Hello, I Must Be Going - Hard Facts on Soft Skills

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Hello, I Must Be Going

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CONTENTS

Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 3

Who We Surveyed .................................................................................................................. 4

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: IT Has It ......................................................................................................... 5 Yes, Size Matters .................................................................................................................... 5

What Does Your Work Environment Look Like? ..................................................................... 6 Moderately Flexible, Moderately Rigid ................................................................................... 7 A (Mostly) Healthy Environment .............................................................................................. 7

Is IT Ready for Business? ..................................................................................................... 10

To Move Forward, You’re Moving Out .................................................................................. 12

The Bottom Line .................................................................................................................... 14

About the Authors ................................................................................................................. 15

© 2014 Wisegate. All Rights Reserved. All information in this document is the property of Wisegate. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without Wisegate's prior written permission. There’s a good chance we’ll let you use it, but still: it’s nice to ask first.

Hard Facts on Soft Skills

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Introduction Many IT professionals are noticing a profound change in the way they are being regarded by the businesses at which they work. Instead of being treated as a nuisance or necessary evil, IT is becoming increasingly integrated into and respected by the business. The reasons—at least some of them—are plain to see. In many cases, information is the business. To think of IT as anything but crucial is to have a blind spot the size of the business itself. And even if the business isn’t based on the exchange of information, numerous high-profile events in the recent past underscore the fact that the security of the business’s information is absolutely critical. As a result, IT professionals are discovering their place in the business, their ability to affect the business, and their career options are all changing. This gives rise to questions for both the business and the IT professional. For example, how are IT professionals’ careers affected by this evolving set of circumstances? And how can the business help retain their IT talent?


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Who We Surveyed In April 2014, Wisegate surveyed hundreds of seasoned IT professionals (90% of whom have been in IT for more than ten years), asking questions geared toward finding where practitioners stand on these issues. Figure 1 shows the proportions at which common industries are represented in this survey.

Figure 1. "Which of the following general categories describes the organization you work for?"

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 A balanced mix of C-level / VP’s, directors, managers, and individual contributors participated in this survey, as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. "Which of the below most closely matches your current role in IT?"

Source: Wisegate, April 2014


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The results of this survey lead to some valuable insights that can help both IT pros and the businesses where they work align with each other. This report gives an overview of some of this survey’s top takeaways.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: IT Has It If there was once a time when the rest of the business rolled its eyes at the mention of IT, that time is past, and most senior IT practitioners realize this. In answer to the question, “How seriously do you feel your IT department is taken by the company where you work?” 72% of survey respondents replied either “very seriously” or “somewhat seriously,” as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3. "How seriously do you feel your IT department is taken by the company where you work?"

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 Perhaps even more importantly was the fact that nobody responded “Not at All Seriously” to this survey question. This makes particular sense considering the shadow recent high-profile IT security incidents have cast, as well as the growing importance of mobile, apps and cloud as key business decisions that rely on IT to be successful.

Yes, Size Matters While it’s gratifying for IT professionals to see the general trend toward taking IT seriously, it’s interesting to note that the degree to which IT is respected is also affected by company size. As shown in Figure 4, only two thirds—66%—of IT professionals at companies of fewer than 500 employees say IT is taken seriously. Meanwhile, a sizeable 23% at smaller companies say IT is not taken very seriously.


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Figure 4. "How seriously do you feel your IT department is taken by the company where you work?" as viewed by company size.

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 In larger companies (500+ employees), on the other hand, nearly nobody—a meager 3%—reports IT is not taken very seriously, with 81% of survey respondents saying IT is taken “very” or “somewhat” seriously. This is likely due to a few factors. First, larger companies are more likely to be targeted by attacks, and this sobering thought—and the reality behind it—gives real-world import to the otherwise-hypothetical seriousness of IT. Next, larger companies frequently have a more mature IT program than their smaller counterparts. And finally, larger companies are often more subject to governance and regulations, making IT not just important, but crucial to the business’ existence.

