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IT salaries should increase by as much 10 percent to 15 percent over the
next three years, according to a new study.
The META Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based industry research group, just
released a report stating that analysts there also note that these
predicted salary increases could drive up labor costs to the point that
they will represent 55 percent of an organization’s IT budget.
”In this recession, IT people have tended to fair better than other
kinds of staff out there,” says Maria Schafer, senior program director
with the META Group. ”And the picture going forward is looking even
better for IT… If you’ve got the right skills, you will be seeing
things perk up. If you don’t have those skills, you better get them.”
After interviewing IT executives, Schafer says they specifically are
looking for high-tech workers with training and experience in program
management, application development and networking. Schafer adds that to
her surprise security skills came in further down the list of
must-haves.
”When we ask people this question, the skills that come up are
application development, Internet skills and Java. Linux didn’t come up
this year as a separate skill, but it’s still in demand… It’s a shift
from a couple of years ago, when companies gave us a list of specific
platforms or tools that they needed. Now they’re expressing their needs
in broader terms.”
According to Meta’s 2004 IT Staffing and Compensation Guide, 24
percent of those surveyed say application developers are the most
difficult IT workers to retain. Another 13 percent say employees who
specialize in security have a high turnover, and yet another 13 percent
point to workers in networking jobs.
The stats pertaining to application development are particularly
surprising considering the number of those jobs that are being
outsourced and offshored to save company’s money. Outsourcing is picking
up in practice and general acceptance and some of the first jobs to go
are those in call centers and those in application development. Many
analysts have been loudly warning workers that they need to acquire new
skills if application development is all they have on their resumes.
Schafer says not so.
”I think the outsourcing issue has gotten a huge amount of attention,
but the reality is that it’s a difficult thing to do and to do well,”
she says. ”Clearly, outsourcing has begun to happen and it will
increase over time. But fewer companies are doing that than most people
believe or that the mass media would have you think.”
The Grass is Greener
Schafer says IT salaries will grow simply because the economy is
expected to improve in the next 12 months and with IT jobs opening up
again, workers will have the chance to leave their old jobs for greener
pastures. That means CIOs and other executives will have to fork out a
little extra cash to keep IT workers happy and in place.
”The ‘grass is greener’ mentality must be dealt with head-on,” says
Schafer. ”CIOs must begin to work more closely with human resource
professionals to implement strategies that address human capital
management trends and innovative retention programs — an area in which
IT has historically been reactive rather than proactive.”
