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FIKILE SIBIYA , CIO , E4
EDITOR ’ S QUESTION
Preparing a pipeline of leaders does not happen by chance , organisations need to be intentional about it . The next generation of IT leaders are required to have much more than just technical skills , they are also required to have business , product , change management and customer experience skills – to name a few .
Therefore , organisations need to identify future leaders , understand the changes and direction in the technology and business landscape and proactively equip such individuals with skills that are relevant for the future .
CIOs need to ensure that their teams and colleagues are comfortable with constant change and need to encourage autonomy by enabling opportunities for continuous learning . CIOs also need to enable seamless integrations between IT and business teams .
The approach to talent management should take into account uncertainties and help employers build a predictable talent pipeline .
Therefore , to stay at the forefront of talent development , e4 focuses on reskilling their workforces to deal with the new environment . More investment is needed in skills development and lifelong learning . Skills development will need to include human-centred skills , leadership skills and technical skills .
The ideal approach is a partnership between HR and the CIO which ensures the delivery of the right quality of training and reskilling , in the right way and at the right time . In the case that one party fully takes the responsibility , there is a risk of disconnection in the training and reskilling . The CIO comes in with knowing the urgent training requirement for the business and HR assists with choosing relevant training programmes for the employees . HR helps with understanding long term career-based training and the CIO values more of the actual technical and on-the-job training from a productivity point of view . The CIO addresses departmental specific training needs as opposed to HR ’ s approach to training at a wide company level . A partnership approach thus yields the most effective results .
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ORGANISATIONS IN AFRICA SHOULD PARTNER WITH MULTINATIONAL VENDORS TO BRIDGE THE IT SKILLS GAP . PART OF THE PROCESS OF PROCURING VENDOR SERVICES , SHOULD BE A KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER AND RESKILLING OR UPSKILLING OF TALENT IN AFRICAN ENTERPRISES .
Investing resources into the wrong training methods / platforms or not investing enough budget is a major pitfall .
Organisations in Africa should partner with multinational vendors to bridge the IT skills gap . Part of the process of procuring vendor services , should be a knowledge transfer and reskilling or upskilling of talent in African enterprises . I think another important partnership is between universities , multinational vendors , the government and business .
The curriculum in universities needs to adequately equip the upcoming workforce with skills that are relevant to sustain the digital future of the continent . www . intelligentcio . com INTELLIGENTCIO
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