To better retain talent and drive successful transformation, IT leaders are creating an organizational image that is centered on meaningful innovation and aligned with strategic business goals.
In the past, IT culture was all about welfare. Employees will be drawn to the modern open space with gaming tables and fully equipped kitchens, as well as a range of services, which may include an on-site gym, coffee bar, or even a cafeteria.
The changing role of IT, coupled with the new way of working in the era of the pandemic, has allowed the cultural conversation to go beyond the décor of the office. To be clear, everyone still loves high-end benefits, but the IT culture is now more closely intertwined with creating a unique identity that embodies the corporate vision and rallies employees around a common cause.
As more and more employees work remotely or partially in the office, communication about the office environment is becoming less important, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to integrate fashion and aesthetics into real community and connection. More than ever before, IT professionals value intangible assets, such as better work-life balance, opportunities to retrain and upskill, and more rewarding and meaningful work, which has changed the winning ingredients of IT culture.
The continued evolution of IT from order-takers to strategic business partners has also had some impact. As IT departments increasingly work with key business partners to drive new initiatives, technology leaders have the opportunity to foster an organizational image that allows everyone to focus on the digital transformation of their business to achieve strategic goals.
Tim Wenhold, Chief Innovation Officer, Chief Operating Officer and Partner at Power Home Remodeling, said: "Giving people free pizza or dry cleaning isn't about creating culture, it's a way to get people to stay in the building for a long time and work hard. Culture should be mission-driven, and for us, it's all about moving the business forward with the tools we're creating. ”
Build a culture of creators
Power Home Remodeling's business model is centered around revamping the look of a home, and the company's IT organization, the so-called Business Technology Group, acts as a creative force to build the BYOS (Build Your Own Software) platform that serves the business. Power Home Remodeling has built its own Nitro platform for running and optimizing all aspects of the business and customer experience, rather than integrating and customizing off-the-shelf enterprise applications such as Salesforce or SAP.
Committing to building and expanding your own mission-critical software platform requires a very specific work culture and IT talent pool. Wenhold set out to forge its own IT identity and support culture to create a community of creators, some with traditional technical skills, others with strong business backgrounds and an interest in or inclination towards IT.
"Traditional IT starts with how we integrate technology solutions and ensure security, whereas we start with a level of autonomy over the content you can create," he explains. In the process, you can do whatever you want for the business, which is a liberation compared to having to follow a specific set of rules. ”
Wenhold has developed a series of strategies to enhance the company's creator culture. The first is to find the right talent, and they rely heavily on recommending candidates, employing a well-designed interview process, and building new talent**. One of them is the Power Code Academy, a six-month bootcamp that provides a pathway for non-traditional, business-oriented employees to gain coding and technical skills and work in a business technology group.
To strengthen the creator culture, Wenhold's team regularly hosts events such as hackathons and Nitro Create, a topic-specific development conference designed to encourage people to think outside the box. According to Wenhold, this so-called "creatorverse" work environment promotes creativity and collaboration through the integration of virtual office and state-of-the-art physical workspaces. "All of this keeps our culture alive and makes business technology a target sector," he said. ”
Brian Abrahamson, deputy director of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and chief digital officer for computing and IT, said the insistence on simplicity is the foundation of the beliefs and value systems that underpin IT culture. For years, the lab struggled with the weight of decentralized IT and a host of standards and regulations, which made the process complex and gave rise to too many overly complex systems that couldn't communicate with each other. Under Abrahamson's guidance, the IT organization has spent the last decade adhering to human-centered design principles, providing mobile accessibility, and creating personalized and effortless, consumer-grade experiences designed to connect scientists and give them ready access to a discovery-ready workbench.
"All the work that goes into creating a great workplace experience for IT employees to grow is a bet, and we're talking about issues that matter to the world and how to make it a better experience for scientists," said Abrahamson. It's a culture of more outward-looking thinking and focus, rather than an inward journey. ”
Brian Abrahamson is Deputy Director and Chief Digital Officer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL).
