are new. 2 As a result of the wide adoption
of remote/hybrid working, it further amplifies the competition for scarce digital talent
across industries and geographies. To address these challenges, CIOs must adapt
workforce strategies that enable the IT organization and its workforce to be more resilient,
evolving and developing more and newer capabilities to cope with the resulting changes
in the ways of working.
The traditional, reactive and fragmented approaches to tackling talent issues are no
longer sufficient for the needs of fast-changing digital business. CIOs must rethink how
they future-proof the workforce through a holistic, integrated strategy. This research
presents the Gartner’s Digital Talent Management Framework (see Figure 1). CIOs and IT
leaders can use the framework to first identify and prioritize digital skills and talent needs.
Then, they can devise the strategies and programs that equip the IT workforce with the
skills and competencies to execute their digital business strategy successfully.
Specifically, the framework provides a structured, life cycle view of key areas an
integrated, digital talent management strategy should address:
■ How do we identify and recruit digital talent with the desired skills and
competencies?
■ How do we renew and maintain the currency of existing workforce’s skills and
competencies?
■ How do we retain and motivate the workforce for improved experience, engagement
and commitment?
■ How do we release and manage staff transitions out of the organization and
beyond?
■ How do we measure and link the IT workforce performance and impact to business
outcomes?
Analysis
Integrate Workforce Planning With Digital Business Strategy Planning
CIOs focused on digital acceleration are more likely to plan to expand the number of IT
full-time equivalents, 3 yet the lack of talent and skills is a top constraint. Success in
meeting digital business ambition requires CIOs to proactively address talent and skills
challenges and build workforce capabilities to meet changing business needs. They must
integrate workforce planning with digital business and I&T strategic planning processes.
This integration and alignment ensures the workforce strategy is always aimed to sense
the business needs, and identify, acquire and develop the talent and skills required for
executing the I&T strategy now and in the future.
CIOs can use techniques such as scenario planning to assess how emerging trends can
impact the organization’s business model, strategy and ways of working, to determine the
workforce capabilities employees need to stay ahead of these trends. This requires CIOs
to engage with business executives, CHROs and other key stakeholders in identifying and
prioritizing shifts in roles and skills. The goal is for CIOs to establish a shared
accountability with key stakeholders who will benefit from addressing IT talent and skills
gaps holistically, aligning with changing business priorities (see How to Develop an IT
Strategic Workforce Plan and Ignition Guide to Creating a Strategic Workforce Plan for IT).
Biased language in job descriptions and job posts could also unintentionally discourage
diverse candidates to apply. CIOs should work with HR leaders to update and rewrite job
descriptions based on work outcomes, focusing more on core competencies for success
versus specific technical skills or credentials. When posting a job for recruiting talent
internally and externally, it’s also important to craft the description that clearly articulates
how the job contributes to the organization’s mission or strategy, its societal impact, and
the personal and professional growth opportunities it offers.
Every enterprise has a brand, and it is important that a company articulates what that
brand is and builds a compelling EVP. Even though the IT organization’s brand is strongly
influenced by that of the enterprise, it may differ in important, but not conflicting ways. For
example, the enterprise may be an insurance company, which brings to mind stability and
predictability, but the IT organization may be well-known (branded) for its innovation
culture. To meet the challenge of digital business, CIOs and IT leaders must intentionally
cultivate and position their IT organization’s brand to effectively attract top digital talent.
They should communicate and deliver a compelling EVP to create the experience desired
by candidates and employees alike (see Attract and Recruit Top Talent With a Compelling
Employment Value Proposition and Ignition Guide to Creating and Communicating an
Employment Value Proposition for Talent in IT).
No. 3. Selection
CIOs and IT leaders should collaborate with the HR/recruitment team to improve their
interview and selection process to achieve high-quality hiring decisions (see Redesign IT
Interview Process to Improve Quality of Hires). Identify opportunities to reduce the time
spent on screening, assessing and identifying high-quality candidates by employing data
and artificial intelligence technologies to drive process automation and deliver end-to-end
improved engagement and personalized candidate experiences (see The Future of Talent
Acquisition Requires Talent Engagement and Systems of Action). This is an important
strategy for organizations needing to efficiently and effectively hire a high volume of IT
roles or support fast expansion in digital business capabilities.
CIOs must also work with HR to ensure diversity, equity and inclusion measures are
designed in the recruitment process. Leverage technologies to help remove bias from
interviews and assessments. When hiring, changing the mindset from the candidate being
a “good fit” with the current culture to being both a “fit” and an “add” to the culture can
have a significant positive impact (see Revamp Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Strategy in
IT With Creative Talent Acquisition).
No. 4. Onboarding
Renew
Here are the key actions CIOs and IT leaders must take to ensure continuous renewal of
workforce capabilities that align with and support digital business needs today and
tomorrow.
Gartner research shows that the lack of development and career opportunities is a top
driver for IT talent attrition. 4 The enterprise has an obligation to provide structure and
guidance that will assist employees in planning their career growth within the
organization. But it is ultimately employees who own their career development. Top talent
seeks career opportunities that break from the traditional, prescriptive, deep-specialist-
focused career paths, and they pursue personalized approaches to expanding their career
paths to cross boundaries with connected, experiential learning. Leading organizations
now place significantly more effort into improving the versatility of their IT workforce
through a systematic talent development strategy that enables continuous learning and
career growth (see Executive Summary Video: Develop an Effective IT Job Architecture).
