IT professionals ask for leadership, security and project management
Survey reveals what IT pros think will most help their teams
We recently surveyed ICS members about what areas they would most like to improve on in the coming year. Approximately 9% of active members replied to tell us what was important for IT professionals on the ground in Ireland.
Leadership crisis?
Almost two thirds (62%) of respondents said that leadership development was the support that could most help their IT teams.
IT security policy and procedure (47%), data protection policy and procedure (39%), and understanding finance and accounting basics (32%) were the three next most important team supports.
With many companies going through a digital transformation, a new breed of leader is needed to steer the ship. Our data on soft skills revealed that leadership and related skills such as strategic planning and team building were the top concern for the majority of members.
50:50 chance of training
Almost 50% of respondents said they had received training in the last year.
Project management continues to be the area IT Teams are most likely to become certified in with 81% of IT professionals saying that they use a formal project management methodology such as Prince2, Scrum, Agile, DevOps or a combination of Agile and Waterfall methods.
Business analysis, data protection, IT architecture and IT service management were the next most popular choices for certified training.
Skills reduce the pressure
When asked what user skills could be most improved to help reduce pressures on staff, members said they were most concerned with IT security (81%) and data protection policies/ procedures (73%), understandable given the increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks.
Operations teams would benefit from an improved knowledge of spreadsheets (58%) and online collaboration (68%) while once again project planning (62%) continued its high place in the charts.
Finally, IT professionals believed that 69% of sales teams felt they were not skilled enough at Digital Marketing (69%), with office skills such as Word Processing (45%) and Presentations (46% placing close behind.
Similar to an earlier question, when asked which areas IT professionals could develop the most; Leadership Skills (53%) was the top answer.
Location, location, location
More access to events and training was the big request from respondents, which we at ICS promise to take on board for 2017.
This year we have already expanded the options for members outside of Dublin by providing Data Protection Training and Seminars in Cork, Limerick and Galway. This month, Cork will take its first cohort of students studying for their Level 8 Certificates in Business Analysis with the National College of Ireland. We also partner with a network of training centres nationwide so please get in touch if you cannot find the course you want nearby, we may be able to help, just mail training@ics.ie
In an effort to close the gap between Dublin and the rest of the country, ICS will be releasing a series member events to view online in the member resource area over the next 12 months. So please remember if you can’t make it to the event, you can always catch up online.
Plan, attend, record, reflect
Only 10% of respondents said they always recorded their Continuing Professional Development (CPD) which seems a shame given that 50% had attended training in the last year which is the most formal way of adding points to your CV.
It is fair to assume that a huge proportion of respondents had achieved CPD points but didn’t know how to record their attendance at events/conferences, mentoring, private learning or contributions through supporting the wider IT profession.
Just go to www.ics.ie/cpd to update your CPD profile anytime.
Thank you
Thanks to everyone who took part, everything we do at ICS is for our members so if you don’t tell us we will never know. Please send us your feedback for what you would like to see more of in 2017 at memberservices@ics.ie
You can view the full set of results at www.ics.ie
Courses and Events:
Courses:
7-9 December Data Protection Practitioner Certificate – 3-Day, Cork
Events:
2 December Public Sector IT Conference, Aviva Conference Centre
8 December ICS Christmas Gathering, ICS HQ, Free for All Members
25 January National Data Protection Conference 2017, Aviva Conference Centre
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