DTS issues 21: Focused on the workforce

Every employer is up at night thinking about their workforce. How to keep them. How to engage them. How to attract them.

Employees want to work from home. Managers want to go back to the office. Whether you are operating remote or in person – or a hybrid of both – one thing is clear: there’s too much work for the workforce.

Attrition has left nearly every employer a little short-staffed, or a lot. The remaining staff pick up the slack and keep going but risk burnout and a less-than-ideal employee experience. Cue the worrying by employers. That’s why this issue is dedicated to the workforce.

We’ll look at how technology can soothe ragged employees, trends in benefits that address the mental toll of the pandemic, whether the employee experience is better in the office or at home, and introduce a new way to fill an important role – the fractional CIO.

How this year’s workforce struggles play out will shape how work is done for years to come. I’d love to continue the conversation and hear about your solutions. Shoot me an email or a call.

Edward Tuorinsky
Managing Principal
DTS
Edward.Tuorinsky@consultDTS.com
571.403.1841

Technology Empowers Frontline Workers

When HIMSS kicks off in just a few weeks, the healthcare industry will gather for a few days of collective thinking. Top of mind will certainly be how to nurture frontline workers who are increasingly burning out and leaving. Wouldn’t it be amazing if the answer was technology?

The pandemic has helped frontline workers in healthcare and other industries get over their fear of automation and ask for better tech. Frontline workers often feel their hands are tied in handling situations outside of the norm, whether it’s due to an inefficient approval process or insufficient tools. But when companies equip their frontline with the right tech to communicate, gather information, and adapt, they empower them with flexibility and autonomy. And that leads to caregivers who provide exceptional, personalized patient care. Read the full article here.

Adding Mental Health Benefits

A new trend is helping to better address employee needs: expanded benefits packages. These new benefits go beyond traditional health, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance plans to include mental health.

The pandemic has challenged workers’ emotional well-being, with employers as the target for work-related stress and issues ranging from child care to video conferencing with poor connectivity to when to take a sick day.

To create an environment (physical and virtual) that supports mental health, organizations have to be creative with their benefits. Among the solid ideas: Appointing a leader or group to be in charge of mental health initiatives, offering mental health benefits on par with medical benefits, and ensuring easy access to resources without stigma. Read more about this emerging HR trend.

Dig into the Data

Who has the better work experience? Remote, hybrid, or in-office workers? Recent research shows the disconnect between what employers believe and what employees feel.

According to Slack’s Future Forum Pulse survey, executives were nearly three times more likely than non-executives to say they want to return to the office full time. The report found that while nearly 80 percent of knowledge workers want flexibility in where they work — citing benefits ranging from work-life balance to lower anxiety at work and a better sense of belonging — their employers think that the arrangement will lead to a variety of ills, diminishing the company’s collaboration, creativity, and culture.

On the other hand, full-time office employees were more likely to struggle with work-life balance, work-related stress, and feelings of belonging. Employers take note!

Introducing the Fractional CIO

In today’s environment, growing organizations need a senior technology leader who understands the business objectives, stays current with industry trends, threats, and the technology environment, and provides technical direction to support the company. Finding the right person for this leadership role can be challenging and take months. And growing companies need the capabilities long before they can afford the salary. The answer lies in a new concept that provides leadership-as-a-service: the fractional CIO.

A fractional CIO is an experienced, multi-faceted senior technology executive who serves as the part-time, as-needed chief information officer for organizations. The position leverages the knowledge, perspective, and expertise of a senior executive without the time, commitment, or high cost of a full-time hire.

DTS has introduced this new service, leveraging the strength of our IT leadership. Working with your leadership team, we help determine and implement a broad technology agenda to help your organization benefit from leading-edge technologies. Learn more by contacting our Cybersecurity and Compliance group at sales@ConsultDTS.com.

Responsibilities of a Fractional CIO:

IT and business risk management
Business processes optimization
IT standards and policies
IT governance
IT security and compliance management
Contract review and negotiate
Board advisor

IT and business risk management
Business processes optimization
IT standards and policies
IT governance
IT security and compliance management
Contract review and negotiate
Board advisor

Service Spotlight: Caring for the Healthcare Market

As the U.S. population ages and the world faces widespread and long-term challenges from COVID-19, the healthcare industry is forecasted to grow. At the same time, technology is poised to make significant changes to traditional care models. The climate of healthcare has broad-reaching implications in both government and private industry, demanding greater governance, business process changes, and training to facilitate and manage change. At DTS, our teams are leading the way with professional services tailored to healthcare programs including project management, change management, business process reengineering, strategic planning, training programs, and cybersecurity.

DTS News

DTS concluded 2021 by celebrating our growth, prestigious industry recognition, and the success of our Cyber and Compliance practice. That practice saw over 2000 percent growth last year and we increased our staff size by more than 40 percent. Read the details of our Year in Review.

Read all of our recently published articles and thought leadership by DTS authors:

How can you encourage more innovative thinking at work? Read about the Innovation Mindset on GovLoop.

Security compliance predictions for 2022 offer a glimpse of the year to come and can help focus your cybersecurity priorities, in App Developer Magazine

For organizations just getting started with cybersecurity measures, we offer a guide to kick things off and some advice for Zero Trust architecture in Making sense of federal cybersecurity critical infrastructure guidance in Security Magazine.

Upcoming Events

DTS is hitting the road and we want to connect with you at one or more of the industry events we’ll be attending this spring:

HIMSS22, Global Health Conference & Exhibition: March 14-18, 2022
The Official Cybersecurity Summit: Atlanta, March 25, 2022
“Gold Sponsor” of the Cyber Security / Cloud North America Conference: Santa Clara, May 11-12, 2022
ATD22: Orlando. May 15-18, 2022
“Silver Sponsor” of VETS22 – GovCon Veteran: Orlando, May 16 – 20, 2022

The Pulse of Cybersecurity

DTS continues to follow all cybersecurity regulations and CMMC updates very closely and commits to providing this information to our clients in plain language, with actionable takeaways.

NEW THIS MONTH: Learn more about CMMC 2.0 What’s involved? What’s expected? What’s has gone away (for now!)? Our 30-minute webinar is an approachable overview that explains what contractor firms, big and small, need to know. View it now.

About DTS

DTS consultants go far beyond just “getting the job done.” We continually find better, more efficient and more effective ways to satisfy the needs of our public- and private- sector clients. DTS provides full lifecycle Management and IT consulting services, and ca n support your organization by researching and answering specific questions, solving critical issues or helping you plan for the future. Among a crowded field of contractors, DTS stands out for the quality of our people, the power of our approach, and the impact of our results. www.consultDTS.com

Continue the conversation:
Email sales@consultDTS.com or call 571.403.1841