Managing Change - Managing Staffing Issues

MANAGING STAFFING ISSUES

In order to successfully manage an e-business strategy, the enterprise must also have an employee base that is open to change. These employees must be adaptable to new technology and able to learn new skills. Major decisions management must make include deciding whether or not to use existing staff, hire new information technology (IT) employees, create new departments, or outsource e-business-related tasks. These employees, as well as the enterprise as a whole, must also learn how to interact with customers, suppliers, and colleagues, by utilizing new communication methods—Web chat or e-mail, for example—that will stem from the new e-business model.

Staffing issues can also be a major snag in implementing an e-business strategy. According the previously mentioned Deloitte and Touche study, nearly 50 percent of retailers surveyed in 2000 did not have a specified leader heading up their e-business initiatives. The study also reported that many executives believed they lacked sufficient staffing levels to support the business that the Internet could generate. Another study done by Andersen Consulting and the Economist Intelligence Unit in July 2000 also found issues concerning employee and enterprise adaptation. According to the report, e-commerce business plans were updated often, which required knowledgeable manpower. The report also predicted that by 2005, over half of e-business initiatives will have a planning life span of less than 12 months. In order to manage quickly evolving e-business development, enterprises need to have employees in place who can work effectively in a fast-paced, changing environment.

The Andersen study also found that financial executives must be will to adapt to new roles and responsibilities as e-business initiatives are set in place—these initiatives often necessitate different accounting methods than traditionally used in the past. Adopting an e-business strategy not only affects accounting executives, but other officers and executive managers as well. Those in key roles must adapt as their positions and job descriptions evolve due to the development of e-business initiatives that affect their area of expertise. Advertising and marketing executives, IT executives, and other key players must manage change effectively in order to keep the strategy in place.