Computerworld’s 100 Best Places to Work in IT 2009 is out, and 5 higher-ed workplaces made the cut. One of the things that struck me about the universities on the list was the frequent mentions of a commitment to education and training of staff — and important distinction to remember in these days of budget tightening. Cornell’s mention of training focused on individual strengths and work alignment echos the recommendations of an excellent Ecar article: Competency Based Career Ladders for IT Professionals.
Tim Chester from Pepperdine University discusses his changes towards development of an ‘IT versatilist.’ They made this move recognizing that as IT becomes more central to the organization’s mission, technical competencies are not the most important quality to measure and develop. Skills such as communication and business process knowledge are equally, if not more important. With significant staff involvement, Pepperdine completely reorganized their structure to create career ladders, and competency charts to track advancement in these tracks. The end result is greater staff retention and improved morale. There is also significant costs savings, as an employee who comes up through the ranks is better prepared for an advanced position, knows the organization better, and is more vested in the success of the group. Maybe Pepperdine will show up on next year’s top 100 list.
- #4 University of Penn: Top 10 ranking: No. 1 for benefits, No. 2 for diversity
- #10 U of Miami: Top 10 ranking: No. 9 for retention, No. 5 benefits, No. 1 for diversity, No. 5 career development
- #58 George Washington University: The IT department reimburses its workers for some certificates and other technical advancements that they choose to pursue and offers a comprehensive service-improvement initiative, training programs and a career development program.
- #90 Temple University: Employees at this Philadelphia-based university pay no tuition for undergraduate and graduate programs. Spouses receive half off all tuition, and children pay no tuition for up to 10 semesters of undergraduate education.
- #93 Cornell University: Managers and employees are being trained to identify individual strengths and align the work that employees are assigned with those areas. Managers are encouraged to invest time in developing employees’ strengths rather than remediating weaknesses.
Competency-Based Career Ladders for IT Professionals | EDUCAUSE
This ECAR research bulletin examines how CIOs can adopt competency-based human resource practices in their information technology organizations to enhance the versatility of IT professionals. The bulletin is based on practices adopted at Pepperdine University. In 2007 Pepperdine embarked on a project to deliver a competency-based set of career ladders for all IT professionals across the institution and reorganized its IT practices to emphasize versatility. The results have been extraordinary: the organization has gained more credibility with faculty, students, and staff, and escalating salary costs have been brought under control.
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