CIO and HR: Do They Go Together?

Human Resources executives along with Information Technology executives often share some of the same issues in the place of work. They are in charged of helping support and guide specific organizations and companies to help them on their journey of becoming more successful along with growing and expanding to their highest potential.

While both IT and HR executives share some of the same issues, they are also quite different from one another as well. IT specialists are not used to speaking in the same manner as someone else who works for the corporation. IT specialists are used to talking in a specific manner that is mostly technical, as this is important for their job. Most IT specialists are male while HR executives was once a male-dominated occupation but has become increasingly popular for women. In fact, the number of women who work as an HR executive is higher than the number of men who work in the field. Because there are quite a few difference between the two, neither IT nor HR have had the same leader. However, it is believed that a combination of the two would not be so bad since there are quite a few similarities to the two separate departments.

Sheleen Quish is a prime example as she was leading the IT departments for Unitrin in both the United States and Canada. In 2007, she started working to lead the Ameristar Casinos as well. She thought that job would not be an everlasting position but that it would be something that she could do to occupy the time and help along the way just until she finally chose to retire. After starting with the Ameristar Casinos, she realized that she was great at what she was doing, working for the gaming and casino business.

Quish actually started working full time for the company and has done a lot for them since 2007 all the way up until now, 2011. She has helped to truly strengthen the company and help it to expand and be as successful as possible. The HR leader for this particular company stopped working for the company in 2010 and Quish chose to take the position which gave her the responsibilities of all the components that come along with HR. This was something different for her, as she was used to working in the IT department, but it was something that she was able to handle. She was now a CIO and an HR executive.

Along the way, Quish has been able to come up with a lot of good ideas that would only continue to help the company she works for. These strategies include creating new satisfaction surveys for the employees, creating an online career center, making online training available, creating schedule solution, and much more.