Staffing and Organizational Model for Changing IT environment

Dr. Mohammed Al Muhtadi

Technology is changing faster than ever. It is quite true that for the past decades, technological advancements and trends are inevitable and it poses opportunities for organizations to take advantage of. In particular, the changes in IT environment as well as the changing needs of organizations should be taken into consideration by organizations and firms in order to keep up with the face of its customer needs and preferences.  As a matter of fact, the IT industry had spurted out various organizational solutions and strategies that enables them to achieve corporate goals in a more effective and optimized manner.  Introduction of new IT systems and concepts such as cloud computing, “Bring Your Own Device” concept, web and data analytics, information security and many others have indeed fuelled the changing world of IT; and such changes implies organizations to deal with these new IT ideas and its impacts as well. As organizations and firms accommodates the changing IT environment, organizations and firms needs to have effective staffing and organizational model in order to respond to such trends effectively.

Responding to changes needs effective transition within the organization. As efforts in pushing forward solutions to respond to changing environment, IT staff should be flexible enough to discover and manage risks and challenges ahead. In other words, the company’s ability to be flexible and to have this “go-ahead” ability imply significant changes in the staffing domains of the organization, especially on those who will manage all the technological exploitation. Exploitation of these technological advancements means increasing user demands. Such user demands likely suggest that IT staff needs to perform multiple information functions. The IT workforce is subject to new roles and responsibilities in order to meet demands throughout the early state of the transition to the maintenance of these IT technologies in the long-term.

When it comes to integrating new IT technologies into existing IT systems, organizations must present and implement control measures in order to get rid of any redundancies.  Most of the time, data consolidation, where data are consolidated from multiple sources into a centralized system, are performed during the adaption process.  Data consolidation and centralization of all these data highly affects the usual IT working practices, including staff roles and responsibilities.  As an implication, IT staff of the organization should be subject to and undergo training and skill developments in order to effectively manage all the changes the company is experiencing.  For example, when the organization is moving forward to take advantage of the cloud-based technologies, the IT staff should be ready and flexible enough to manage all the necessary work, which in the end impacts the usual roles and responsibilities of the IT organization.

The importance of staff training and development has been widely recognized by businesses and organizations as a key facet for organizational success.  For most firms, training initiatives of IT staff is performed in order to make all IT staff members are updated to their new roles and responsibilities. This is because updated skills and knowledge are very much of great importance in the success of IT investments of the organization.  Many organizations implements IT training and skills development programs with four key objectives to obtain. These include (1) to enhance the productivity, effectiveness and efficiency of service by helping employees develop and better utilize their talents, skills and potential, (2) to help staffers develop their knowledge, skills and abilities so that they might become better qualified to perform the duties of their present jobs and advance to more responsible positions, (3), to provide development for managers and supervisors, making them capable of organizing and developing effective management systems for the accomplishment of the organization’s goals and objective, and (4) to reduce labor shortages and reduce personnel turnover .

It is therefore an implication that when there is a need to exploit new technologies and integrated them into the organization’s existing IT systems and infrastructure, organizations should first make sure their current IT staff are well-equipped with the skills and knowledge to effectively manage and meet the changes required.   Through well-structure staffing models, with the help of effective staff training programs, IT staff members will be open to new challenges and collaboratively work on these.  It would make them more confident and agile in performing their respective roles and responsibilities in such new stride for organizational effectiveness.

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