CIOs get serious about closing the skills gap — mainly from within

For CIOs, IT staffing is a little like going to the dentist: You know it’ll be painful, but you’ll feel better once you deal with it. Today, filling the skills gap has become a top priority as leaders grapple with the pace of technological change. The most strategic CIOs aren’t just plugging holes but also redefining how their organization is building future-ready, resilient teams.

In most cases, upskilling/reskilling is the answer, enabling IT leaders to grow talent from within, on top of recruiting and outsourcing efforts. Regardless of approach, there’s no question the need to address skills gaps is essential, especially for companies seeking AI and machine learning (ML) expertise.

According to the 2025 State of the CIO, 36% of CIOs plan to ramp up AI/ML hires in the next six to 12 months, while 34% seek talent versed in cybersecurity and 25% in business/IT automation. Many expect to have difficulty finding the right candidates, particularly in AI/ML (38%), cybersecurity (33%), and data science/analytics (21%).

Staffing and talent issues are affecting CIOs’ ability to double down on strategic and innovation objectives, according to 54% of this year’s respondents. As a result, closing the skills gap has become a huge priority.

“What’s driving it in some CIOs’ minds is tied back to their AI deployments,” says Mark Moccia, a vice president research director at Forrester. “They’re under a lot of cost pressure … to get the most out of AI deployments” to increase operational efficiencies and lower costs, he says. “It’s driving more of a need to close the skills gap and find people who have deployed AI successfully.”

AI, generative AI, and cybersecurity top the list of skills gaps preventing organizations from achieving objectives, according to an April Gartner report. Nine out of 10 organizations have adopted or plan to adopt skills-based talent growth to address those challenges.

“Hiring talent to close the skills gap is not working, requiring CIOs to investigate other talent approaches,” Gartner’s report states. “The leading strategies for expanding the IT talent pipeline include upskilling and/or reskilling current employees and using AI to automate tasks or augment people resources.”

Growing from within

Instead of wringing his hands over a dearth of skilled candidates, Craig Woolley, CIO at Louisiana State University, is growing his own. Woolley has developed a student-run security operations center (SOC) in partnership with TekStream, Splunk, and AWS to provide 24/7 security coverage for LSU’s 34 campuses.

The program recruits students from all disciplines and majors, not just cybersecurity and IT, and they are taught by industry veterans how to manage the LSU SOC using Splunk technology. Students are trained on cyberattacks, analysis, network defense, policy and escalation, and real-time response tactics to actual incidents.

When LSU decided to increase its cybersecurity protection, the concern was that 24/7 coverage would be very expensive, Woolley says, “which is why a lot of higher ed [institutions] don’t have 24/7 SOCs.” But if students were trained to run it, IT could keep costs down and provide real-world experience.

Woolley didn’t want to create the SOC program from scratch so he partnered with TekStream, which provides managed detection and response. LSU pays the students, but it is “way less than half” of what it would cost if Woolley had to hire cybersecurity professionals, he says.

There are 16 students — seven females and nine males — running the SOC and they resolve between 30% and 40% of incidents, Woolley says.

To qualify, “they just have to pass a critical thinking test when they apply,” he says. “We don’t care about your background or if you know one thing about cybersecurity or IT. We need you to critically think.” Candidates go through a few rounds of interviews and take an IT skills test to determine their training path, Woolley says. “It’s not a differentiator. The majority still come from the cybersecurity or computer science program, but we definitely have individuals who come from other programs.”

The first student cohort graduated in Dec 2024, and all three had job offers instantly from TekStream, Woolley says. Another seven are now graduating and several have received job offers from TekStream and other cybersecurity firms.

Besides the SOC, students also hold positions in LSU’s central IT organization, and Woolley says he targets them for full-time positions. “I try to create a career path for staff” to increase retention and handle some of the more complex work, but the focus, he says, is on “growing our own, because sometimes that’s easier.”

Providing opportunities to grow

When you’re a company the size of Walmart, you can afford to invest in resources, tools, agents, classes, and access to senior talent, to facilitate career growth.

