Salaries are not the only way to retain key people.
For Jos Creese, head of IT at Hampshire County Council, the key to
running a happy IT department lies in offering staff a
challenge.
"If you are not able to offer your staff challenges, then, however
wonderful an environment you provide, they will not be happy and
their frustration will show," he said. "No one really likes having
an easy life or being spoon-fed, or they would not be in the
profession."
Challenges faced by Creese's staff include providing varied,
complex IT to a large and diverse community of users with changing
needs.
"There is a need to have a willingness to accept constant change -
if that is part of the culture, change becomes positive; if it is
not, it can be very stressful and difficult to manage," said
Creese. "That is especially true in a large organisation like
ours."
Encouraging staff at all levels to contribute ideas is also
important, according to Creese.
"Everyone has to have a part to play in setting direction and
decision making - it cannot be just the role of the management
team," he said.
"We do not assume that good ideas only come from the top - some
come from the least expected parts of the organisation, often
through informal discussions. I can never spend enough time
'walking the floor'."
Meetings at Hampshire Council's IT department are kept to a minimum
to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy.
Creese also believes that challenge is created by the fact that,
unlike many IT departments, Hampshire Council's IT department
operates as a business using an internal market system.
"We do not have budgets - we have to earn revenue by delivering
good service to the business," he said. "It is service managers who
must decide how best to invest in IT to improve public services,
with our help. It enforces good business disciplines of financial
management and customer focus."
Inevitably, as a public sector organisation, salaries are not
lavish. However, staff get the buzz of doing varied work that helps
to improve public services in the community they work in, said
Creese.
"We cannot compete with private sector salaries, but we work with
diverse, exciting IT, providing solutions that are often more
leading-edge than most, and that relate directly to people's lives
in the community, from schools to social services," he said.
The council also tries to provide extra financial rewards where
possible, such as awards for outstanding work and fast-track career
paths for the most talented staff in the department.
Evidence of the success of Creese's approach is evident in the
department's staff retention rates. "When they are here, staff
realise there are exciting things to do and salary isn't
everything," he said.
But Creese is not complacent. "We certainly have not got everything
right and, if anything, our Best Places to Work Award has helped us
to focus on where we need to improve further, such as internal
communications."
Hampshire County Council won the local government category in
this year's Computer Weekly Best Places to Work in IT Awards