Reviews Performance reviews are integral to giving employees feedback as well as helping them develop their careers. At Royal Caribbean, one or even two reviews a year doesn’t cut the mustard; CIO Tom Murphy and his managers do quarterly reviews, and employees have both a professional and a personal development plan, which complement each other.

Harrah’s Entertainment takes a three-pronged approach to the review process. First, managers administer biannual performance reviews. Second, workers sit down with supervisors to outline and track their training plans and their career development using People3’s IT-HR application. At that point, people are given a chance to identify their wants—say, the opportunity to attend a technical conference—and supervisors also record what projects they have worked on. That allows resource managers to look at the app and say, This would be a good project for Joe or Mary to work on. The third element involves an annual talent review and succession planning exercise in which IT senior executives look at all 500 or so of Harrah’s IT employees to identify the strongest performers and plot out succession plans. The succession plans are recorded in a specialized succession planning system used by the company as a whole.

Courses Offering courses, whether classroom or online, gives IT executives another way to help their employees grow professionally as leaders. At Schneider National, most courses are open to all 425 IT employees. Entry-level classes include communicating effectively, writing for effective messaging and reading a financial statement. Advanced classes cover topics such as concepts of leadership, the role of leaders and change management.