Business people

Majority of IT pros have looked for a job elsewhere

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(Image: Stockfresh)

27 April 2016

Within the last year, seven out of 10 (71%) IT and cybersecurity professionals in Ireland and the UK have looked for another job outside of the territories.

According to a survey on behalf of EMC by Opinion Research among 500 IT and cybersecurity workers in organisations of more than 250 employees in the UK, and more than 100 respondents from Irish organisations, almost half (49%) indicated that blocks on career progression were a key driver in looking for new opportunities.

The specific blocks on career progression were highlighted as a lack of understanding of IT’s role (23%), company culture (26%) being inflexible and unwilling to change, but most significantly, almost a third (30%) specified that there were few opportunities to demonstrate their ability.

“People managers in the industry are fully aware of the factors driving their team members to leave yet seem unable or unwilling to negotiate changes needed to address the growing problem”

When these factors are combined with revelation that people managers in the industry are fully aware of the factors driving their team members to leave yet seem unable or unwilling to negotiate changes needed to address the growing problem, and it paints a worrying picture for the retention of IT and cybersecurity talent across Ireland the UK.

This EMC Opinion Research study comes in the wake of an Experis survey, which found that a lack of talent in the information security market could potentially threaten Irish organisations in the future.

The survey report argues that businesses in Ireland and the UK risk falling behind in the innovation race, resulting in a loss of market share to more agile and disruptive firms, if they fail to provide fulfilling careers for their IT teams and incorporate them into the wider business team and strategy.

The research also revealed that half of respondents aspire to work at large IT firms, with 41% wanting to work at digital organisations such as Facebook, and just a third (32%) at more disruptive companies such as Uber and other new start-ups.

“This research puts in clear terms the challenges that businesses across Ireland and the UK are facing when hiring and retaining IT talent,” said Gerry Murray, Country Manager, EMC Ireland. “For these businesses to retain their tech talent, senior management must embrace the role IT plays in business development. In addition to competitive pay and career progression, management must delegate more creative control to IT teams, allowing for greater innovation and efficiency within the business.

“In Ireland, a real shortage of tech skills, particularly in new fields like cloud computing and data analytics, means IT professionals are free to pick and choose who they work for and in what field. With national and global demand for these skills on the rise and tens of thousands of jobs either directly or indirectly linked to tech set to be created in the coming years, companies must act now to create a working culture that is friendly to IT.”

The general woes of the frustrated IT workers were highlighted by results such as a fifth feeling they are held back by their organisation’s restrictions on implementing new technologies, with few opportunities to demonstrate their ability (30%), yet more than three quarters (78%) feel the growth and success of their organisation is fundamentally reliant on themselves or their team. Almost a quarter (24%) of managers in the IT and telecoms sector believe their employees will leave a company due to restrictions on implementing new technologies.

 

 

 

 

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