skills gaps

How Shrinking Budgets Are Affecting IT Departments — The Evolution of the IT Decision-Maker, Part II

July 27, 2017 Ryan Day Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Do more with less. That’s the demand of IT decision-makers. Even though IT salaries are currently on the rise, department budgets are heading in the opposite direction. Our recently-released 2017 IT Skills and Salary Report illustrates a troubling cycle. Budgets are tightening and not enough money is being set aside for professional development. This has led to a sharp increase in skills gaps, which often results in missed goals, delayed deployments and an overall drop in job satisfaction. This chain of events is disrupting IT departments around the world.

Training is an Investment, Not an Expense – The Evolution of the IT Decision-Maker, Part I

July 20, 2017 Ryan Day Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

IT budgets have gradually dwindled over the last decade, thus making it more difficult for decision-makers to allocate the proper funds for training. Despite this challenge, the value of training remains high according to the 2017 IT Skills and Salary Report, our 10th annual dive into the inner workings of the IT industry. More than 80 percent of managers say training is effective in developing needed skills for their staff. This belief in the success of training has remained stable over the last 10 years and has consistently hovered between 70 and 86 percent.

Why IT Pros Need Soft Skills to Compete in 2016

April 26, 2016 Ed Tittel Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

IT professionals are always in something of a balancing act in the workplace. On the one hand, they need to foster and cultivate skills in tools, technologies and platforms that let them do their jobs. On the other hand, they need to be able to communicate with others, both verbally and in writing, about what they’re doing. They might even need to be able to package and present their ideas or plans in presentation form, to convince management or backers to invest in their vision. They must also be able to organize their work assignments, juggle priorities, understand or work with budgets, and see their abilities and IT’s capabilities in light of what their organization seeks to accomplish.

SHRM 2015 Professionals Rate Skills Gaps Factors, See How You Compare

July 28, 2015 Cassie Demeter Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

Figuring out that Taylor Swift is a bankable artist is easy. The signs are everywhere. But, trying to figure out where your human resources peers stand on a hot topic like skills gaps is harder to decipher. Until now. At this year’s Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) annual conference our Global Knowledge team conducted a survey to benchmark attendees on how they approach skills gaps, the primary causes for skill deficiencies and their progress towards closing the gaps.

Strategies to Close Skills Gaps: How Your World Is Impacted

April 30, 2015 Michael Stierhoff Cisco, Cloudera, Featured, Professional Development, Project Management, Routing & Switching, Technology, Training in Business

In this series, we focused on defining and analyzing the causes of individual and organizational skills gaps, including the technology, workforce and business disrupters that force rapid change in role requirements. We’ve also discussed strategies and processes necessary to measure and close those gaps. Today we’re going to sum it all up with specific examples of workforce transformation solutions. But first, let’s address one more challenge with disrupters — skills gaps can force change across the organization, including senior management.