From line staff to management, the IT department is frequently an overlooked and under-appreciated area of an organisation. However, it is subject to considerable pressure in order to do its job well. Here, we discuss four key stress points for your organisation’s IT team.
The IT department tends to be one of most pressure-filled, yet under-appreciated, areas in an organisation. Senior managers grumble about the expenses incurred by that department, which can include the purchase of new equipment to keeping software licenses up to date. The line staff complain when they don’t know how to use a particular application, or their computer has suddenly malfunctioned.
In essence, working in IT can be a thankless job, but it is a critical aspect of today’s workplace. So many of us take for granted the work of the IT department, and have no idea of the pressure that team is under to keep the organisation running. Below, we outline four, of many, stress points that have become the norm in many IT departments.
1. Too much work and too few hands
In many Caribbean organisations, the IT team is small. It is not uncommon to find ratios of one technician to every 40 or more employees. It therefore means that the team can be stretched quite thinly, especially since frequently they are responsible for, among other things:
- the telephone system
- Internet access
- the internal physical network
- the software applications used by the organisation
- cybersecurity
- software application customisation and development work
- hardware and software maintenance and repair
- systems monitoring
- IT-related staff training and orientation.
With such small IT teams, the workload can be overwhelming. Team members are unable to give any area their complete attention for any reasonable period of time, which can lead to stress, perceived mediocre work and burnout.
2. The organisation is not prepared to make the needed investments
Historically and in many organisations, IT is seen as a cost centre, meaning that it does not directly add to profit, but still cost money to operate. Equipment continually needs to be updated, consumables replaced, and software purchased and maintained. However, it is through IT that considerable operating efficiencies can be realised. As a result, it should be seen as a strategic tool that can be leveraged to help the organisation achieve is corporate imperatives and goals, and not just a cost burden that must be managed.
However, in many organisations, and especially Caribbean organisations, even those for which IT is an integral part of their operations, the budget allocated for IT can be considerably less than what is needed. It therefore leaves IT teams trying to do more with less, and to find ways to minimise the inevitable gaps and deficiencies that will occur.
3. Constant emergencies and disruptions distract from primary tasks
In organisations where there are corporate and departmental key performance indicators (KPIS) and targets, the IT department, like other areas of the organisation, will have a work plan comprising tasks and activities against which the individual employees, and the team as a whole, will be appraised. However, the experience of many IT teams is that they are continually called to attend a whole host of ‘emergencies’, which take them away from the substantive work upon which they should be focussing.
Hence ,when it is time to review the team’s performance, frequently many of the activities listed in the work plan have not been completed. In some instances, the funds might not have been available to implement those tasks, but for many others, other priorities and emergencies emerged, resulting in team members not having enough uninterrupted periods of times in which to complete specific tasks they had been assigned.
4. Keeping on top of all of the security needs of the organisation
Increasingly, security – in all of its forms – is becoming a critical focus area for IT departments. In addition to trying to keep abreast of important trends and developments in the field, frequently the team’s responsibility includes:
- continually monitoring the security of the organisation’s networks
- assessing and managing possible risks
- overseeing the myriad of security technologies used by the organisation; and
- trying to get end users to understand cybersecurity risks and to change their behaviour.
Regardless of the size of the organisation, the risk from cyber incidents, which can initiated from not only outside, but also within the organisation, requires constant vigilance from IT teams. When the scope of the work the team is required to fulfil is considered, it is no wonder that security is a huge source of stress for the IT technician, and the team as a whole.
Image credit: TeroVesalainen from Pixabay
Indeed, the IT department is a team other staff in the organisation, only hear about when there is a problem or when the “system has gone down”. And yet in many organisations this is a department that will have the brightest of minds in the organisations – or at least the highest concentration of bright minds.
Having said that, though, my observation has been that often the leadership in the IT department does not present a stronger case of being integral business builders to the organisation. They may in reality be such, but if that is not being demonstrated at the budgeting table, the thinking and conclusion would always be the same.