What Does Your Work Environment Look Like? Respect by the organization you work for is a critical component of a good work environment, but it is certainly not the only one. To get a sense of how IT pros feel about where they work, Wisegate asked about a few key factors that affect IT professionals at their place of work:

» How rigid or flexible processes are

» How healthy the corporate culture is

» How well they fit in with the company culture


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Moderately Flexible, Moderately Rigid There is a place and time for pushing limits and exploring boundaries, but there is also a place and time for having guardrails to keep people from harming themselves and their place of business. The trick, it seems, is to keep processes and rules from being too loose, or too rigid. As shown in Figure 5, IT professionals responding to this Wisegate survey indicate that processes they work with tend toward this middle ground.

Figure 5. "How rigid or flexible are processes at your company?"

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 Note that only small percentages of respondents report that processes at their company tend to extremes: 6% for “extremely rigid” and 11% for “very flexible.” Meanwhile, “somewhat flexible” and “somewhat rigid” each claim about a third of companies, with “neutral” filling in the balance. This avoidance of either extreme suits IT professionals well: they know that processes they establish and adhere to aren’t treated trivially; neither are they cast in stone and impossible to change when events warrant. This landscape is actually ideal for IT professionals as they work to ensure stability and order at their places of work, even as technologies and new risks require them to frequently adapt.

A (Mostly) Healthy Environment More than half—57%—of IT practitioners consider their company culture to be at least “somewhat healthy” (see Figure 6). This is a moderately good sign, though one could certainly hope for better, especially when you consider that nearly a quarter of IT professionals see their company culture as at least “somewhat” sick.


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Figure 6. "How healthy or sick does your company culture feel?"

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 It’s worth noting that seniority and role are correlated to perception of a company’s cultural health. As Figure 7 shows, those who have been at their current company for less than a year have a definite “first year halo,” with “extremely healthy” assessments more than double that of any other group, and an “extremely sick” assessment of 0%.

Figure 7. "How healthy or sick does your company culture feel," broken down by number of years at the company.



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The IT professional’s role is also very likely to affect their perception of company culture, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8. Wisegate Survey Question: "How healthy or sick does your company culture feel?” broken down by role.

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 Here, note that C-level employees are tied for the highest number (25%) for perceiving their company culture as “extremely healthy,” but are also the only role represented in the “extremely sick” category. Meanwhile, C-level and director-level are the least likely groups to see their company culture as “neutral.” This polarization likely stems from the deeper insight the higher-up groups have into the business. Knowing more about what goes on “behind the scenes,” they are less likely to be ambivalent about the company culture. They either accept the bad with the good, or are more deeply concerned about the problems employees further down the ladder are simply unaware of.


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Is IT Ready for Business? It’s clearly a good sign that IT is respected by the business and that members of IT have – more or less – found that the culture of the business is healthy for them. This gives rise to the question, “If business is ready for IT, is IT ready to be part of the business?” The results of the Wisegate survey indicate that IT professionals are at least aware of the importance of integrating with and becoming part of the business, although IT professionals still have considerable work to do before they achieve this goal. When asked to “choose the three skills and attributes you think would be most worthwhile to move your career forward,” the most-often selected choices, as shown in Figure 9, were:

» Being business savvy

» Influencing others

» Building relationships

Figure 9. Wisegate Survey Question: "Choose the three skills and attributes you think would be most worthwhile for you to focus on to move your career forward."



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As the top results in Figure 9 demonstrate, IT professionals know that they need to develop business-relevant skills in order to understand and communicate with the business. In fact, when asked, “If you had to choose, which would you say is more important, business knowledge or technical know-how for you to move forward in your career?” a remarkable 87% of survey respondents chose “business knowledge.” However, while business skills (sometimes called “soft skills”) are recognized as critical by IT professionals, it is less clear to many IT practitioners where they can go to acquire these skills. Figure 10 illustrates this problem.

