Advice for CIOs from the IT frontlines: Design training programs for higher impact and retention

The shortage of tech skills worsened during the pandemic, and the battle to hire and retain top IT talent is only getting more challenging. To close the IT talent gap, more CIOs are looking to expand the skills of their current workforce, according to a recent McKinsey Global Survey.

But effective upskilling and reskilling isn’t simply a matter of paying for IT practitioners to earn certifications in the latest technology. Leaders must decide what options align best with business objectives, specific skills gaps, and rapidly changing learning styles of knowledge workers.

To get a front-line perspective on these issues, we interviewed a group of seasoned IT pros for their insights into how enterprise leaders should approach employee training and reskilling challenges. Here are highlights from the conversations.

Invest more in tomorrow’s needs, not today’s

Sometimes leaders can be shortsighted in wanting their IT employees to only get skills that are relevant to the job they’re doing at that moment. A lot of times, that’s not really exciting to the employee. We want personal growth and to learn new things. For us to have vibrant careers, we have to stay ahead of the latest technologies.

It’s also shortsighted for the company. Even if an employee is not doing artificial intelligence at the moment, by gaining an understanding of it, they might see business opportunities for the company involving AI that allow the company to evolve.

It’s about gaining the skills of the future versus the skills of today. Obviously, you’ve got to have a skill baseline to do your job, but leaders need to recognize that even if there’s not an immediate one-to-one connection between the training and the current job, eventually it will pay off both for the employee and the company.

—Carmen Fontana

Software developer and director of operations at digital healthcare firm Augment Therap

Reskilling employees: It takes time to master

What I’ve observed is that a lot of people in leadership roles expect employees to start using a specific skill set correctly immediately after taking a training course. But employees need time to delve deeper into specific topics after the training ends.

They should understand that most trainings cover a lot of material, much of which might not be relevant for your work. In my career, I’ve done a number of certification courses, which tend to cover topics at the surface level. It’s a good introduction, but it’s not enough for skills mastery.

Once you are comfortable with the subject, you need to dive into certain areas yourself and find what is most relevant to your work. That means self-directed study such as blogs and YouTube tutorials, or even seeking out an expert or two directly on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn with specific questions.

—Rashid Feroze

Lead security engineer at credit card payment platform CRED

Allow time and space for more DIY learning

Managers and higher ups sometimes focus too much on certification training. They don’t see that somebody might actually have more cutting-edge skills by studying the latest advances online on their own.

I like to say that for somebody to be successful in security, they have to be obsessed with it. I’m learning new skills all the time, pretty much every day, by reading the latest blogs and watching the newest YouTube tutorials by people who are respected in the community. Something fresh from a top leader in security is going to have more up-to-date information than an online course.

Then you have to learn by doing. I have a full set of virtual machines and equipment where I will practice what the blog or YouTube video is teaching. Leaders who “get it” understand that skill acquisition requires engineers and analysts to build those muscles in a lab environment to really get their skills to the cutting edge.

—Ivan Ninichuck

Solutions engineer at Siemplify, a cybersecurity software provider

Make sure your team is onboard before you invest in new tools

Executives don’t need to understand every new security technology they’re buying, but they need to make sure we understand it.

For example, in response to a new threat, they’ll buy a defense product without having anyone on the Blue Team who knows how to use it. A product’s not going to secure the company on its own. Either train the Blue Team so we have the skills to deploy it or hire the specialized talent who can use it out of the box.

If they bring in someone with that skill, that person can bring the rest of the team up to speed by showing us how to use it on the job. That’s my preference, because I’m a hands-on learner. It’s not about taking a multiple-choice test and getting a certificate that says, “Now I have this skill.” I have to get my hands on the keyboard and learn by doing.

—Ronnie Watson

IT security analyst in the financial services sector

What is one key skill you think all CIOs should recruit for?

Feroze: Agility. These days you have to pivot quickly from solution A to solution B, because solution A is not working. Not everybody has that mindset.

Fontana: People skills. In college, I did a lot of math, not a lot of talking to other human beings. After I gained those communication and leadership skills, I was a more effective technologist.

Ninichuk: Writing ability. Not only do you need to know the technology, you need to be able to communicate about it.

Watson: Analytical thinking. In security, the ability to take an analytical approach to tasks is everything.