Q&A Denny L. Brown
Title: CIO
Company: Arizona Public Service Co.
Like many other CIOs, Denny L. Brown says he"s constantly balancing the ratio of full-time IT employees (FTE) to contract workers at the Phoenix-based electric company.
But Brown has other staffing concerns, and he recently discussed them with Computerworld"s Thomas Hoffman at an energy industry conference.
Tell me about your workforce. We have almost 400 FTEs in our shop and 100 contractors from various providers. Our use of contractors provides us the ability to quickly ramp up and down as needed. Ten percent of the total head count is offshore. I don"t envision us moving a large percentage of our workforce offshore. Ten percent is the max.
What challenges are you facing? We all have an aging workforce. Thirty-three percent of our entire organization is set to retire within 10 years.
We"re making attempts to try to capture some of that knowledge in knowledge management systems. Then there"s the challenge of managing talent when people turn 55 and become free agents.
What are the top skills you"re looking to find? The types of skills we need are determined just before projects are about to start. Some of them are hot skills like .Net. But the harder part is developing and maintaining skills around business process optimization -- taking out inefficiencies from operations and reducing costs. I don"t think there"ll be a CIO position in 10 years. It will become a chief process officer.
What will be your big workforce challenges in 2005? We"re constantly evaluating whether we want to roll contractors into FTEs. Do we increase the employee count and reduce suppliers? Also, do we get the right skills at the right market rates?
Tech skills pay boost
Following a prolonged period of decline, premium pay tied specifically to IT skills is starting to increase as a result of widespread retention concerns, offshoring disappointments and an increase in competition for IT consulting talent, according to a new study published by Foote Partners LLC in New Canaan, Conn. The study of 45,000 IT workers and 1,860 North American and European employers found that although pay for 150 certified and noncertified skills dropped an average 4.2 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, in 2004, pay for networking skills increased 6 percent in the past year. Pay rose 4.5 percent for messaging/groupware skills and nearly 4 percent for skills related to applications development and programming languages. Other findings:
Hot skills and certifications
-- Storage/SAN/NAS (EMC, Brocade and Veritas technologies)
-- Security (CISSP, CISM, CISA and SANS/GIAC certifications)
-- Networking (Cisco, VoIP and storage technologies)
-- Web services/SOA (XML, .Net, WebSphere and SOAP technologies; MCSD .Net certification)
-- Messaging (MCSE and MCSA certifications with messaging specializations)
-- Linux/open-source
-- Web-enabled analytics, management applications
-- Wireless skills
-- Rapid application development/extreme programming
Jobs most resistant to outsourcing in 2005
-- Architects (network, data, Internet/intranet storage)
-- Integrators
-- Security (auditing, forensics, management)
-- Enterprise data management, data modelers
-- Business analysts, business technologists
-- Project managers/leaders
-- Process modelers
-- Network managers
-- CRM professionals
Source: "IT Insider Compensation Benchmarks and Employment Trends," third quarter, 2004; Foote Partners LLC, New Canaan, Conn.
Worth the effort
A survey of 612 workers by OfficeTeam, a Robert Half International Inc. staffing service, found that most employees think annual performance reviews are beneficial.
How valuable is the feedback you receive during performance reviews?
40 percent -- Very valuable
37 percent -- Somewhat valuable
8 percent -- Not valuable at all
8 percent -- No answer
7 percent -- Not very valuable
Avoid these review pitfalls
Diane Domeyer, executive director of OfficeTeam, noted that performance reviews are most productive when managers avoid these common pitfalls:
-- Saving it all up. Don"t wait until the performance review to share compliments and constructive criticism. Offer feedback throughout the year.
-- Winging it. Prepare in advance for individual meetings with employees. Evaluate staff based on the same standards.
-- Failing to consult others. If your team members regularly work with people in other departments, tap these people for additional feedback prior to the meeting.
-- Keeping employees in the dark. Nothing in performance reviews should come as a major surprise to employees. Let them know what will be discussed, how much time to set aside for the meetings and how you would like them to prepare.
-- Not following through. Make sure you and your employees reach agreement on key objectives for the coming year and establish checkpoints to assess their progress in the months ahead.
-- Kathleen Melymuka
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