How do you, as a leader, develop a highly engaged technical team? Today 30% of all tech workers could find a better job within 60 days (Dice research), so what should we do?
Josh Bersin discusses real world leading practices in engaging, retaining, and managing tech teams.
A TalkRadio session with two IT leaders discussing how to retain and manage a highly technical workforce.
Source: Josh Bersin
An interesting post which highlights 6 areas to consider:
1. Technical people love to work on great projects.
2. Focus on culture, not “heros.”
3. Give people opportunities to speak up.
4. Forget the hierarchy. Manage people in small teams.
5. Give people an opportunity to learn and grow.
6. Build a culture of coaching, not just “output.”
I found this a useful reminder that high performance is not just about having the right skills or being trained – organisational factors are critically important too.
How can SFIA help? Well in particular point number 5 can be greatly supported by using the SFIA descriptors to provide a focus for conversations between managers and team members.
When discussing areas of growth and learning we should look at both SFIA’s generic responsibilities (autonomy, influence, complexity & business skills) and the specific SFIA skills and levels (e.g. Project Management, Solution Architecture).
Also if you are adopting SFIA and you want a high performing workforce then make sure you pull all the levers. A few years ago I did some research which linked SFIA adoption to 10 out of 20 levers of high performance.
