The Greatest Asset: Knowing Your Team Inside Out

“Behind every capable person, there are always other capable people.” This Chinese proverb holds a deep truth, especially when it comes to IT management. As an IT manager, you might be familiar with all your team members by name, but do you truly know them beyond their technical skills? Do you know which of your employees has a background in accounting, who has expertise in human resources, or who is particularly skilled at conflict resolution? Are you aware of how they performed in their last three evaluations, or what their peers think about them? This post focuses on the importance of maintaining a comprehensive record of your employees’ capabilities, so you can leverage their full potential.

Building a Comprehensive Human Resources Database

As an IT manager, it’s crucial to have detailed information about your employees, not just their technical skills but also their broader competencies. Here’s what you should consider collecting:

Technical and Specialized Skills: Understanding each employee’s specific technical expertise is foundational, but it’s only the beginning.
Managerial or Organizational Competence: Recognizing who has potential for leadership or organizational roles within your team.
Experience: Documenting both internal experiences within your organization and external experiences from previous roles.
Recent Performance Evaluations: Keeping a record of their work history, achievements, and areas for improvement.
Personal Aspirations: Knowing what each employee wants from their career and how you can help them achieve their goals.
Interests Outside Work: Understanding their hobbies and passions beyond the office, can sometimes reveal additional strengths.

Creating a human resources database that captures all of this information can be invaluable. This database should go beyond just technical skills and include summaries of each employee’s background, interviews, peer feedback, and your own observations. Remember, while many organizations claim that their employees are their greatest asset, the way they treat them often says otherwise. As an IT manager, it’s your job to ensure that your employees feel valued and that their skills are fully utilized.

Why Knowing Your Team Matters

Knowing your team well goes beyond just being familiar with their names and job titles. It’s about understanding their strengths, weaknesses, and potential. For instance, if you’re aware that one of your employees has a background in accounting, you might involve them in budget planning or financial forecasting. If another team member is skilled in conflict resolution, they could be an asset in managing team dynamics or client relationships. By fully understanding your team’s capabilities, you can delegate tasks more effectively and ensure that each person is in a role where they can excel.

Moreover, understanding your team’s personal aspirations and career goals allows you to align their work with their interests, leading to higher job satisfaction and retention. When employees feel that their personal goals are being considered and supported, they are more likely to stay with the organization and contribute their best work.

Retaining Skilled IT Talent

In today’s competitive market, retaining skilled IT professionals is a significant challenge. With a global shortage of IT skills, there will always be another company willing to offer more money to attract top talent. So, how can you keep your skilled workers without constantly increasing their salaries?

In one of my roles as an IT consultant, I encountered a similar challenge while working with a company that was struggling to retain its IT talent. The expectation of keeping employees indefinitely was proving to be unrealistic, so I helped the company shift its focus toward increasing employee tenure within the organization. I started by conducting one-on-one interviews with team members to understand their career aspirations and personal motivations. This allowed us to align their roles with their long-term goals. For example, if someone had aspirations to move into management but there was limited room for growth in that area, we worked together to find a role that matched their ambitions while still fitting within the company’s structure. This approach not only helped employees advance in their careers but also brought them closer to achieving their personal goals, making them more likely to stay with the company longer.

Implementing a Systematic Process

Managing your team effectively requires a systematic approach. The following process provides a step-by-step guide to help you maximize your team’s potential:

Identify Key Information: Determine what you need to know to make informed decisions about staffing. This includes technical skills, personal attributes, and business acumen.
Collect Comprehensive Data: Gather all relevant information, including performance evaluations, resumes, peer feedback, and personal observations, to build a complete picture of each employee’s abilities.
Evaluate Your HR Management System: Assess whether your current HR systems can capture and store all the information you need. If not, consider upgrading or supplementing them.
Create or Upgrade Your HR Database: You may need to purchase a system designed for HR, modify your existing HR system, or build a simple internal database that connects to your HR system.
Input All Relevant Information: Enter all the necessary data into your system, ensuring it is up-to-date and easily accessible.
Leverage the Data: Use this information to:

Access and review personnel files for valuable insights.
Analyze resumes to uncover additional skills and experiences.
Track and review performance evaluations to monitor progress and areas needing improvement.
Conduct discussions with employees to explore their technical, business, and other skills, such as negotiation or financial modeling.
Understand employee aspirations and what motivates them, aligning their roles with their goals.
Gather feedback from colleagues to identify both strengths and weaknesses, and to plan for future development.

This process might seem time-consuming, but the payoff is significant. A well-maintained database allows you to match the right people to the right tasks, improving efficiency and job satisfaction.

Looking Beyond the Obvious

In addition to technical skills, non-technical abilities such as budgeting, human resources management, and negotiation are equally important. It’s a mistake to assume that a new hire, based on their previous job title, automatically possesses all the necessary skills for their new role. It’s essential to document and assess these non-technical skills to ensure your team is well-rounded and capable of handling the complexities of IT management.

Retaining Skilled Employees Without Breaking the Bank

One of the biggest challenges in IT management is keeping your team members engaged and motivated without constantly resorting to salary increases. A proven solution to this issue is to focus on training older employees who have been with the company for a longer time. These employees often provide stability and are less likely to leave after acquiring new skills. By investing in their development, you can tap into their eagerness to learn and apply new knowledge, which not only helps the business succeed but also leads to better retention and higher productivity.

Non-Technical Support Roles in IT

The success of an IT department doesn’t solely rest on technical skills. Non-technical support roles, such as financial planning, contract management, knowledge management, and project administration, are critical. Often, these roles are overlooked, but they play a significant part in the smooth operation of IT projects. By incorporating these roles into your team, you can ensure that all aspects of IT management are covered, leading to better project outcomes and a more balanced workload.

Checklist for Effective Team Management

Here’s a detailed checklist to ensure you have all the necessary information and processes in place:

Do you have a comprehensive list of the technical skills available in your organization?
Does your list include non-technical skills such as budgeting, financial modeling, negotiation, and human resources management?
Have you considered the support skills required, such as contract management and project administration?
Have you reviewed employee resumes to identify additional skills and experiences that may be useful now or in the future?
Have you examined performance evaluations and conducted interviews with other department managers about each employee?
Do you have a reliable and efficient method for recording and retrieving employee information?
Are you aware of the technical skills and capabilities of employees outside your IT department and organization?
Have you considered a career transition process for bringing skilled business personnel into the IT domain?
Have you listed the factors that can help you implement such a process effectively?
Are you compliant with information security regulations when handling employee data?

By following this checklist, you can ensure that you have a complete understanding of your team’s capabilities and are well-prepared to manage them effectively.

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