Digital workers say CIOs fail to address overall tech needs, reports Gartner

Dive Brief:

Less than half of employees inside and out of the IT department find their CIOs have complete awareness of digital technology issues impacting their work, according to a Gartner survey of about 3,100 international respondents. Nearly 70% of the non-IT workforce said their company does not fully utilize existing "digital skills."
Non-IT workers have a hard time "believ[ing] in the value of their IT organization" leading four-fifths of non-IT workers to avoid asking their IT departments about "best practices for employing technology," according to the survey.
About one-third of IT workers said they are actually experts in the digital technologies they use within their organizations, whereas only 7% of their non-IT counterparts feel the same. More than half of millennial respondents revealed that the first place they look to resolve an IT issue is the internet.

Dive Insight:

This communication and information disconnect is at the root of IT challenges in large and small companies. Sorting out these issues can be complicated, but worthwhile. To avoid becoming a "digital laggard," companies can focus on the technologies available in-house and who uses them.

Primarily, employees without formal technical guidance are likely to take matters into their own hands, which can lead to security risks, cost redundancies and the misuse of resources.

To further complicate the matter, tech jobs are some of the most in-demand positions, yet 60% of tech workers experience on-the-job burnout. Burnout arises from competing priorities which include supporting outdated or legacy systems and inadequate support from executive-level officers.

To combat fatigue in the IT department, C-suite officials can reshape company culture, move away from the perception that IT is simply a cost center and build confidence in the department's abilities to handle issues. The first place employees should look for answers is in-house, not the internet. Adjusting this stigma begins with outlining a clear digital strategy companywide.

CIOs must design a clear budget with concrete reasoning for technical adjustments that force leadership and lower-level employees to rely more heavily on the IT department. This begins with shifting away from the traditional waterfall method of exploring technology.

Instead, engaging the entire company with routine proof of concepts or pilots will entice a more transparent form of experimenting with digital transformation across all levels of employees.