With rapid digitalization and transformations taking place, there is an unprecedented collaboration between technology and businesses, thereby changing the role and responsibilities of the modern-day CIOs. In fact, they are now being seen as cultural leaders in the current digital age. As per a TimesJobs survey of 987 Indian IT managers, 88 percent of respondents said that CIOs’ influence has increased in HR activities. 

About 15 percent of surveyed professionals identify developing software to attract diverse culture as one of the core duties of CIOs. Further,  28 percent feel that CIOs will aid organizational culture by using Artificial Intelligence to reduce unconscious bias at workplace. 

The survey throws more light on the sea change CIO’s roles have undergone. Here are some key highlights of the survey:

CIOs playing a pivotal role in training and upskilling of employees 

A majority (34 percent) of respondents said that CIOs are playing a pivotal role in training and upskilling of employees. According to 20 percent of them CIOs are helping organisations in enhancing company culture to attract top talent. Further, 19 percent of them believe that aligning technology to improve the hiring process will be an integral part of CIOs responsibilities. 

The transformational tasks of CIOs

46 percent of the surveyed IT managers feel that the core function of a CIO is to align technology with business goals and about 14 percent of them said CIOs  core function will include building business agility and strategies for the organization.

“Today’s CIOs wear many hats. Along with addressing technology strategy, they are driving business transformations as well. CIOs will have to be the harbinger of change enabling companies to leverage technology to create value for its people and businesses,” said Sanjay Goyal, Business Head, TimesJobs and TechGig.

Almost half of the IT (41 percent) professionals emphasized that contributing to strategic roles has now become a top expectation from their role. And some of the transformational tasks of CIOs include facilitating executive alignment on digital strategy, innovating with emerging technology, and modernising the platform to drive agility. 

Critical skills to become CIO

‘Leadership’ and ‘management skills’ will be some of the key parameters while potential CIOs will be judged on. As around 54 percent of professionals feel that in the future, CIO’s role will transform from being just a functional leader to a business leader, the hiring criteria for many shall also change. 

Some of the skills that will be critical to become ‘CIO’ in the coming times include ‘leadership’ and ‘management skills’ (44%), ‘creativity’ (24%) and ‘critical thinking’ (16%), followed by ‘emotional intelligence’

As Goyal mentioned, the CIOs of tomorrow will be expected to lead the ongoing innovations and partner with co-leaders to drive growth, prioritise agility, and scale innovation.