According to recent research, the public sector is struggling to find the right people to fulfil its ambition of using digital transformation to improve operations and services.
Government and local authorities are not alone when it comes to tackling this problem. IT has traditionally been staffed by people who excel at technical ability, problem solving and ability to structure data. While these traits will still play a crucial role underpinning business IT, digital transformation projects demand a very different skillset to be successful.
Let’s look at the top three skills that will drive digital transformation projects:
Business awareness
IT was once a relatively self-serving department, delivering a brand of prescribed, tightly-controlled business technology.
Now IT is of much greater strategic importance and the range of tools available so broad, that a static, generic service is not suitable. Technology departments must deliver the IT their businesses needs to thrive and each piece of kit or service must have a value within the context of the business.
Digital transformation is about using technology to fulfil corporate objective, so the IT professionals that will lead will understand the value of every tool or service employed by the business.
Curiosity
Leading on from business context, curiosity may seem a soft skill, but it is crucial to digital transformation. Rather than just supplying and supporting the technology it thinks the business needs, digital transformation will be led by those people who understand business challenges and find appropriate and innovative technology solutions. This means being open-minded and discovering tools which will help solve problems within the business. Yes, this may be a radical departure from the rigid IT we have seen within a business in the past, but those people paying more than lip-service to digital transformation will have to adopt this mindset to succeed.
Communications skills
Empathy and an ability to communicate complex technical issues into a language that is palatable to non-technical people are perhaps the most crucial skills the IT professional leading digital transformation will possess. However, many IT people struggle with this because most individuals tend to excel at communications or technical proficiency, not both. This is why we are likely to see new people coming into IT who are better at communication, but have enough technical knowledge to be able to act as a bridge between business and IT.
The profile of the IT professional is already changing, and the frequency of new job roles such as Business Relationship Manager will increase as businesses realise the need for new skills to deliver digital transformation.
