The world of modern business heavily relies on IT technologies. This is true for literally every industry out there. Wherever you need to compile data, do projections, and process raw input, you’ll need computers. 

The task of maintaining such networks belongs to the IT department. Today we’ll show you a few tips on how to make sure your IT department is on point, and how to improve their performance in the future.

Leadership Is Key

Leadership is a crucial component of any department. For some reason, there is a notion among businesses worldwide that the IT department doesn’t require strong leadership seeing how their only task is fixing issues as they pop up. Nothing about this misconception is true. Not only do IT departments require capable leadership, but the future of the entire company could also be depending on it. 

The first step you can take towards improving your IT department is to make sure that your head of IT is on point. It’s their job to communicate with each member of their team, letting them know exactly what their duties are and what they need to do. An IT department that has a clear line of communication, both vertical and lateral, is an effective IT department.

Delegate

That old adage “if you want it done, you’ll need to do it yourself” has no value in the modern IT department or a modern company for that matter. Micromanaging is the opposite of what you should be doing as a person in a leadership position. 

The ill effects of micromanagement are only amplified in an IT department. For one, there is no way that one person can handle every single ticket that comes, nor should they. Delegation of duties is the only way to cover all daily tasks while handling any incoming tickets. Delegating IT jobs can also include outsourcing a part of your workload to a 3rd party team, so click here to find out what kind of services are available if you decide to outsource. For some companies, it’s much more cost-effective to “rent” an IT department, than it is to hire one.

Evaluate Your Department

The size of an IT department should be proportional to the size of the company. Yet, in practice, things don’t always turn out this way. More often than not, the company ends up growing while the IT department remains the same. Such a discrepancy between the IT department’s capabilities and demand for its services is the main reason why the burnout rate is so high among IT professionals. 

A great way to improve your IT department is to simply check whether your current IT capacities are comfortably meeting the needs of your organization. If not, adding a few more people to the team could potentially make your entire IT department run much smoother on average.

Set Clear Goals and Offer Incentives

Incentives can be a massive performance modifier when used correctly. When you set clear performance goals and offer incentives to those who reach them, you’ll find that your team is capable of a lot. 

The key is to use incentives strategically and set attainable performance goals. The idea isn’t to push most of your department into burnout as they chase a very difficult performance goal.

Team Building

Team building activities are either loved or hated by most employees in a company. Yet, these activities play an important role in developing cohesion within a group of people. As management, you can use such activities to evaluate your employees and figure out who is showing natural leadership abilities, who you can count on to go above and beyond when necessary, and who the risk people are. 

You can later use all of this data to be a more effective leader to your team. Delegating tasks based on known employee strengths and weaknesses will ultimately lead to better performance.

Brainstorm With Your Team

Brilliant people are full of brilliant ideas. Sometimes such a person is working over at the help desk and has a few ideas they’d want to bounce off of you. The worst thing you can do is deny them this opportunity based solely on their current position within the company. 

What you should do is the opposite — brainstorm ideas with your team and allow everyone to pitch in a possible solution to a problem your department is dealing with. More often than not, you’ll find that your team is packed with truly remarkable individuals.

It Takes Hard Work

At the end of the day, improving your IT department requires hard work, dedication, and a knack for innovation. You have to be able to recognize issues and then approach them from an innovative angle should your regular methods fail.