There are plenty of reasons to be cheerful if you are
looking for a new job. And if you are an IT director whose staff
are not happy, it is high time to sort out the problems if you are
to hang on to the key members of your team.
These are the key messages from the latest survey of job trends for
Computer Weekly, which shows IT recruitment advertising at its
highest level for 18 months. This follows last week's Computer
Weekly IT spending survey, which showed steady growth in the rate
of IT spending.
So far salaries have lagged behind growth in recruitment activity,
with advertised pay rises running substantially below the rate of
inflation, but IT budget holders should not count on that
continuing indefinitely.
Chief information officers, even if they are polishing their own
CVs ready for the next move, must ensure now that they have the
right skills balance in their teams. They need to put some golden
handcuffs on key staff and look towards the opportunity to freshen
up the team with new recruits.
It is not simply about offering more money. It is about luring
professionals with exciting projects that make a real difference to
everyday working life and future career prospects.
That in turn means training and career development, supplementing
IT skills with business skills and creating a genuine team
ethos.
IT professionals will move to and stay in a purposeful, positive,
well-run department, and those that cannot cut the mustard in a
well-motivated team will get the message and move on.
IT that really counts
IT is too often portrayed as just number crunching or a tool for
businesses to build the bottom line, but one of the best results of
the current e-government drive is the proliferation of IT projects
that can make a real difference to people's lives.
The social care systems developed by Gloucestershire Council and
East Sussex council, which is highlighted in our Smart Projects
article in the recruitment section, is a prime example of the best
that public sector IT can offer. It clearly demonstrates how IT can
produce positive outcomes in people's personal and their business
lives.
It is projects like this which can make the public sector an
increasingly attractive career choice for IT professionals.