Figure 10. Wisegate Survey Question: "Who is currently helping you develop your career?" broken down by how hierarchical the respondent's company is.



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Here, note that people in extremely flat companies have to look outside the company (“mentor,” “executive coach,” and “peer outside the company” are frequently selected, while “manager” and “peer inside my company” are not selected at all) for help in acquiring the soft skills needed to move their careers toward being more a part of the business. For more hierarchical companies, people look to their managers—or, disturbingly, nobody. In fact, “nobody” is selected with startlingly high frequency across all groups except those in extremely flat and extremely hierarchical companies.

To Move Forward, You’re Moving Out IT professionals seem to be restless souls. While 90% of the Wisegate survey respondents have been in IT for more than ten years, 65% of them have been in their current position for less than five years. More to the point, as Figure 11 shows, they expect to be moving on in their career soon: a third within the year, and two-thirds within two years.

Figure 11. Wisegate Survey Question: "When do you EXPECT to make the next move in your career (promotion, role change, etc.)?”


This isn’t mere anticipation of an event beyond their control. When asked when they want to move (see Figure 12), survey respondents indicated that an even greater number of them—46%, nearly half—wanted to move within the year.


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Figure 12. Wisegate Survey Question: “When would you LIKE to make the next move in your career (promotion, role change, etc.)?”


But why the eagerness to move? As it turns out, many IT professionals have the sense that if they want to move forward in their careers, they have to move to a different company, as shown in Figure 13.

Figure 13. Wisegate Survey Question: “Which of these most closely represents your opportunities for career advancement?”

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 It’s not more money that is motivating IT professionals to move. In fact, out of a set of eight things that might positively affect job and life, respondents to the Wisegate survey ranked “more money” far down the list: sixth (see Figure 14).


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Figure 14. Wisegate Survey Question: "Rank these items in order of importance they would have in positively affecting your job and life."

Source: Wisegate, April 2014 The thing that wound up as a top-three choice most often by survey respondents was clear: more opportunities to learn. Second and third choices were closer, but in the same vein: “More positive feedback from the business side of the organization” and “More challenging work opportunities.”

The Bottom Line When you combine what IT pros want with their stated expectation of leaving their current company, a clear picture—and the biggest takeaway of this survey—emerges: IT professionals aren’t getting the business expertise skills they need at their current companies and positions, and—in order to accrue value to the business—are therefore looking elsewhere. This has serious—but also incredibly useful—implications, both for IT professionals and the companies that hope to retain their experienced IT talent:

1. If you have IT talent you wish to keep, it is no longer enough to nurture their technical side. IT professionals are increasingly aware of the critical need for them


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to develop the “soft skills” normally associated with other parts of the business. Your organization will benefit by working to develop these skills in your IT professionals, and you are more likely to meet their career needs within the company, rather than forcing them to look elsewhere.

2. If you are in IT and looking to develop your own career, be aware that while your current company may not have specific opportunities for developing soft skills, others may not either.

This facet of career development for IT professionals is still very new. That said, opportunities do exist to develop soft skills, some of which you might find at services like Wisegate, and some of which you might want to learn elsewhere, such as by engaging an executive coach or finding someone to act as a mentor. As IT—both as departments and individual professionals—gains mainstream respect and credibility across business units, IT professionals are now in the position to gain and exert influence within their companies. As this survey shows, they have already started down this path; as their ability to interact grows, this can only be good for the business.

About the Authors Nikk Gilbert is vice president of Information Technology and CISO for CUNA Mutual Group. You can reach him at [email protected] or @archangelnikk on Twitter. Paul Harjung is the CISO at W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc. and can be reached at [email protected]. Elden Nelson is Editor-in-Chief of Wisegate, with responsibilities to provide consistent, high-quality content its Members can use. You can reach Elden at [email protected].


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