The Synopsis of IT Salary During Post Recession Period

According to David Buzzell, CIO at the workforce management solutions provider, although, there was no lay off in the IT department of many organizations, total compensation has been impacted badly, and workloads went up exponentially. As per the survey conducted by Computer 2010 Salary Survey, everything is kind of thorny: Bonuses and benefits are down, and workloads and work hours have increased. But, salaries remains stagnant, ie  a rise of salary of about .7% on average and the satisfaction level of employees are very poor.

According to a technical services manager at a home furnishings retailer, the bonus that is supposed to be 20-30% of his salary has been eliminated and his salary is on freeze for the last few years. Some companies also cut vacation and started to charge employees for their health insurances. Additionally, the IT staff of some organizations are taking the advantage of low cost benefits such as new training opportunities, exploring new projects or investigating different programming techniques. The company management ensures that there is no cut of low cost programs. For example, Sedona IT group has program which offers 18 months of 0% financing for purchasing new PC. As the new computers come out from production, the old computers are given to the family members of the employees.

“Bigger workloads in IT are a result of all other departments attempting to improve productivity because of the smaller workforce. They need IT to help them with this, so there is even more work for us to do.” Says the president of a luxury goods manufacturer.

Simultaneously, he said that salary was cut by 10%, bonus  and 401k matching program has been eliminated.  However, Paul Glen, the management consultant and Computerworld comunist thinks that it is wrong for the companies to stay in the same place when things slow down. Organizations need to create innovation, lower costs, move things forward.

Frustration at workplace is the major reason for employee’s low job satisfaction. The Vice President of a luxury good maker says “”People find it easier to schedule some vacation time, call in sick slightly more often and do not stay extremely late as much as before.”

According to David Buzell, the company management should take steps to lower the anxieties like increased communication and visibility by the owners. Further, they should keep the staff up to date and informed on progress and trends of the industry.

Sometimes small thing also matters. Mr. Buzzell purchased a powerful PC at Sam’s Club and let a staff member borrow it as his home computer. He realized later at a project meeting that this same staff member was working at home on an area of a technical process. This is one of the example to increase the productivity instead of a small cost.

Paul Glen, the columnist of Computerworld tells IT professional to resist the temptation of money as an indicator of personal value all the time.

“It’s a measure of the market,” he says. “My advice is to get over it. Be glad you’ve got a job at the moment. It’s natural to feel trapped, and it’s natural to feel resentful at the rising expectations. But feeling stuck and resentful is a lethal combination.”