In retrospect, It's easy for everyone to give their opinions anonymously. But if you were in charge how would you have handled things differently?
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Nicely put!!!
QA, last to hire first to fire mentality abolished. Over hiring abolished. Indian contractors in downturns abolished. Budget reserves for downturn no less than 1 business year implemented. Cutbacks on free perks reduced. Jobs preserved.
Well said!!
Being aware that the oil and gas industry is cyclical, with ups and downs, I will scrutinize every request for new hires to ensure we maintain a lean headcount with little over capacity. Operations personnel should be a fixed headcount with contractors supplementing for increased labor demand. If a DBA group is calculated to require a minimum of 5 personnel no matter the price of oil, I would not hire the sixth DBA as a FTE. Why let hiring be a free for all during delightful oil prices, only to fire when prices drop? Just because prices drop, why would we need fewer than the 5 DBAs calculated for keeping operations running? Is it because we suddenly have fewer databases when oil prices are low? Sure we have fewer projects when prices drop due to reduced funding, but that is where my short term contractors will be released.
I was in a supporting role and not dealing with new projects. I was specifically hired to meet demands of my business users with their issues. I am now laid off but my business users still have issues that will over burden the existing resource that still works at Devon. Was my hiring justified no matter the price of oil? Was there enough data to justify my roles existence before an opening was created?
Secondly, as CIO, I realize that the types of IT skills change often with newer technologies. I would not fire good performing employees because I no longer need that technology. An employee is good for the company not solely because of the bits and bytes they know, but also due to what they are as a person. Would the awesome software developer perform a kickass job being an EHS activist? Does this person have passion to perform, train him/herself to adapt if given the ultimatum to switch core technical competencies? Kickass developers can become kickass project managers to kickass support techs to kickass brick layers. It is all in the persons fabric.
To summarize, if I were CIO, I would lead the IT organization as a nimble organizations station built around quality employees who always have an itch to exceed their own performance. My IT organization will be centered around these quality employees and not the flavor of the day technologies. My organization will be oil price and technology agnostic.