So 71% of IT and cybersecurity professionals in the UK and Ireland have admitted to looking for a job in other countries in the past year, according to a survey conducted for EMC by Opinion Research. What does that tell us (apart from that it might be worth setting up in business as a recruitment company that specialises in placing IT and cybersecurity professionals in countries outside the UK and Ireland)?
The obvious answer is that many companies in the UK and Ireland are failing to provide employees with fulfilling employment and a clear career progression path. No wonder then, that 49% of respondents said they felt limited career progression was a key reason for them to look for a new job.
Broken down further, 30% of them felt there were few opportunities to demonstrate their ability, 26% said company culture was inflexible and unwilling to change and 23% said there was a lack of understanding of IT’s role. The situation is exacerbated by the fact managers seem to be aware of the problems but are unable or unwilling to solve them.
While their frustration is understandable (and it’s significant that almost a third of them feel they are are held back by their organisation’s restrictions on implementing new technologies), the big question is why they think the situation will be any better in an organisation outside the UK and Ireland.
Do they believe that companies in other countries will be more flexible in terms of introducing new technologies, have clearer and better defined career progression paths and much more flexible company cultures? Or are they thinking, all companies are likely to be the same, so we might as well look for somewhere nicer or better paid?
One intriguing aspect of the survey was that around half of respondents wanted to work in larger firms. Does this mean they think larger companies offer them better career prospects or have a better understanding of the role of IT? Where does that sit with the stereotypical view that larger organisations are more inflexible and give employees less freedom to demonstrate their ability?
It was interesting that 41% wanted to work at digital organisations such as Facebook and 32% were attracted by disruptive companies such as Uber and other start-ups. This is probably connected to the fact that a fifth feel they are held back by their organisation’s restrictions on implementing new technologies. It’s easy to appreciate the attraction to new, exciting, modern organisations, especially as they offer the prospect of employees being able to try something new and be more creative, mainly because they’re not hidebound by having to support and maintain a legacy environment.
So after all that what do we know about those 71% looking for jobs in other countries? The simple answer is that they don’t view many employers in the UK or Ireland as either disruptive enough, digital enough or large enough for them.
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