MaSSSoftech

Despite Economy, Organizations Face Significant Information Technology (IT)
Talent Gap: Deloitte Survey
To Address Both Short- and Long-Term IT Talent Challenges, Deloitte Offers
Recommendations to Organizations for Improved Talent Strategies and Execution

NEW YORK, Sept. 21 /PRNewswire/ -- According to new research from Deloitte, IT
functional leaders have an increasingly clear understanding of what they must
do to effectively support their organizations' business strategies. However,
existing IT talent strategies and programs appear to be falling short -
leaving IT without the talent necessary to do the job.

Based on a global survey of 306 IT decision-makers and executive business
managers, and 15 subsequent one-on-one interviews with select respondents,
current IT talent issues are having an impact on IT and business performance.
Based on the research, Deloitte identifies two major IT talent gaps: growing
talent gap for IT leaders and project managers; and the critical need for
improved IT talent strategies and program execution. Additional key findings
included:

-- The majority of survey respondents (51%) strongly believe talent
issues
have limited their organization's productivity and efficiency.


-- Half of the respondents say the talent shortage is limiting their
ability to innovate, which is the strategic core of the benefits that
technology can bring to a business.


-- Significant numbers of respondents indicate that IT talent issues are
having a material impact on other key dimensions of business success
--
growth (58%), speed to market (54%), quality (53%) and customer
relationships (53%).


-- The vast majority of IT organizations surveyed expect to expand their
workforces over the next three-to-five years. In fact, nearly half of
the respondents (47%) expect to see at least 5% annual growth in the
IT
workforce over that period -- even as the pool of experienced and
qualified IT workers in many countries gets smaller.


"Even in the midst of hiring freezes and layoffs, organizations continue to
face talent shortages in critical areas such as IT," said Jeff Schwartz,
principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP. "We believe differentiation is key when
trying to attract, develop and retain top IT talent. This means organizations
will need to revitalize their efforts and focus on areas such as company
brand, workforce flexibility, multi-generation workforce strategies, job
rotations, virtual management skills, improved on-boarding and accelerated
development."

Deloitte offers additional recommendations for organizations to consider as
they address current and future IT talent challenges:

-- Establish clear roles and responsibilities. CIOs and their management
teams need to own and lead the IT talent challenge. However, HR/talent
functional leaders and teams have significant opportunities to improve
their strategic partnership with IT by improving their capabilities
and
focusing on services that address the unique talent needs of the IT
function.


-- Improve workforce analysis and planning capabilities. Leverage
internal
and external data to provide clearer views of long-term talent trends,
both in terms of supply (e.g., demographics, baby boomer retirements
--
and longer time to retirement, education, and global labor markets)
and
demand (e.g., new business requirements and technology advances).


-- Refine global sourcing strategies. Explore innovative ways to manage a
diverse, global workforce that is increasingly comprised of
non-traditional resources, including contractors, outsourcing vendors,
retirees and offshore staff.


-- Strengthen alignment between IT and business priorities. Rotate people
from IT into the business and from the business into IT. In an
environment with significant outsourcing and global dispersion of IT
workforces, these rotation programs are even more important because
building and managing relationships with business units is one of the
retained IT team's primary responsibilities.


-- Learn how to manage a multi-sourced, global workforce. Without an
improved approach to sourcing and managing a global workforce, global
sourcing can be more of a hindrance than a help and organizations can
end up in challenging situations where sourced employees are
performing
roles that could be staffed internally and the sourced labor costs are
higher than they should be.


-- Pay more attention to on-boarding. In particular, companies should
focus
more effort on on-boarding for contractors and other non-traditional
resources. Current processes are generally designed to meet the needs
of
traditional in-house staff. That, however, is not what the IT
workforce
looks like any more.


For a full copy of this research report and for the latest information about
talent strategies, innovative talent and work solutions, please visit
Deloitte's Talent Management website. The Deloitte Review also recently
published a detailed article on retaining key talent as the economy improves.
The article entitled, "Where did our employees go? Examining the rise in
voluntary turnover during economic recoveries," can be found in Issue 5 at
www.deloittereview.com.

About the Survey
Deloitte, in collaboration with CIO, conducted a global survey of 306 IT
decision-makers and executive business managers at companies with revenues of
$500 million or more. Additional insights were obtained through personal
interviews with selected respondents.

The U.S. version of the survey was completed among qualified members of the
CIO audience. The Canadian, European, and Asia-Pacific versions of the survey
were completed among an international panel of IT and business professionals.
In addition, Deloitte conducted the survey among select companies in South
Africa. The survey was conducted between March 17, 2009 and April 1, 2009.

About Deloitte
As used in this document, "Deloitte" means Deloitte Consulting LLP and
Deloitte Services LP, subsidiaries of Deloitte LLP. Please see
www.deloitte.com/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of
Deloitte LLP and its subsidiaries.