"Our guys have a lot of fun," he says.
In interviewing his employees, it became obvious that he is correct--as long as you adopt a geek's-eye view of what constitutes fun. At McCarran it means going to training at least once a year, working with new technology and cross-training, all of which prevents boredom and provides "fault tolerance" expertise among the staff. Walker says he used to worry about making such a big investment in training because it made the IT staff so marketable to other employers. But he seems to have gotten past that.
"They're having so much fun, I don't think they are leaving," he says. Walker is right on the money: Only three IT people have left in the past 10 years, and since 1999 only one technician has resigned, to continue his education in another field.
The alignment between upper management and IT staff is most telling in a comment that Johnson makes when discussing project justification: "It's the confidence in our team, in our people; they've got the same vision. They wouldn't have suggested something that was frivolous or outlandish." That enviable trust between business leaders and IT makes for the best business technology implementations.
Jonathan Feldman is director of professional services for Entre Solutions, an infrastructure consulting company in Savannah, Ga. He has worked with and managed technology in industries from health care and financial services to government and law enforcement. Write to him at [email protected].
