Given the rapid changes within the industry and the international skills shortage, IT companies will have to address growing management deficiencies if they are to hold on to their staff. Companies need to understand that it is no longer a case of "hands-off" as far as their employees are concerned.
Unfortunately, the problem of inexperienced management has become something of a pandemic among the IT fraternity. Many companies are experiencing fast growth on the back of revolutionary technologies but are not making provision to support the bottom line growth with adequate management skills and human resource management infrastructure.
The number of disgruntled employees seeking job changes because of poor and sometimes abusive management has increased from a trickle to a flood over the past year.
Jill Hamlyn, MD, The People Business
The number of disgruntled employees seeking job changes because of poor and sometimes abusive management has increased from a trickle to a flood over the past year.
Over the last 19 years of concentrated focus on the IT industry as a whole, it has been my experience that companies often promote staff on the basis of technical merit or sales performance with little thought given to their aptitude for management. The result is that inexperienced managers - quite understandably - manage staff ineffectively and often require intervention programmes to rectify often unnecessary, but costly problematic situations.
Indeed, earlier this year, SA`s IT trade press was littered with stories of the suspension of executives for mismanagement, and stories which showed that vacuums left after the departure of established and experienced senior management are becoming harder to fill.
Radical move
It is my belief that a really radical move towards staff retention must be made by organisations that wish to make full use of their human capital. Companies that do not offer environments conducive to personal growth and career development in their employees should not be surprised to find that excessive expenditure is being made on short-term retention initiatives as more suitable alternative employment is found for their staff.
This is a bold statement but one that is likely to ring true with a wealth of IT professionals across the entire gamut of skills who are waking up to the fact that the grass can indeed be greener on the other side.
As the labour market for IT professionals becomes more competitive, it will become less a case of agencies trying to sell candidates to companies, than job-seekers across all industries, but most specifically IT, becoming more selective about the calibre of company for which they are prepared to work.
Many of the more recent climate surveys that I have undertaken - conducted across a variety of organisations - have provided further evidence to the research by Patterson and West that shows that concern for employees explains a 15% variation in profitability. Other findings from the same source show that job satisfaction explains 20% of the variance in individuals` change of performance. Our research indicates that monetary reward is often only a short-term benefit. The non-financial aspect of the employment package is fast becoming the most persuasive element in attracting the cream of the IT skills set.
There are very few long-term industry-focused recruitment companies out there who can work against many recruitment industry norms and perceptions and effectively combine career counselling expertise with solid industry knowledge. This way of working often results in encouraging potential job-seekers to remain with their current employees if, after careful career and company evaluation, I believe they may be making a rash decision to move.
Core values
Good people ultimately gravitate toward good companies given the chance. I really think it is tragic that there are very few companies within the recruitment industry that have the ability to discern core values within individuals and companies due to the fact that rewards within our industry are often purely based upon the encouragement of change.
Working under poorly trained or directionless managers can have a hugely detrimental effect on employees. A very small number of agencies use a "core filtering concept", that involves sifting through the numerous companies and candidates that trade purely within the "job/work for money" paradigm.
This concentrated initiative focuses on core value systems and motivation in order to secure prolonged relationships between companies and individuals based upon the "consertive control" theories, something I firmly believe personnel agencies should strive for.
My advise to other personnel agencies is to take on more responsibility by forming long-term value-added partnerships with their clients. In this way you have a far better chance at optimising benefit for both employees and companies (your own included).
My message is tough but clear. Companies need to come to terms with the importance of good management at all levels. Skilled employees are starting to express their distaste at being poorly managed by knocking on employment agency doors where they are inevitably welcomed with open arms.
* Jill Hamlyn is MD of The People Business.
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