Published on August 8th, 2022.

ITPro Today’s survey of IT professionals’ compensation, training, and job satisfaction shows some marked differences from those done before the COVID-19 pandemic and current economic conditions. For example, in 2022, 29% of respondents said they are dissatisfied with their total compensation, versus just 18% in a 2018 InformationWeek poll.

This year’s survey found that improving skills was a top priority for IT professionals, with security skills being the most desired, followed by cloud, leadership/professional, AI, databases, and general IT management skills.

Those findings make perfect sense, said Dan Nguyen, IT operations manager at Sage, a large business software company. “We’re in the age of AI and cloud computing, so IT professionals are understandably looking for ways to keep up and advance in their careers,” Nguyen said. “I’ve done it myself by working to improve my skills on AWS. It’s more general education for me, but I know that if I want to change jobs, it will help me.”

It’s not surprising that IT pros are seeking to improve security skills, along with cloud and professional leadership skills, added James Stanger, chief technology evangelist at CompTIA, a nonprofit association for IT professionals. “Moving to the cloud securely requires some pretty serious leadership,” Stanger explained. “You can’t move to the cloud unless your leaders are asking the right questions and making the right choices. IT professionals who are learning skills in this area are being proactive.”

Organizations must realize it’s critical to enable employees to advance their abilities, said Satish Gannu, chief product and technology officer at Korn Ferry Digital, a global workforce-focused consulting firm. Korn Ferry is currently developing what it calls an intelligence cloud to make training available within organizations’ work flows. “If you’re engaging in training while at work, you can more easily switch between various tasks to get the training done,” Gannu noted.

In Pursuit of Certifications

One way IT professionals are honing their skills is by completing or renewing certifications. About one in four of the survey respondents did so within the past 12 months, citing greater effectiveness in their current roles and opportunities for advancement both within and outside of their organizations, the survey found.

Survey respondents said the main two reasons they did not pursue certifications were that either work demands didn’t permit time out of the office or their companies lacked budget.

“Companies really need to make it possible [to pursue certifications], because if they don’t, they are at risk of losing employees,” Nguyen said. “I’ve been in the industry for more than 20 years, and if a company wants to advance and hire more skilled [employees], they will find a way to make it possible.”

Stanger agreed. “There is nothing more transformational to an organization than education, but there are plenty of companies that aren’t prioritizing it,” he said. “Not providing the budget or giving people time for training reflects a lack of maturity on the part of the organization.”

Tools Are Lacking

Only 23% of respondents said they have all the tools they need to do a good job, which didn’t come as a surprise to Gannu.

“It’s been the same issue for the last 20 or 30 years,” Gannu said. “There are always newer tools available, but adoption isn’t that easy. For example, the company may have standardized on one tool, but some people prefer another. Companies have certain philosophies and security policies -- not to mention budgets -- that make it difficult to keep everybody happy.”

Smaller, more nimble companies may have an easier time adopting new tools than larger, more established companies, Gannu added.

While that may be true, Nguyen said all companies must be more flexible, especially when it comes to tools that reduce manual work. He pointed to performance monitoring and visibility tools as some of the most hotly requested. “The better tools you have, the better your job performance and satisfaction,” he said.

About two-thirds of survey respondents said they can typically get their work done in a normal 40- to 45-hour work week. That means that the rest either take longer to get their jobs done or can do their work in less than 40 hours. Sometimes it’s because the scope of the job is too broad or narrow, and sometimes it’s more about the relative experience of the IT employee.

For Most IT Professionals, It’s Really About the Money

As important as training and support are, compensation is the ultimate bellwether of job satisfaction.

That was true in 2018, when 52% of respondents to the InformationWeek IT job salary survey were satisfied with their compensation. It’s true also in this year’s ITPro Today survey, in which 55% said they were satisfied.

Original News