Hiring and retaining skilled workers remains top CIO challenge

Hiring and retaining skilled information technology professionals ranks highest among the concerns that keep federal chief information officers up at night, according to a new survey.

The Association of Federal Information Management (AFFIRM) canvassed senior information technology officials and managers at federal departments and agencies. AFFIRM sent nearly 400 electronic surveys out and got 126 back.

Finding e-business and e-government solutions was the next biggest worry for federal CIOs, though information security was a close third. Rounding out the top five concerns were getting adequate funding for IT programs and putting IT capital planning and investment management to use across the agency.

For the first time, the top three challenges remained the same from 1999 to 2000. "This is a clear indication that the federal IT community believes these to be among the most important issues for the CIO," the survey concluded.

CIOs rated security technologies as the most critical to their jobs. Internet and knowledge management technologies came in at second and third while voice, video and data convergence and mobile computing technologies rated fourth and fifth.