3 Actions to Create an IT Strategic Workforce Plan

By Lily Mok, Gartner, Inc.

Strategic workforce planning (SWP) has never been more important and challenging. Businesses operate in an era of constant flux, with digital disruptions driving the need to evolve talent and skills supporting digital business ambition continuously. Factors that have significant implications on the organization's ability to build the right workforce to execute the strategy include global economic and political concerns, new sources of competition, a demographic shift in the workforce, and severe skilled labor shortages.

The goal of SWP is to make talent an integral part of digital business and technology strategies and ensure they are acquired, developed, and optimized to enable business success. A recent survey found that CIOs report that skills gaps in critical technology areas (such as artificial intelligence/machine learning, generative AI, cybersecurity, analytics, business intelligence, and data science) threaten their achievement of 2024 objectives.

CIOs can take the following actions to establish and improve their IT workforce planning competence.

Align SWP with Business and IT Strategies to Prioritize Talent Needs

Business strategy sets the overall direction of an enterprise, establishing how the business will play and win in its chosen markets. In the digital age, IT must be a core part of that business strategy. CIOs must engage with business leaders to understand the enterprise's strategic and digital ambitions.

Related:CIOs Can Reduce IT Talent Flight Risks by Offering Employees Work Flexibility

An IT operating model (ITOM) defines how the IT organization implements strategies and delivers on its value proposition for achieving the enterprise's strategic objectives.

Talent is a key component of the ITOM. As the ITOM evolves, so too must the talent. The alignment with business and IT strategies at the onset of the SWP process ensures the resulting workforce strategies and programs aimed at acquiring, developing, and deploying the talent and skills needed to effectively execute strategy and enable the ITOM transformation 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. The most progressive organizations are building cross-organizational networks designed to sense shifting skills needs dynamically.

This approach requires CIOs to engage with business executives, CHROs, and other key stakeholders in identifying and prioritizing talent needs. 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.

Related:CIOs, CxOs Teaming Up to Drive Enterprisewide Digital Success, Gartner Survey Reveals

Assess Workforce Capabilities and Determine Gaps

Most IT organizations don't have an objective, current view of the bench strength of their workforce. This makes it impossible to assess potential gaps and determine necessary actions to take now that help prepare the workforce for the future.

This step of SWP requires CIOs to partner with HR to establish a systematic IT skills and competency assessment process. A current and continuously maintained inventory of the IT organization's skills and competencies provides CIOs and their leadership team with insight about the strengths and gaps in their workforce capabilities. This informs their decisions around strategies and programs needed to prioritize the investment in shaping the workforce profile that drive alignment and optimize talent impact on the business outcomes.

It is important to understand that skills data will never be perfect, and more data isn't always better for generating meaningful insights that leaders need. CIOs should leverage the data that already exists in the human capital management system or project management systems. Be selective with what new data to collect, and ensure that the right format and level of granularity are established for SWP purposes.

Develop Action Plans with a Blended Approach to Close the Gaps

The final step in the SWP process is to identify solutions and develop action plans to close workforce capability gaps. CIOs should partner with HR to evaluate and select appropriate strategies and practices to meet business and IT objectives and close workforce capabilities gaps.

CIOs need the right skills on their teams to effectively respond to fast-changing customer and organizational needs and successfully execute their key initiatives. However, competitive labor market conditions and time and budget constraints can make it difficult to hire new full-time employees to meet this need. CIOs can take a skills-based approach to prioritize and rebalance the mix of buy, build, borrow, partner, and/or automate to ensure the organization can get the right capabilities, at the right time, at the right cost to fulfill the business needs.

As demand for IT talent continues to outstrip supply, CIOs must pivot their talent strategies from hiring externally to focusing internally on reskilling and upskilling the workforce, including tapping into business technologists residing outside IT.

SWP should not just be an annual, one-time, or situational event. Establishing it as an integral part of the business and IT strategic planning process is important. CIOs need to review and refresh their strategies and plans as the macroenvironment and business strategic directions evolve, rebalancing their blend of talent strategies to build agility and adaptability in the workforce.

About the author:

Lily Mok is a VP, Team Manager at Gartner. Her research is focused on helping CIOs and HR leaders develop strategies and programs to build a future-ready workforce.