By Dan Ilett, 20 July 2005 17:35
NEWS An IT employment analyst has lashed out at claims that IT workers are unhappy and suffering low wages because of outsourcing.
Research released yesterday from e-learning firm SkillSoft said UK techies' morale is falling, with techies blaming pay cuts and jobs going overseas.
But analyst firm Foote Partners disagrees, saying offshoring is no longer affecting IT workers' pay in the US and Europe.
David Foote, chief research officer at the firm, said: "It's not as if IT workers are not challenged enough by new regulations and technology. That's led to a really robust economy where there are a lot of opportunities. People now have choices.
"There are morale problems but when haven't there been? Business executives are more determined than ever to give people what they want."
Foote said in the last year pay has risen for IT staff working in applications development, databases and systems administration. These areas were declining in value last year, he said, by as much as 10 per cent.
According to a Foote Partners survey of 50,000 IT workers, pay for 89 non-certified and 87 certified technical skills grew 3.8 per cent and 1.3 per cent, respectively, in the first six months of 2005.
"It's true that 18 months ago, many tech skills were subject to declines in pay. But companies have become more aware of the difficulties in doing offshoring successfully. They're once again investing in their own people to build and maintain systems critical to their business strategies."
In a separate report, analyst group Forrester today warned that European techies will experience further rounds of job cuts as more firms turn to outsourcing. Because of this Forrester urged the EU to encourage more people to train in business-orientated IT subjects.
Foote agreed that IT workers with business skills are likely to be more sought after than purely technical staff.
He said: "The kind of IT worker in demand now is much different to one 18 months ago. They are hard to retain but companies are willing to pay for that. Offshoring has become difficult to do as well as it was thought, so there are a lot of options that there weren't before. All of the action seems to be in the consulting services."
Comments
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1. Carl Maycock
These analysts really need to remove them selves from a theoretical world and actually look at the real world.
Moral is low because IT works are expected to do more, work longer hours without bonuses and start off on lower wages. These are the same people who say that you can earn 30-40K a year if you have a CCNA or MCSE. Try 15-16K for a more realistic figure. I am now looking to more outside of IT simply because the conditions v pay are not worth it. Analysts forget how much personal development time IT staff usually commit that is never reflected in the potential salary.
2. Philip Virgo
The latest SSP Survey (Quarter to June 2006) indicates that the recruitment effort has stopped rising, except in the North West and Public Sector (which tradiitonally has a recruitment rise in Quarter 2 with then start of the public sector spending year).
More-over, private sector ICT wages are no longer keeping pace with inflation except for those with business and application skills relevant to the application. For example there has been a massive (over 50%) year on year rise in advertised salaries and consulting rates for those with health service experience.
Outside London the public sector is now paying more than the private sector for equivalent skills once pension rights/contributions are included. Outside the South East it often pays more even before pension rights are included.
Go North young IT man!
3. Radical Meldrew
These 'experts' who comment solely on their perception of reality aren't threatened by outsourcing and as such tend to water down the actual situation. I challenge them to come to my company and read their rose tinted press releases out to some of my colleagues who have been given the choice of redundancy or relocating to Bangalore on a vastly reduced salary!
I think we all know what the response would be. It would certainly wake them up and hopefully force them to apply a little common sense into their next public statement which are usually impersonal and purely focussed on financial issues.
4. Dan Lowe
I'm not sure I believe the claim that offshoring is not affecting pay, but if it's true, that doesn't address the real problem that staff think about every day - that jobs just get eliminated altogether to be moved offshore. 75% of my immediate group have been laid off in the last 12 months, and many have yet to find work. Those that have mostly had to take pay cuts or move into dull, unrewarding work that they hate. Back here those of us who are left are working harder than ever before, with little to speak of for budget, and management that seem to disregard us entirely. I don't understand why managers go to such trouble to find people with qualifications that matter to them, pay them a more than competitive salary, and then turn around and ignore your recommendations and input and just tell you to do X or Y (even when you know the project will end up botched because they didn't listen to your admonitions about it).
As for morale, the notion that IT workers have high morale goes against my experience entirely. As my company executed layoff after layoff, we cared less and less about work, figuring it was only a matter of time until our number came up. Consequently, the people I work with who were very creative, innovative people three years ago are now just doing what they need to do to get through the day, all of our loyalty to the company having been systematically crushed by clueless upper management. We're professional enough to do a good job, but where I might have been willing to work over a weekend to do something in a novel and "better" way, I don't bother anymore. Why should I go out of my way for the company when they clearly don't care a whit for their people?