The world is in the midst of a “Great Reshuffle” of talent, as job transitions globally are up 28 percent over the last few months in 2021. One area where this shifting of talent is especially high is among tech professionals, with more than nine in ten executives in technology seeing higher-than-usual attrition in their ranks. Turnover of information technology (IT) staff is becoming more common and increasingly devastating to organizations – especially higher ed institutions – as tech needs evolve and expand. As colleges’ dependency on technology grows and recruiting, hiring, training and retaining IT talent gets harder by the day, it’s important to consider the risks of not addressing turnover, as well as solutions for it. In part three of our three-part series exploring IT staff turnover, we’ll explain how your college can overcome staffing challenges to stay modern and competitive.

Among all applications for remote work in June 2021, about
25%
were IT jobs*
*CNBC

The 17 Essential Roles or Functions Your College’s IT Team Must Possess

While it might be tempting to assume IT staffing issues will fix themselves when the right people who can wear many different hats get hired, this is simply no longer the case. The level of technological sophistication for running a college or university is very different than it was even just ten years ago.

Today’s IT roles are becoming increasingly unique and specialized, especially as online and hybrid learning models take hold and marketing and enrollment practices change.

For colleges and universities to effectively support their daily operations in today’s landscape, their IT teams should include these 17 essential roles or functions:

1. CIO (can be virtual)

2. Service Delivery Manager

3. Project Management

4. Identity Management

5. Network Voice

6. Server / Data Center

7. Office Productivity (M365, Gsuite)

8. Information Security

9. Helpdesk (Personal Support Center) 

10. Campus Tech Support 

11. SIS Administration 

12. Database Administration 

13. CRM Administration 

14. LMS Administration 

15. Functional / Business Analyst 

16. Report Writing 

17. Data Integrations Dev / Support 

Do More With Less: Overcome Staff Turnover with Managed IT Services

For all the reasons listed in Part I: Why is IT Talent Leaving Higher Education?, it’s unrealistic to expect schools to hire 17 specialized IT professionals for each of these roles. This is why a growing number of institutions are using managed IT services to augment their IT staff and fill expertise gaps.

Managed services providers specializing in higher education, like Collegis Education, can help colleges and universities solve for staffing limitations and manage their systems and infrastructure in a far more cost-effective way. They offer the IT talent and processes – such as data security, cloud-based data backup and recovery, 24/7 tech help desks, [ps2id id=’prospectus’/]and application and network support – needed to keep an institution’s environment running smoothly.

With managed IT services, schools don’t have to worry about attracting the right talent and skill sets with the budgets they have. Instead, they get access to specialized IT talent at a fraction of the cost, enabling them to improve the institution’s bottom line and experiences, and allocate more time and resources toward strategic business initiatives that better position them for long-term, sustainable success.

Learn how your school can get the IT services it needs at a price it can afford.

Complete the Form to Download Our Managed Services Overview Now

Author: Elise Povejsil

Elise Povejsil is a former marketing manager (content and communications) for Collegis Education. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Conflict Studies from DePauw University.