“At Walmart, we believe the right path is one where associates are … brought along on the journey to develop the skills to embrace the tools that make their jobs simpler today and equip them for the future,” says Sravana Kumar Karnati, executive vice president of global tech platforms at Walmart. “In the context of our developer and engineering teams, that means providing the tools and training needed to quickly build foundational skills and expertise, so our engineers can take on bigger roles with more responsibility earlier in their careers.” 

The retail giant offers in-person and on-demand virtual learning on a variety of topics. One initiative, Tech Fellows Academy, offers expert-led sessions focused on real-world experiences in areas such as data, AI, technology management, and cybersecurity, Karnati says. “It’s through this kind of investment, from project-based learning to hands-on mentoring, that we strive to cultivate not just technical expertise but also enterprise leadership within our teams.”

The goal, he says, “is to create an environment where our engineers can thrive, innovate, and grow alongside the rapid advancements in technology.”

Walmart wants engineers to have core software engineering skills, a solid understanding of the fundamentals, strong problem-solving abilities, and the ability to learn quickly, Karnati says.

The company also seeks software developers experienced with large language models (LLMs), prompt engineering, API design, and data pipelines. People who can bridge the gap between capability and usability — product managers, UX designers, and even internal stakeholders who have a complete understanding of Walmart’s business processes — are also in demand.

The best approach, Karnati says, is developing talent from within. “We’re equipping our existing teams with the space, tools, and support needed to explore genAI through practical application, including rapid prototyping, internal hackathons, and proof-of-concept sprints,” Karnati says. “These aren’t just technical exercises — they’re structured opportunities for cross-functional learning, where engineers, product leads, and domain experts collaborate to test real use cases.”

Looking for the right fit

Chase Snuffer believes the traditional approach of using contract IT workers to fill talent gaps is no longer effective. “I’d say nine times out of 10, the level at which [contracting firms are] portraying [IT talent] is not where they’re at,” says Snuffer, CIO of Rayburn Electric Cooperative.

Snuffer says he has a skills shortage at the senior IT level, meaning staff who have worked at the cooperative for more than four years. “Whether it be software, software developers, networking, servers, cybersecurity — it’s pretty across the board,” he says. “AI is even tougher.”

Post-COVID, the number of applicants has been down, which Snuffer attributes to the fact that IT professionals want remote work and he offers a hybrid model of four days in the office and one remote. “I think that’s turning people away.”

Another issue is that the cooperative is located near Dallas/Fort Worth, where there are “lots of large organizations, so there’s lots of competition.” Snuffer also finds that people tend to be “highly specialized in one area,” such as switches, routers, or firewalls, “and we’re look for candidates who are well versed in multiple IT systems.”

One approach that Snuffer has had some success with is an internship program. He brought in four interns to work on servers, cybersecurity, and app development and hired three of the four as full-time employees.

One of cooperative’s core values is excellence, and now, to find senior people, Snuffer has begun considering candidates who understand their culture. “If they are a cultural fit for us as far as personality … we’re willing to bring them on and grow them into that senior level,” he says. “We have a handful of very senior technicians who mentor them as well. We take someone who is highly specialized in a particular area and is willing to grow and train them for what we need them to be.”

The cooperative offers several certification training opportunities, continuing education, and education reimbursement for degree programs. “There are a lot of opportunities to grow if they do have that mindset,” Snuffer says.

Planning for future talent gaps

For Joshua Bellendir, gone are the days of thinking that you can’t stretch your IT team’s skills. “My belief is IT is a world of continuous improvement,” says Bellendir,CIO and senior vice president of information technology at WHSmith North America. “We always have to increase our knowledge and add to our skills, but there is a limit to that and you have to expand and oftentimes reevaluate the organizational structure of the IT department and higher stacks.”

COVID forced leadership to think differently about working, he says. “You have to operate in an environment of what you have and if there is talent you need in a specific discipline, you have to accommodate [people] and be flexible.”

Bellendir’s challenge is finding IT staff with expertise in retail systems and cybersecurity. “We’ve been lucky in the past couple of months filling out our cyber team, but we had to recruit broadly and remotely for that,” he says.

