InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
April 26, 1999
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Experienced help-desk personnel are a valued commodity because of the high turnover rate, the result of the pressure and anxiety inherent in the position. "Keeping people in these jobs and keeping them happy was a problem because it was a burnout type of position," says Lauris Nance, CIO for Public Service Co. of North Carolina, a natural gas company that services around 330,000 customers. "We were faced with either choosing to constantly replace those people who leave or outsource that portion of our organization, so we chose outsourcing."
Recruiters say CIOs eventually need to move their help-desk managers into other strategic areas, or they'll most likely lose them to burnout as well. Elf Atochem's Rubin has moved some of his help-desk people to other, more critical projects, such as network services and his SAP team. "We've tended to use that area as a feeder for the rest of the organization," says Rubin.
In IT, it may be the year of the Renaissance man--or woman. Companies are increasingly paying
more for workers with more than one area of expertise. For example, workers with dual skills,
such as Y2K combined with ERP, have seen annual salaries jump in the 30% range, says recruiter
Paul Brown, also with Christian & Timbers.But that kind of combination of skills is in short supply. "It's difficult to find people who possess PeopleSoft skills as well as client-server, networking, and Internet abilities," says Public Service's Nance, who's been searching for recruits who can take a lead role developing Internet links to the company's PeopleSoft implementation.
Because of the demand for more and better skill sets, Nance says Public Service offers broader salary ranges for all of its IT positions. "We used to have narrow job descriptions and narrow salary ranges," she says. "Now, if you've got Internet skills, you may be at a much lower range than if you have Oracle skills in addition to those Internet abilities."
General business skills help, too. "My mix of application development, Internet, and business skills was critical to my getting this position," says Lisa Skinner, assistant VP for Pacific Life Insurance Co. in Newport Beach, Calif., which manages more than $235 billion in assets. Skinner leads the development of Internet, data warehouse, sales-force automation, and imaging systems at Pacific Life.
"In the past, Internet managersunderstood Internet technology but didn't really understand how to put in place the processes to support the technologies in a robust manner," Skinner says. "Now, companies are looking to hire managers who know how to incorporate the Internet into business strategy."
Multiple skill training may explain why the median salary for managers at the lower end of the Internet pay scale was only about $52,000, while those at the high end received $87,000. Likewise, median pay for ERP staff at the low end of the scale was $54,000, but $75,000 at the high end.
"Emphasizing your skill set and having a few solid specialties will win you higher dollars," affirms recruiter Brown. Also, titles are less important than ability and performance, Brown says. "I used to look at the title. Now I just ask, `What exactly do you do?'"
At the CIO rank, titles carry more weight. The survey showed CIOs and chief technology officers got a 7.5% increase in salary, bringing their median base pay to $100,000. However, it drops off considerably if your title is supervisor: median salary of $58,000. The highest-paid staff title was systems architect, with a median salary of $81,000, up 9.6% from last year.
Seeking Satisfaction
Overall, managers are slightly more satisfied than staff members with all aspects of their job--salary, benefits, and corporate culture. Seventy-three percent of managers rated themselves as very satisfied or satisfied, while 66% of IT staff offered the same assessment. And most IT workers are pretty satisfied with their current employer: Fewer than 15% were actively seeking a new job elsewhere.
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