Nonprofit HR’s Blog

Karen Goulart and Linda Tucci over at SearchCIO have had some testy conversations with CIO’s as of late. IT departments are having trouble finding people who can keep up with the high pace of new technology. And where do they lob their first hand grenade? At the human resources department.

“There’s a shared sense that IT is a lesser priority for HR departments and outside recruiters alike, said Thibodeaux, who recently spent a number of weeks meeting with CIOs across the U.S. ‘They are trying to find salespeople, they’re trying to find marketing people, and IT has fallen rungs down the rack,’ he said.”

Besides overworked or under staffed HR departments, there are additional issues causing friction between HR and IT – even when recruiters are involved.

“One of the root causes of the HR-CIO disconnect on tech hiring — especially with regard to hard technology skills — is the rising use of keywords in candidate searches, said Judy Homer, president at the New York IT executive search firm JB Homer Associates Inc. Its employees who have come from other technology search agencies talk of being instructed by clients’ HR departments to send only resumes with the exact keywords they are looking for.”

“‘There is no conversation at all. The recruiter from the company has learned nothing. The placement agency has learned nothing. When you start relying on keywords to fill a position, it is extremely difficult to find the right candidate,’ Homer said.”

So what’s the solution?

“The prescription that will alleviate tech hiring headaches, experts agreed, is teamwork. The HR departments that most often fail to find the right person for an IT job are those where the CIO has failed to develop a relationship with the people doing the hiring. That’s especially true in a market where the pool is shallow for talent that is ‘in the moment’ of current technology trends, Homer said. ‘Everyone is going to the same sources. CIOs who don’t build relationships with HR have a real issue.'”