5 Best Practices For Running An Efficient IT Department

Running an IT department is never a walk in the park. It is a demanding position that most employees believe is easy – they’re just not saying that to your face. Young employees, particularly the Millennials, often think they can do a better job with their hands tied behind their backs.

Your role within the organization is crucial, and your department is quite possibly one of the most relied upon in the whole business. Most of you will have technical degrees and a background in tech, but what some of you don’t have is the experience in operations and management.

This article will teach you five of the best practices for running an efficient IT department.

Set Goals

In the business world, particularly the upper corporate world, it is easy to get lost in the mess of red tape. Your job is to remove that tape and make everyone’s lives easier – no pressure, right?

The best way to check if you’re doing a good job is to listen to the data.

Learn to measure the output of your department and make changes if they are needed – and they typically are. Set measurable goals for your team and check in every few weeks to ensure they have been achieved.

Drive Business Technology

The IT department shouldn’t merely be a cost to the business; it should be behind the drive for change and growth. It’s easy for any department to spend money – the trick for you is to ensure that your department is spending it on innovation and change and not just keeping the tech lights on.

Driving growth in an online business is achieved by implementing processes and procedures that make everyone’s job easier and more efficient – the more they do, the more your department gets to shine and even though this isn’t meant to be a competition, everyone knows that it is one.

Use The Right Tools

Growth means change, and change can be tricky and risky. Minimize those risks by using the right tools to implement those changes. Every IT department needs to make changes to facilitate upgrades and expansions, and they do that through effective IT change management.  IT change management needs to be structured and actively support and engage employees.

Your change management processes should be communicated and integrated with project management. Employees resist change when they aren’t involved in the changes that affect them.

Automation Is Everything

Automation is necessary in almost every industry, but particularly in the IT world. Countless mundane and repetitive tasks need to be done daily and using precious human resources to complete them is just pure madness.

Automation is everything in the IT world and it’s one of the ways you can ensure that your department runs like a smooth-oiled machine.

Motivate and Reward Your Team

Employees rarely want to be treated like robots. When your team works hard or does good work, you need to recognize and reward their behavior. As much as you might not want to admit it, your team thrives on positive reinforcement.

If your company doesn’t subscribe to the positive training model as set out above, don’t worry – you can implement it in smaller ways like gift cards or afternoons off. The result is that a happier team works harder than an overworked and unappreciated one.