What would you do with extra budget in your IT department?

Do you have a shopping list for what you’d purchase for your IT department if you suddenly had the budget? If your IT department has a strategy and a plan, then you likely have a shopping list too. But we don’t typically have the budget to purchase everything we need (or we’d have no shopping list because we’d have purchased everything we need), so if you do have a list, what would be on it?

I was asked this question recently, and this article is about my response.

The following is a list of things that may not be on top of your list, or on your list at all. But they’re worth thinking about.

1. Improve remuneration. This is an obvious one. And I hesitate to even include it. But keeping good staff is critical to a successful IT department. They set an example for the others. If others see that there’s benefits for working harder/smarter/better, then they’re more likely to do it.
2. Improve work conditions. This is also obvious and largely dictated by the “tone at the top”. If there’s appetite for it, you’re probably already doing it. Think of working from home, or supplied coffee, or supplied (or reduced) parking costs.
3. Introduce a staff exchange programs. If your team has a good relationship with another business (like government departments do, or B2B businesses with a strong reliance on each other), then this is an opportunity to swap staff for short periods of time to cross-skill staff. It also shows transparency (if that’s desired) and an openness to encourage collaboration between the two organisations.
4. Introduce excursions and functions. There’s functions throughout the year. They could be general tech functions, cybersecurity focused, awards, presentations, and more. These are opportunities to network, learn and share experiences and best practices.
5. Add/improve staff training. This is another obvious one. Training is critical for all staff. Especially in IT. It’s also about awareness. At the simple end there is cybersecurity awareness training which is typically mandatory, but in this case I’m more focused on skills training. Not just technical skills, but also leadership skills.

What you’ve probably noticed is that most of the above have nothing (or little) to do with money. It’s more about what you can do regardless of the money that improves the work place moral. In that way, I could have titled this article “What would you do to gain and retain good staff?” but the usual answer to that is, we’re already over budget. And that’s the point, there’s plenty that can be done regardless (or less reliant) on budget.