Faced with an increasingly competitive talent market and aging workforce issues, CIOs
and IT leaders must effectively respond to disruptions and manage workforce-related
risks to sustain performance. An effective talent management strategy embraces
succession planning and management as an ongoing, systematic approach that
improves the organizational resilience to:
■ Feel confident that its people are always ready to fill the void in pivotal roles and
critical areas of responsibility
CIOs and IT leaders should partner with business and HR leaders to define criteria for
identifying and assessing high-potential talent and develop learning plans to build a
strong, diverse pool of talent that will be ready to face disruptions and uncertainty (see
Build Resilience in Your Workforce Through Succession Planning and Management and
Toolkit: Succession Planning and Management).
Retain
Positive employee experience contributes to employee engagement, which is key to
retention. CIOs and IT leaders should establish a clear understanding of the factors that
impact employee experience and drive employee engagement, then develop a total
rewards strategy that is aimed at motivating, rewarding and retaining employees for the
long term.
Employee engagement is the extent to which employees feel passionate about their jobs,
are committed to the organization and put discretionary effort into their work. Research
has consistently shown that organizations with the strongest employee engagement
scores surpass their competition in terms of business performance. 5 There are a number
of highly recognized companies (such as Gallup) that can assist with conducting a
baseline benchmark for your organization that can be used to identify areas of
improvement, as well as areas of success. Employee engagement scores should be a part
of leadership’s and managers’ performance objectives, setting a target each year for
improvement. Conduct a formal survey on an annual basis, complemented with pulse
surveys that can be done on a periodic basis as needed, to measure progress. Use this
employee input to improve the relevance and effectiveness of talent management
programs (see Motivating the Unmotivated).
A positive employee experience is key to driving high employee engagement and retention.
With the move to remote/hybrid working, it is nearly impossible to draw hard lines
between an employee’s work life and personal life. CIOs and IT leaders must ensure their
managers understand the importance of treating each staff member as an individual and
meeting their unique needs. It’s important to connect your strategy to improve the
employee experience with the commitment you have made through a compelling EVP for
IT talent. Establish processes to collect employee feedback, assess and measure the
effectiveness of hybrid working and new digital workplace designs, then to recalibrate the
employee experience accordingly (see How to Harness Voice of the Employee Insights for
Continuous Employee Experience Improvements).
CIOs and IT leaders often overemphasize the effect of pay on talent retention. Although
compensation is the top employment attribute that contributes to both the attraction and
attrition of IT talent, it is not the only factor that drives continual engagement and
retention of top talent. An effective retention strategy takes a total rewards approach to
aligning programs with a set of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators affecting employee
engagement and retention (see Renew Retention Strategies to Retain Technology Talent
for Digital Business Success). There are five elements in a total rewards strategy (see
Note 1), each of which represents a set of programs and practices that collectively enable
the organization to deliver its value proposition to attract, motivate, engage and retain
talent. CIOs and IT leaders should collaborate with HR and total rewards leaders, and
apply the following two principles in developing an effective total rewards strategy for IT:
2. Secondly, all these reward elements are available for CIOs and IT leaders to
personalize their approaches to motivating, rewarding and engaging their staff at
individual and team levels. CIOs and IT leaders don’t necessarily have direct control
over how each reward component is designed and implemented, especially for
financial rewards, such as compensation and benefit programs. However, for the
ones that they can control, such as career management, performance enablement
and recognition, they should focus on closely aligning with individual motivators
and needs (see Tactics to Attract and Retain Critical Talent).
Release
The release of an employee, either as a result of career movements across organizational
boundaries or separation of employment, should never mean that the relationship is over.
How the transition planning and offboarding are handled is as important as the
onboarding of a new hire. Former employees may rejoin the company in the future or
become customers, partners or simply a positive voice in advocating your employment
brand. On the occasions that the release is due to major organizational changes, such as
reduction in force, merger or acquisition, or outsourcing, particular care must be given to
communicate and manage the disruptive change. It is not only about staying true to your
values and acting with integrity, but also ensuring that measures are put in place that
minimize the negative impact to morale and employee engagement and productivity.
No. 2. Offboarding
As people leave your organization, their experience must be given the same care as when
they started with your company. In the case of voluntary turnover, conduct an exit
interview that allows a departing employee to feel safe to be candid about why they are
leaving and to provide valuable feedback on what’s working and what’s not. Ensure that
feedback is used as the basis for improvements in employee engagement and retention
practices going forward. This process also needs to connect to succession planning and
management practices. When done well, ideally, there should be internal candidates
(especially for leadership and critical roles) who are ready to move into the soon-to-be-
vacant role, and there should be enough time allowed for knowledge transfer to take
place. Take the time to give your departing employees a memorable send-off. Make sure
that their contributions are recognized and celebrated with their colleagues and that their
last experience is a positive one.
Evidence
1
Building a Dynamic Skills Organization.
2
Gartner TalentNeuron.
3
An Update on CIO Talent Plans for 2021.
4
Gartner Global Labor Market Survey.
5
Measuring Employee Engagement: Past, Present, Future.
Career Management The programs and tools for employees to advance their skills and
competencies. The opportunities and support provided by the organization to
enable employees to take charge of their career development, tap into their
potential, and apply their talent and capabilities to deliver their greatest value
to the organization.
Performance Enablement and Recognition The alignment of organizational, team and individual effort toward the
achievement of business goals and organizational success. It includes
establishing expectations, continuous performance feedback,
acknowledgment of employee actions and efforts, reinforcing behaviors that
contribute to organizational success, and coaching for continual
improvement.
Work-Life Balance A philosophy plus a set of practices, policies and programs that actively
support efforts to help employees achieve success both at work and at
home.
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