Each time a new experience is launched for an organization, Abrahamson's team promotes the product through a comprehensive marketing campaign, including digital signage and storytelling, that reinforces the mission, culture, and IT brand. Abrahamson has also changed some of its hiring criteria, bringing in talent with experience in product management and human-centered design. He also invests in training designed to help employees analyze and solve complex problems, and creates avenues for employees to share their stories about how their streamlined, personalized "apple-like" experiences have improved the workflow of scientists and lab staff. "It creates a sense of pride in their work and the products they create. ”
Tyler Toutman, Solutions Architect at PNNL, said the lab's IT culture was one of the main reasons he stayed here for more than seven years. The freedom to develop new skills, use state-of-the-art tools and projects, and most importantly, feel like an integral part of a larger strategic landscape keeps him loyal and engaged. "We're not just building a new widget or something that impacts the bottom line – we're building something that allows researchers to change the world, and I'm full of faith in what we're doing. ”
Tyler Toutman, Solutions Architect, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.
When Phil Dundas, CTO of the fixed income division of global asset manager Prudential Global Investment Management (PGIM), began working at the firm, he was tasked with orchestrating an ambitious plan for IT growth that included tripling headcount in just four years. Dundas believes that it is very important to establish the specific DNA and culture of the IT organization before the hiring surge.
To do this, the team identifies key "star" employees and explores the shared values and behavioral traits that set them apart so they can find like-minded people when hiring new talent. "The core values and core DNA we've built reflect not only who we think we are, but who we will be in the future, and that becomes part of the interview process when we're hiring dozens of employees. We build a culture based on the themes and characteristics we want to see in the team. ”
Culture not only determines who you are and how you interact with others, but it also affects your team's performance and productivity. "A bad culture affects the delivery of the team – having a really good culture means you're able to deliver what the business needs," Dundas says.
Phil Dundas, Chief Technology Officer, Fixed Income at Prudential Global Investment Management (PGIM).
Make the culture sticky
One of the most important rules for maintaining a corporate culture is to break down silos and create a more holistic IT community. First Citizens Bank's assets have grown from $17 billion to $210 billion over the past decade, fueled by a series of mergers and acquisitions, and over the years the bank has been working together to build a "team DNA" rather than a personal fiefdom.
Dede Ramoneda, senior vice president and chief information officer at the bank, explains: "If the network team, the DBA team, or the application team fails, we need to rethink the delivery of everyone in the IT department – not just individual teams. We've broken down silos and redefined our identity as providing a holistic IT solution rather than a specific part of the solution. Sometimes you have to optimize the parts locally to optimize the whole, which changes the way you work with your colleagues and challenge each other. ”
Dede Ramoneda, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, First Citizens Bank.
It's also important to consciously and explicitly reinforce key values and involve everyone. Ramoneda's leadership team places great emphasis on constantly connecting the dots between the services provided by IT and the impact it has on customers' lives, especially when things go wrong. For example, IT leaders shared stories of ATM network failures that prevented customers from accessing cash to purchase engagement rings, or other customers who missed cruise ship departures due to ATM failures. "We use these types of storytelling to emphasize that we're not just supporting systems, we're supporting technology that impacts people's lives. ”
At Brown & Brown Insurance, the IT culture is all about aligning with the business to drive positive outcomes – and strengthening that partnership by listening, engaging IT leaders into the business, and changing the interview and hiring process to target those who are both technical and business-focused, said Gray Nestor, senior vice president and CIO at BBNI.
Being patient and gracious must be part of the process, as people may initially not understand what you are asking them to do and why they may need to change their behavior.
Gray Nestor, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer, Brown & Brown Insurance.
You have to be willing to give people feedback and examples on a regular basis to achieve different results, and the really hard part starts with action – you have to be willing to spend time in the business, spend time in leadership, and focus more on making progress than on perfect results. ”
What are the key metrics to measure whether the IT culture is good and delivering results? For Deepa Soni, CIO at The Hartford, it's about recognizing that the IT organization is seen as a strategic partner to the business – something that's evident when organizational leaders, including the CEO, see technology transformation as a key lever of their company's competitive advantage.
When business leaders talk about how enhanced capabilities and digital tools can help them capture market share or be satisfied with how they are competing in the market, it looks like success in our view," said Soni.
Deepa Soni, Chief Information Officer, The Hartford.
Perhaps the most important piece of advice that Soni and other CIOs have for IT culture is not to let your guard down.
You quickly realise that if you don't continue to reinforce principles, culture can quickly erode," said Pnni's Abrahamson. "Strategic patience and staying power are really key. ”