How do you develop and retain talent and skills in service delivery?

In addition to what has been mentioned already one key action would be to work backwards from the Customer. Very important when we are thinking of Service delivery and that too a quality one. Also assess where your organisation is heading to - what is your strategy and the business outcomes at stake during this assessment phase. This will give us a 360 degree view of what is needed and help connect the dots well to plan actions.

In most organizations I have been a part of this step of clear alignment of development actions and steps to predicted outcomes is essential in justifying your budget. In time and materials service delivery, your development activities take away billable time no matter how you look at it. It is opportunity cost - maybe hours or maybe even days in a given time period. Be sure to keep your schedule ambitious, but not unrealistic. Considering these factors will help you make your case for budgeting for this development time. I like to think about it as investment in your people that can move the needle on retention concerns.

Learning in the flow of work is critical here to ensure we are able to develop and retain talent. Focus should be on building High performing teams to drive the goals. Shared learning, toolkits for people managers to performance support their teams in this space will be key to more engagement an

by employing agile techniques within team or organization, also informing the team about their individual role in the success of the organization, shift the culture from task-oriented to process-oriented.

Some other points to keep in mind. - Retention isn't the only success factor of an organisation. - Who to retain and what needs to be fostered in an organisation matters more than paying attention to attrition. - Retention is a simple criteria of growth and rotation opportunity for the right talent. - Retention without any goal being served and just to avoid a parameter of attrition is wastage of resources, time and energy. - Be watchful of who you are hiring and what you are looking forward to achieving in the long run. - Respect the employee and expect the same in return and retention would never be a problem.

In my experience, the tangibles and intangibles that motivate IT service delivery employees have evolved over the years. Attractive compensation, work-life balance, and positive relationships with colleagues are table stakes. Key to employee morale today includes employee opportunities to refresh skills, interesting work and tools, rotations onto interesting assignments, and flexible work options. Authentic service delivery leadership that celebrates successes and provides mentorship is more important than ever. And yes, the adage of “Employees quit their bosses” is still true with added need to counsel supervisors to be more empathetic and communicate effectively, especially due to more remote/hybrid work.

This is an evolution game. What was a Trump card is now passe. The key ingredients for employees retaining brand engaging now is what the organization is doing to showcase the value each employee brings to the table. There is a marked need for differentiation albeit still holding the team together. Not all the fingers are same but a punch requires all the fingers.

For staff to stay they have to be happy, for staff to be happy they need to feel wanted and involved, for staff to feel wanted and involved you need a training strategy, to development a training strategy you need to understand your teams current capabilities and each individuals capabilities. Build a skill matrix, identify leaders and trainees, give trainees a mentor, give leaders a shadow. Set a 6 month plan and work with each pair to agree objective, schedule reviews and watch your workforce go from strength to strength