In their Financial Review article on 11 April 21, Finbar O’Mallon and Natasha Boddy stated “Employers are still struggling to find staff despite an expected jump in applications following the end of JobKeeper.” and “employers were also struggling to find staff in IT”.
For some time, the discussion about whether there’s a shortage of cyber security professionals has been debated, but either way, who wants to lose effective and skilled IT staff? As cyber risk rises, so do transformation projects, whilst budgets are shrinking. So, the question, “What are you doing to retain your IT and cyber security staff?” is an important one.
Learning new skills at work supports retention of staff. People who work in IT love to learn… we know of people who won’t stay in a role for long unless they feel they’re learning. This brings me to certifications; everyone wants them, but everyone also knows they don’t make up for real experience and learning on the job.
Cyber risk is partly managed through the use of documented controls and IT has always been dependant on good documentation. However, although many IT professionals are highly numerate, language and writing isn’t their thing. Really good “training”, which is usually theory, and even templates, isn’t enough to support a team member to update your policies and procedures. What is needed is an approach, and mentoring, with lots of proven strategies to save time and support momentum to get the job done.
We see people try and write, with limited writing skills or support, and 6 months after they first started, the job has stalled. Delays to the development of good documentation, particularly security policies designed for users, just adds to the risks of having an incident. Deciding not to make a decision to proceed or complete the work, is making a decision to accept the risk!
If you’d like to retain IT and cyber security staff, and improve your risk management, have a look at our mentoring program “Policy Essentials“. Contact us for further details or visit https://www.roisolutions.com.au/ict-policy-wfh-nov20/