A T-shaped employee, in
the context of human resources, is an individual who has deep
knowledge and skills in a particular area of specialization, along with and the
desire and ability to make connections across different disciplines. The
horizontal bar of the T symbolizes a breadth of general knowledge and soft
skills, while the vertical stem of the T symbolizes the depth of technical hard
skills. Essentially, a T-shaped individual is both a niche-topic specialist and
a generalist with people skills.
Today in information
technology, T-shaped employees are in great demand because of an increasing
convergence of technologies and changes in software development and delivery
models. For some software development jobs, such as those that involve DevOps for
example, the ability to work in a multidisciplinary team is essential. This
contrasts with the I-shaped skills model that information technology
departments valued in the past -- one in which an employee's depth of knowledge
in one niche area of IT was valued above all else.
One approach to ensuring
that a company has employees with the required knowledge and skills for success
is to encourage projects that break down silo walls and create a
company culture that nurtures soft skill development. In such a working
environment, employees will naturally gain general knowledge and develop people
skills as they continue to build the in-depth knowledge required to support the
company's business goals.
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