Will retirement of boomers leave a skills gap in your Information Technology (IT) Strategy?

Chief Information Officers (CIOs) across all industries are restructuring information technology strategies to account for the impending exodus of baby boomers from the workforce as economic conditions improve and retirement becomes a viable choice. As CIOs interview candidates, they are noticing a challenging trend. While there is no consistency across markets in candidate availability, some markets lacking candidates while others have an excessive number of IT hopefuls; one thing seems to be universal across the industry:

The challenge facing CIOs is adjusting their company’s information technology strategy to ensure the enterprise remains able to operate at current levels of expertise. Experts in the IT sphere feel the answer lies in balancing internal development against establishing relationships with growth partners that are able to inject expertise, adaptability, and agility into the existing infrastructure.

Building in-house expertise might stabilize your Information Technology (IT) Strategy

A highly skilled field of applicants generated by the recent recession has until recently had businesses hiring them when attempting to increase technical expertise and close skills gaps. With the exodus of baby boomers from the applicant field, many firms are realizing that a different approach in their information technology strategy might be required. Some are adopting internal development and training initiatives so as to leverage the skills of existing employees already familiar with the organization’s mission.

However, CIOs are finding they cannot rely solely on internal development and training due to the millennial generation’s affinity for job hopping – as millennials skill up, they are looking for new opportunities and leaving in their wake the same skills gap they were trained to fill. As a result, enterprises must consider other alternatives to internal development.

Collaborating with growth partners ensures your Information Technology Strategy remains viable

A more cost-effective method of closing the skills gap has emerged as an integral component to information technology strategies in recent years – outsourcing to highly specialized technology-based contractors. With a more directed internal focus on core skills such as business and financial acumen in order to ensure the company remains able to execute the existing mission and values, CIOs are looking to a more flexible and globally mobile contractor-based workforce to fill in the ever-widening technology skills gap caused by retirement of the baby boomer generation and the constant job-hopping of the millennial generation.

The partnership your Information Technology Strategy needs

The goal-oriented support contractors provide allow them to leverage work-for-pay situations into long-term, mutually beneficial relationships where they instead are able to act as growth partners. Organizations can then restructure information technology strategies around decreasing the skills gap through these relationships while minimizing the financial impact of doing so, as the cost of keeping up with ever-changing technology skills and trends falls onto the growth partner. This frees CIOs to focus on leveraging business technology strategies for long-term profitability of their organization.

Every year, thousands of baby boomers are reaching retirement age and deciding it’s time to throw in the towel. Don’t wait for the skills gap they leave behind to affect your business. Reach out to our consultants today so we can help you assess your company’s current and future needs and work together with your IT department as a growth partner to develop a viable and stable information technology strategy.