It's not about the moolah for IT staff
It's not about the moolah for IT staff
It seems the old adage that money can't buy happiness certainly rings true for IT employees, if the latest findings from META Group are to be taken at face value.
No sooner had the analyst group issued a release from its annual IT Staffing and Compensation Guide stating that morale among IT staff had reached an all time low, with staff cutbacks and project investment reductions blamed for the malaise, than it releases another report saying that IT staff are generally pretty cashed up in relation to their non-IT counterparts.
According to META's report, an overwhelming majority of companies continue to pay IT employees as much as 20 percent more than their non-technical colleagues. While the report partially attributes the compensation imbalance to a gradually improving job market and the overall demand for key IT skills, it also says one of the main reasons that IT staff are not smiling all the way to the bank is job insecurity. So what's the deal with that?
Well, it seems that despite the fact that uncertainty over job security remains an unwelcome presence across the IT workforce as a whole, those with skills that are critical to an organisation are still a valuable commodity that are in short supply.
"This year more than 76 percent of companies indicated they continue to pay IT employees higher salaries, and 45 percent of companies claim to be paying premiums for critical skills because IT organisations are finding them so difficult to locate and retain,” said Maria Schafer, a senior program director of META Group’s Executive Directions advisory service and author of its annual IT Staffing and Compensation Guide. “These skills are primarily lacking in highly specialised areas that represent emerging technology needs such as wireless, security, and data management.”
Despite the substantial publicity concerning the outsourcing of highly skilled IT jobs, META Group also finds that demand for certain IT skill sets remains strong. This year’s respondents indicate a continuing need for Internet-related capabilities, including application development (15percent of respondents), Java application management (15 percent of respondents), and networking (11 percent of respondents). Demand for e-commerce skills lessened this year, with only 15 percent of respondents indicating a strong need, as opposed to 22 percent last year and 25 in 2002.
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