Stories by Rich Hein

The highest paid CIOs made big bucks this year, but received only modest increases. How did the rest of tech professionals fare in 2016?

Transforming your business to a digital operation requires a dedicated professional who thrives as a change agent, a.k.a., a chief digital officer. Here's how to determine whether or not your organization can benefit from another executive in the new C-suite.

Experts in the technology industry look at the year ahead and what it holds for recruitment and retention. They also identify what tech skills will top the charts.

The gig economy is making a major impact on the IT industry, and millions of IT pros are taking advantage of the flexibility, freedom and income-generating potential it has to offer. Here's what's hot (and what's not) in the gig economy for 2016.

No two people are exactly alike, but people do they do share traits - and those traits aren't always positive. Some prefer drama or negative attention. They are everywhere, including the workplace. They might be on your team or sit in a nearby cubicle. It could be your boss, a vendor, direct report or a coworker. They're combative, critical or nonproductive.

People today expect their software to work wherever they are, whether they are using a mobile device or a desktop PC. As a result, IT must respond to these demands quickly. DevOps aims to do just that by allowing organizations to produce and release more high-quality code better and faster.

In 1995, author Daniel Goleman released his best-selling book, "Emotional Intelligence." In it he argued that noncognitive skills could be as, or more, important than IQ. Additional research confirmed that people with the highest IQs outperform those with average IQs a only 20 percent of the time.

Today’s developers need to be mobile to be efficient because problems don’t go away when you’re out of the office. This list of iOS apps promises to keep you connected and able to handle tasks regardless of where and when they come up.

IT has grown into an entity that touches all parts of the business and organizations must keep pace or get left behind. David Foote, chief analyst and research officer with Foote Partners, makes it his business to stay on top of the technology trends driving organizations. His firm works with more than 2,600 companies monitoring IT skills pay and demand for the IT workforce. CIO.com talked to Foote to discuss the year ahead and what technology leaders need to be on the lookout for.

The people who work for you are your greatest asset. Treat them as such and they will be more productive and engaged, refer other great workers to your organisation and stay longer. Treat them as a liability and they will be less productive and eventually leave, hurting morale as well as the bottom line.

People are motivated by different incentives, both in their personal lives and in their careers. And that holds true for IT professionals and developers as well. You may not dream of being the boss or the CEO, but not because you don't like money or power. In many cases, it's simply because you don't like to rely on other people to get the job done and that is largely what being a manager is about.

it seems the old adage is true, "people don't leave companies, they leave managers". bad managers undoubtedly cost businesses billions. recent gallup research shows that managers are accountable for a 70 percent variance in employee engagement scores across the different business units. as a result, only 30 percent of u.s. employees are actively engaged. that number sinks to 13 percent internationally.

IT reorganisations are costly both in terms of resources and productivity. To minimise those costs, CIOs and IT leaders should understand the nature of the problems they are looking to solve, have a solid strategy and be sure that business strategy is at the heart of the reorganisation efforts.

Full-time employees spend a large part of their day and the majority of their lives in the workplace, and how they feel about their work is important to them. In a recent Gallup survey, 63 percent of American workers are not engaged in their work, while another 24 percent are "actively disengaged." Disengaged workers are more likely to look for other opportunities, or worse, drag down the productivity of the rest of your team. Gallup estimates that the cost of disengaged workers lies somewhere between $450-$550 billion each year in lost productivity.

In the current business climate, networking is at the nexus of technology, the customer, and true innovation, and it's about time you put your heart and soul into it. In short, it's time to get on board with social or get left behind.