Bellendir doesn’t have significant talent gaps today, but says he anticipates gaps in the future tech stack. In that case, “rather than filling them by finding elusive talent,” he is investing in his people.

“We are looking at how we can further set aside funding and upskill the team we have today in terms of adding certifications and other training for them,” he says. “It’s a lot easier to train the good people you have than go find them in the market.”

Bellendir has a training and education budget set aside to encourage staff to take certifications and if they pass, the company will cover that cost. Bellendir is also planning to implement a more mature IT mastery program that will have clearly defined career paths from analyst to engineer to solution architect. That way, staff “can see where they want to go and [we can] tie that with incentive programs … to retain talent and give them the skillsets to grow.”

Promoting learning and development

Like many CIOs, John Roman, CIO of Bonadio Group, is a proponent of upskilling from within, which is a company-wide model as well. “I can’t wait six months to find someone; things change so rapidly,” he says. “We’ve been on an upskilling endeavor for the past 24 months.”

In app development, staff are receiving training on specific AI technologies. Bonadio Group is mainly a Microsoft shop and Roman picked three developers to go through Azure AI training. They will take exams, build apps, and then receive certifications.

“We’ve been doing that with great success, and we also incentivize people,” he says, explaining that employees can also apply for a certification bonus.

The firm implemented Workday HCM a year ago and Roman has put a few people through extensive Workday certification training.

Roman, whose biggest gaps are in infosecurity and AI, says it is no longer feasible for CIOs to not have a formal learning and development plan for IT. It is critical to ensure that every IT employee has a plan that includes their goals and objectives for the year, he says.

“What doesn’t work is me saying, ‘Get training this year,’ because everyone gets busy,” Roman says. “It has to be in your IT learning and development strategy, and it has to be pushed down to your employees.”

The traditional method of managers saying they’d like to see their staff get some type of technical training and then hoping employees follow through no longer cuts it. “Now, you have to have a plan and provide direction and coaching and support to make sure they get the training the organization needs,” he says.

This is being driven by the fact that “AI is going to continue to dominate for the years to come,” Roman says, adding that he is fortunate that he doesn’t have to micromanage his IT staff and can trust them to get the appropriate training to upskill themselves.

“I’ve always been a huge proponent of training for tech people, and most people resist going to training because they’re so dedicated to their jobs,” Roman says. “So, the job always comes before training.” But IT people need to invest in themselves.

“The work will be there when you get back,” he says, while admitting it helps when the company sees the value of upskilling. “It provides you with career security and it provides your company with value.”

Rohan Sharma, chief product and technology officer at Zenolabs.ai, a global clinical trial startup, agrees: “Upskilling without career paths leads to turnover. I have seen good retention … because I gave guidelines to my leadership team to always give individual contributors stretch projects to implement new skills.”

Setting measurable, smart goals

CIO Michael Corrigan says World Insurance Associates’ skills gaps are primarily around emergency technologies, data, and AI. Before he came on board two and a half years ago, the company was outsourcing to MSPs to fill gaps.

To address this issue, Corrigan has hired new talent and has upskilled employees through continuous training. He also has developers and engineers participate in workshops and vendor bootcamps.

Training internal staff has been the most effective approach, Corrigan says. But some engineers have showed no desire to upskill, whether because of the stage they were at in their career or just being resistant to change.

Corrigan says that won’t fly: “We want to embrace new technologies.” Even if people weren’t open to it, learning certain skills became part of their jobs.

“We set annual goals, and 50% of their bonus is [tied to] meeting their performance goals,” he says. “We set measurable, smart goals and track them throughout year and … provide as much support and opportunity as we can for their personal growth and success.”

Corrigan says he will help any employee who is “excited and energetic about challenges and change,” and is driving an IT culture that “embraces change and the AI wave.”

The upskilling program has been a big morale boost, and the company will reimburse employees who go for additional certifications if they are successful.

“Those are generally our top performers,” he says. “They’re interested and excited.”

See also:

• 9 upskilling tips that pay dividends
• 4 ways upskilling and reskilling can fill hard-to-hire positions
• Talent development: 4 upskilling success stories