Prospects for IT pay

PAY DATA

IT pay is likely to remain at its present subdued level for some time yet, but could "flare up" if IT staff turnover rises. But the prime challenge lies in aligning pay with contribution in the world of changing requirements. That's according to a study by Diaz Research, a specialist IT consultancy and research company.

Among the main findings of the research are the following:

IT market: The market for IT people is likely to recover slowly in 2004 but will not gather much pace before 2005 at the earliest a desire to change employers for career reasons could, however, lead to a significant increase in staff turnover in 2004 (possible) or 2005 (more likely).
"Off-shoring": Off-shore resources will make some impact on the market for IT people, but that impact will be spread over a long period and will be less significant than many believe (1% to 4% of jobs exported per annum -- much less than the historic growth rate of IT employment) and not enough to have much impact on IT pay.

Diaz reckons off-shoring will not impact the market for all IT skills equally, but will focus rather more on application programmers and analysts, leaving a strong demand for those who can direct the investment in applications.

Resource management: The present focus on better resource management though the use of specialist roles and resource pools will continue, with 2004 seeing the (long overdue) introduction of better systems to support this way of working.
Says Diaz: "As IT organisations emerge from a period of restructuring, the focus will be on re-defining what they need of their people many will achieve this by creating new IT career structures those IT career structures will be less generic than in the past, but they are unlikely to rely much on industry standard frameworks."
Performance management: The current strong focus on performance management will continue and will benefit from having better competency models. By combining clarity about what is required with better performance management and better resource planning, IT functions will equip themselves to withstand future pressure of competition for IT staff.
"The prime capability issues in IT are not technical but competency related and this underline the importance of effective performance management, and coaching by managers and others," says Diaz.

Want to know more?

Title: IT People and Organisation Review, 2004, Diaz Research.

Methodology: This research was commissioned by Diaz customers, who include the senior-most IT human resource professionals in companies like Abbey, AIB, AstraZeneca, Aviva, Bank of Ireland, Deutsche Bank, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, Legal & General, Marks & Spencer, Mars, National Grid Transco, Prudential, RBS Group, Standard Life and Unilever.

Availability: Contact Diaz, tel: 020 7544 8692 or email: post@diazresearch.com

Diaz Research is an independent analyst and research company focusing on the HR aspects of IT organisations. To find out more visit www.diazresearch.com

Posted 13 February 2004