President Univention North America, making sure you stay in control of your data, your company and your future.
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Many IT departments are struggling, not just with technology but also with their organizations.
Consider how end users expect the same convenience they enjoy on their personal devices while legal wants to ensure compliance and nobody wants to end up as the next data breach headline. This challenge is only compounded by stress factors surrounding the technical deficits laid bare during the pandemic, the push to revive growth and the fierce competition for resources and time for both day-to-day business and securing long-term development.
It’s a perfect storm for IT departments. As a result, I often see a lack of direction when allocating budgets and time to future-proof a company’s IT. Leaders must deal with resistance to change and alleviate the fear of internal and external disruption. My experience of working with customers for 10 years has taught me that, now more than ever, the IT department needs to do three things to stay on top of its game.
Measure business metrics.
One of the first questions any IT department should ask is, are we looking at the right metrics for success? IT departments often see themselves only as a service provider to the employees and the company and not as an integral part of the larger organization.
Figuring out how IT contributes to the overall success of a company, measuring it and making it visible to all stakeholders can start to change this perception and establish a broader view. It can ease the budgetary fights bound to happen in economic downturns. After all, if management can show how a change impacts the balance sheet, it’s much easier to justify expenses and move ahead with big projects.
Showcasing the IT department as a crucial element of an organization also positively impacts employee satisfaction. Top performers, in particular, yearn for a job that gives them the feeling of being part of something bigger or a passion project. Showing how IT is part of a larger mission and removing the useless arguments about money will allow engineers, coders and other critical IT talent to feel like they are in control of change happening around them, imparting them with a vital sense of agency.
Focus on workflows.
People don’t think in concrete actions. Instead, we like to focus on more significant tasks and workflows. Just think about the following scenario: You want to create a new user in your identity management system. The only thought you give it is to set up that user. You don’t focus on the individual steps like opening the browser, going to the management system, clicking the add user button, etc. If we mentally break down every menial task, we would be overwhelmed.
It’s the same for IT, sales or accounting jobs. Understanding and optimizing the workflow a team member goes through can significantly impact performance. Instead of focusing on the latest and greatest innovation, the emphasis should be on easing each employee’s workflow as they go about their daily work routines.
Poring over log files and keeping track of software innovation can get you only so far. Why not look over the shoulders of your top performers to understand how they spend most of their time so you can optimize processes for everyone? Asking team members about their most significant pain points during a typical day can also reveal what you need to focus on.
In the end, reducing those pains and easing the many workflows in your organization can help display the IT department’s contribution. What’s more, it ensures that IT focuses on the organization’s continued development, not patching problems.
Maintain control.
The most crucial aspect of every IT department’s work is to maintain control of the IT. Many forces are pulling staff in different directions. Day-to-day tasks compete with security requirements and budget constraints, which can hamper big projects and employee satisfaction.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Clear directions and governance of the IT department can ensure that work is prioritized correctly, rules are enforced fairly and no one feels like they are taken advantage of. Transparent governance is key to having upper management, department heads, IT and HR on the same page when setting priorities.
Transparency helps to write a consistent playbook for IT and documents the rules in an understandable way. These rules, in turn, are the truth everyone can refer to when questions over policy and priorities arise. Clear guidance reduces stress and enables staff to remain polite and firm in decision-making.
Clear rules have one additional advantage: Systems can enforce them automatically. Most of us see auto-generated messages such as “You cannot use the same password again” when we update passwords or tokens. Imagine if someone had to verify this rule for hundreds of employees in a midsize company.
Yet, for many tasks, we don’t have that simple luxury. When IT creates a new user, for instance, they don’t use a template engine but come up with an email address, phone number and group membership on the fly, always hoping each selection makes sense. While we might have rules in our head for them, they might not be consistently enforced among staff, wasting valuable time.
Staying in control of IT is pretty straightforward: Make rules for your department and write them down. They do not have to be perfect from the start, but everyone must be able to refer to them.
Act, instead of reacting.
It’s true, IT departments often feel overwhelmed by the demands placed on them. The most critical action management can take to help is to be in charge instead of only reacting to a rapidly changing world. A good place to start in doing so is by following these three simple steps that work.
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