A severe skills shortage in SA is encouraging job-hopping among employees, the ninth annual ITWeb/CareerWeb IT salary survey has found.
The research established that more than half of the respondents are looking for a new job locally, and about 5% are ready to take up an overseas offer.
Close to 3 400 IT professionals participated in the study.
The survey showed 52% of respondents have applied for a new job within the last year and companies are finding it harder to retain IT employees.
"People view their jobs somewhat differently from people 10 years ago," said Bryan Hattingh, MD of leadership solutions group Cycan, speaking at the release of the survey results this morning. "They are more likely to take ownership of their careers, and are starting to understand that things don't really work according to the saying, 'if I do my job, my company will look after me'."
Hattingh said the global skills shortage makes South African IT skills very attractive, adding that this is one of the stronger drivers of the brain drain.
However, Ranka Jovanovic, editorial director of ITWeb, said the survey shows the drain is no longer as dramatic as before, but that companies must change more than salary structures to keep staff.
She noted a third of the respondents who are job hunting believe they are undervalued in their current position and a further 29% say they are not growing within their companies.
"Although remuneration is still a concern for employees, these results point to far softer issues, which companies could work on as part of their retention strategies," added Jovanovic.
Hattingh said companies must be creative with these retention strategies. "We are living in a mercenary environment; employees will only stay as long as it suits them."
He cautioned companies to look at what they are doing for employees beyond salary structures. "Companies must start out by making sure employees are having fun; that they are challenged and stretched."
Hattingh believes this will create a swell that will cascade through all levels of business, and strengthen internal and external relationships.
Inequality
Hattingh pointed out that one of the reasons for the skills shortage in the IT industry is that there are not enough women employed in the industry. The survey sample reflected this, along with a gap between salaries reported by male and female respondents.
Men earned a monthly median salary of R28 340 and women earned R23 913. Both figures are up on last year's results by 29% and 21%, respectively.
"However, it is interesting to note the highest salary at staff level this year was reported by a female respondent," commented Jovanovic.
Top to bottom
"The top earners are not MDs or CEOs but rather CIOs, who reported a median monthly package of R50 000. In fact, MDs also earn less than COOs, CTOs and sales directors, which could be due to a number of business owners in the sample, who appear to be taking a sacrifice while growing the business."
The best paid fields in the industry are those of enterprise architecture, risk management and project management, while lower-end salaries were in desktop management, Web design, support and help-desk environments.
The best paid jobs, based on job titles of the respondents, were those of enterprise, systems and software architects, who reported a median of close to R40 000, noted Jovanovic.
"Surprisingly, there are low paid jobs in software testing and quality assurance, as well as call centre management, and help-desk operators are the lowest paid staff, reaching a median salary of under R10 000."
High flyers
These individual "highest" salaries are not anomalies, said Ivor Rimmer, MD of Bateleur Resourcing. "There are companies that have identified these key individuals - the high flyers - and are remunerating them way above the norm to retain their skills."
However, this elite band has shrunk over the years, he added. "In the 1980s, the upper quartile employees were well looked after, but in the 2000s we have seen this 25% group shrink to perhaps the top 10% only. If you are a high flyer and in the top 10% to 5% to 2%, then you will receive way above the norm salaries."
As to the average increases of between 5% and 8% reported in the survey findings, he noted: "Years of rightsizing and corporate-level decisions of increasing salaries by 2% or 3% across the board have led to ICT salaries being 'corrected' back into the corporate norms. This has left companies vulnerable to immense poaching as the ICT sector heats up.
"If you pay IT people, as the industry has done for the last couple of years, according to the government's CPI [Consumer Price Index] figures, prepare for a sudden backlash."
According to job market statistics, employees will move jobs for a 15% increase.
"IT professionals have sat disgruntled for the past five years, writing up their CVs and waiting for the opportunity of skills shortages to come about. At the opportunity of a 15% increases, they will jump."
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