This week is your final chance to enterComputer Weekly's Best Places to Work in ITawards, created to showcase the best IT departments in the
UK.
A key theme of this year's awards ceremony will be corporate
social responsibility - using the skills and resources of your IT
department to give back to the community. Sadly, for many firms
corporate social responsibility is a buzzword that appears in the
annual report, rather than something that truly engages employees.
But, used properly, it can reap long-term benefits for the
community, the company and staff.
A case in point is property services firm Telereal. After
winning its category in last year's Best Places to Work awards, the
firm has gone on to encourage its staff to help local
schoolchildren with IT skills.
Not only do staff find it rewarding, this approach is helping
companies such as Telereal establish valuable local contacts and
raise their profile as an employer of choice. This will become
increasingly important if we are to reverse the decline in young
people studying IT.
Like it or not, IT departments will have to market themselves
and build their reputations outside the organisation if they are to
attract top IT professionals.
Pay is not the only factor when people choose an employer. A
reputation for training, challenging work, and a culture that
values people and treats them with respect, are often far more
important.
Offering flexible working and the opportunity to balance work
with other commitments is now standard practice in many IT
departments. The Best Places to Work awards are your chance to win
recognition for your efforts. Even if you don't win, simply
entering can help raise the profile of your department.
www.computerweekly.com/bestplacestowork